AGCoord

AGCoord is a machine-local coordinator for developers and coding agents that share a workstation. It gives every check, standalone full gate, and atomic gate-and-publication request one durable job ID, then schedules compatible work across repositories without letting two agents accidentally publish stale or untested code.

The coordinator is local infrastructure: one detached broker per OS user, a private durable spool, per-job logs, and an optional terminal UI. It does not require a hosted service. The core package is forge-neutral; GitHub support is an optional adapter.

Install and start

Install the published package in a tool environment:

python -m pip install agcoord

The base package installs the supported Textual 8 release line (textual>=8.2,<9) for the terminal UI. Textual 1 through 7 are not supported; a future Textual major is admitted only after its real-TUI behavior is validated.

Upgrading from 0.1.x

Version 0.2.0 removