Houmao 0.11.0rc1

Framework and CLI toolkit for orchestrating teams of loosely-coupled AI agents

Houmao

A framework and CLI toolkit for orchestrating teams of loosely-coupled AI agents.

Project docs: https://igamenovoer.github.io/houmao/

What It Is

Houmao builds and runs teams of CLI-based AI agents. Launch-capable agents use real provider CLIs such as claude, codex, and gemini; copilot is also supported as a system-skill installation target. Each managed agent is a real process with its own tmux session, disk state, memory, native TUI or headless turn evidence, optional gateway sidecar, and mailbox identity. You define reusable specialists, launch them as managed agents, and coordinate them through prompts, gateways, mailboxes, and structured loop plans.

Name Origin: Houmao (猴毛, "monkey hair") is inspired by the classic tale Journey to the West. Just as Sun Wukong (The Monkey King) plucks strands of his magical hair to create independent, capable clones of himself, this framework allows you to multiply your capabilities by spinning up numerous autonomous helpers.

Why This Design

• Use agents like teammates. A specialist is a named role with tool, credentials, skills, and launch defaults. A managed agent is that specialist alive in a real CLI session.
• Let your CLI agent operate the system. Install Houmao skills into Claude, Codex, Gemini, or Copilot, then ask that agent to create specialists, launch agents, inspect state, send prompts, manage gateways, and run loops.
• Avoid central fragile orchestration. Agents coordinate through per-agent gateways and shared mailboxes instead of one in-process object graph.
• Keep full provider capability. Houmao does not replace the underlying CLI; it gives you lifecycle, memory, gateway, mailbox, and team-control structure around it.
• Scale from one helper to generated teams. Start with one reviewer, add a second specialist, then hand a complex plan to houmao-agent-loop-pro and let the system prepare and run the team.

Architecture at a Glance

flowchart TB
    U["You"]
    UA["Your CLI agent<br/>with Houmao skills"]
    GW1["Gateway"]
    GW2["Gateway"]
    GW3["Gateway"]
    A1["reviewer<br/>claude or codex<br/>tmux/headless"]
    A2["builder<br/>claude or codex<br/>tmux/headless"]
    A3["planner<br/>gemini or claude<br/>tmux/headless"]
    MB[("Mailbox")]
    FS[(".houmao project overlay<br/>specialists, profiles,<br/>memory, credentials")]

    U -->|asks in chat| UA
    UA -->|houmao-mgr surfaces| FS
    UA -->|prompt / inspect / stop| GW1
    UA -->|prompt / inspect / stop| GW2
    UA -->|prompt / inspect / stop| GW3
    GW1 --- A1
    GW2 --- A2
    GW3 --- A3
    A1 <-->|mail| MB
    A2 <-->|mail| MB
    A3 <-->|mail| MB

The normal user experience is conversational: your current CLI agent reads Houmao system skills and drives the supported houmao-mgr surfaces for you. Direct CLI use remains supported and documented, but the README assumes the user usually drives Houmao through an agent.

Quick Start

uv tool install houmao
command -v tmux
npx skills add igamenovoer/tool-skills/houmao

tmux is required because managed agents run inside tmux-backed sessions. Recommended when npx is available and the target machine has internet access: point the Skills CLI at the small release-synced tool-skills repo, then choose which packaged skill(s) to install from the prompt.

Use Houmao's installer when npx is unavailable, when working offline from an installed Houmao package, or when you need customization such as named sets, subset skills, explicit homes, symlink/copy projection, or retired-skill cleanup:

houmao-mgr system-skills install --tool claude,codex,gemini
houmao-mgr system-skills install --tool claude --home ~/.claude

Each installed Houmao system skill also supports explicit read-only help before it performs a workflow; for example, ask $houmao-touring help or $houmao-agent-email-comms help to see what that skill can do. Skill help is separate from the houmao-mgr system-skills install CLI surface that installs or projects the skill packages.

Now start your CLI agent from the project directory and ask:

$houmao-touring start a guided tour

The tour walks through beginner setup, intermediate live operation, and advanced coordination. For exact install flags and home-resolution behavior, see the System Skills Overview and System Skills CLI reference.

Agent-Driven Examples

First Managed Agent

You: Create a Codex backend reviewer specialist for this repo, make a reusable easy launch profile, launch it, and ask it to review the last commit.

AI: Done.
    - initialized or inspected the Houmao project overlay
    - created or selected specialist `backend-reviewer`
    - prepared easy profile `backend-reviewer-default`
    - launched managed agent `reviewer-1`
    - attached or discovered its gateway
    - sent the review prompt through the maintained messaging surface

Behind that exchange, the agent may use commands such as houmao-mgr project init, houmao-mgr project easy specialist ..., houmao-mgr project easy profile ..., and houmao-mgr agents prompt .... You do not need those command shapes for the first experience. They are documented in the Easy Specialists guide, Launch Profiles guide, and houmao-mgr CLI reference.

Gateway Interaction

You: Ask reviewer-1 whether the migration is safe, then show me its current state.

AI: Sent the prompt through reviewer-1's gateway and inspected the managed-agent state.
    It is running, the last turn is complete, and the response is ready.

Gateway-backed interaction gives your user agent a stable way to prompt, interrupt, inspect, queue work, watch TUI state, and use mailbox facades without taking over the provider CLI by hand. See the Gateway CLI reference and managed memory guide when you want the direct surfaces.

Core Concepts

Concept	Mental model
User CLI agent	The agent you are talking to now. It has Houmao skills installed and can operate Houmao for you.
Specialist	A reusable role/tool/credential definition: "backend reviewer", "story writer", "researcher", "release engineer".
Easy profile	Reusable launch defaults over one specialist: managed-agent name, working directory, credential lane, mailbox posture, prompt mode, and optional skill policy.
Managed agent	A live agent launched or adopted by Houmao, backed by tmux/headless runtime state and visible through agents list, gateway, mail, memory, and inspection surfaces.
Gateway	A per-agent sidecar for prompt delivery, interrupts, request queues, TUI/headless state, reminders, and mailbox facades.
Mailbox	A shared async communication layer so agents can send structured work, replies, and wakeup messages without a central orchestrator.
Loop	A generated multi-agent operating plan. The user agent stays outside the execution loop and uses loop skills to author, validate, launch, observe, pause, resume, recover, or stop it.

Project state lives under a .houmao/ overlay with specialists, profiles, credentials, projected content, mailbox roots, memory, and catalog metadata. The tour and project-management skills can initialize or inspect that overlay; direct details live in the getting-started docs.

Agent Loops

This is where Houmao starts to feel different from a wrapper around one CLI. Give houmao-agent-loop-pro a complex multi-agent plan, and your CLI agent can turn it into a runnable team workflow:

You: Use houmao-agent-loop-pro for this plan:
     three agents should design, implement, and review a migration.
     The planner decomposes the work, the builder edits code, the reviewer checks behavior,
     and the team should stop only after tests and review notes are complete.

AI: I created the loop intention, clarified the topology, generated the execplan, prepared specialists and launch profiles, checked workspace and mailbox/gateway posture, launched the participants, started the run, and I will report status from outside the execution loop.

houmao-agent-loop-pro owns the schema-rich path: intention clarification, tree-loop versus generic-loop topology choice, generated process and contract artifacts, harness/state contracts, generated skills, workspace readiness, validation, launch, run control, and recovery. houmao-agent-loop-lite is the lighter Markdown/direct-SQL path for smaller generated loops that still use the same intention/execplan/runs spine without JSON schemas, Jinja2, or generated harnesses.

The reusable examples/writer-team/ template shows a three-agent story-writing team with prompt files, a tree loop plan, start charter, local setup commands, and artifact directories. It is the team shown here: a story-writer drafts and finalizes chapters, a character-designer builds profiles, and a story-reviewer checks logic and pacing while the human operator watches from outside the loop.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6cff608a-8b5b-4dcd-96fb-f2f0208a18b6

For the full current loop-authoring workflow, see the Loop Authoring Guide, the houmao-agent-loop-lite skill, and the houmao-agent-loop-pro skill.

Typical Use Cases

• Multi-agent execution loops: turn a complex plan into a generated team run with explicit participants, workspace posture, mail/gateway readiness, status, pause, resume, recovery, and stop controls.
• Project-local specialist teams: define reusable specialists with different roles and tools, then launch them into the same project with shared mailbox and gateway posture.
• Parallel review and build flows: run a builder and reviewer side by side on the same repository while your user agent coordinates prompts and inspections.
• Research or writing teams: create non-coding specialists for outlining, drafting, critique, synthesis, and artifact production.
• Bring your own provider mix: combine Claude, Codex, and Gemini agents while keeping the workflow and Houmao control surfaces stable.

System Skills: Agent Self-Management

Houmao installs packaged skills into agent tool homes so the agent itself can drive management tasks through its native skill interface without the operator manually invoking every houmao-mgr command. Those skills cover guided touring, project setup, specialist and profile authoring, credentials, live-agent lifecycle, prompt and mailbox messaging, gateway/reminder work, memory, inspection, workspace preparation, and loop orchestration.

The orientation-level entry points are:

Skill	What to ask it for
houmao-touring	A staged first-run or re-orientation tour.
houmao-agent-definition	Roles, recipes, raw-profiles, specialists, easy profiles, create-agent-fast-forward, launch, and stop workflows.
houmao-agent-messaging	Prompt, interrupt, queue, raw input, mailbox-routing entry, and one-turn headless override work against running agents.
houmao-agent-gateway	Gateway attach/detach/status/watch, reminders, and mail-notifier posture.
houmao-agent-loop-lite	Lightweight Markdown/direct-SQL generated loop authoring and operation.
houmao-agent-loop-pro	Schema-rich loop authoring, preparation, validation, launch, run control, and recovery for complex generated teams.

houmao-specialist-mgr may still appear in older installed homes as compatibility guidance, but current specialist and profile work belongs to houmao-agent-definition. Managed launch and join install the catalog's core set by default; explicit CLI installation defaults to all, which adds optional utility workflows. For the complete catalog, grouping, auto-install behavior, and per-skill boundaries, see the System Skills Overview.

Subsystems at a Glance

Subsystem	Description	Docs
Gateway	Per-agent sidecar for session control, request queue, TUI/headless state, reminders, and mail facade	Gateway Reference
Mailbox	Unified async message transport through filesystem and Stalwart JMAP backends	Mailbox Reference
TUI Tracking	State machine, detectors, and replay engine for tracking provider TUI state	TUI Tracking Reference
Passive Server	Registry-driven stateless server for distributed agent discovery, observation, and management	Passive Server Reference

Demos and Examples

• examples/writer-team/ - Complete tree-loop template for the three-agent story-writing team shown above.
• scripts/demo/minimal-agent-launch/ - Recipe-backed headless launch with Claude or Codex.
• scripts/demo/single-agent-mail-wakeup/ - Easy specialist plus gateway and mailbox-notifier wakeup.
• scripts/demo/single-agent-gateway-wakeup-headless/ - Headless specialist with gateway wakeup and turn evidence.
• scripts/demo/shared-tui-tracking-demo-pack/ - Standalone tracked-TUI capture, watch, and replay validation.

CLI Entry Points

Entrypoint	Purpose	Status
houmao-mgr	Primary operator CLI for project setup, specialists/profiles, launch, prompt, gateway, mailbox, memory, credentials, and local workflow control	Active
houmao-passive-server	Maintained registry-driven API server for discovering, observing, and managing running agents	Active

Detailed command syntax lives in the houmao-mgr CLI reference, System Skills CLI reference, agents mail reference, agents gateway reference, and internals graph reference. If you already have a provider TUI running and want Houmao management on top, use the documented agents join adoption path rather than treating it as the default first-run flow.

houmao-mgr --help
houmao-mgr --version
houmao-passive-server --help

Full Documentation

Complete reference, guides, and developer docs are published at igamenovoer.github.io/houmao.

Development

pixi run format
pixi run lint
pixi run typecheck
pixi run test-runtime
pixi run docs-serve

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Legacy note: Houmao was originally inspired by CAO (CLI Agent Orchestrator). Legacy houmao-cli, standalone houmao-server, and cao_rest backend paths are retired. Use houmao-mgr, houmao-passive-server, and local/headless managed-agent workflows instead.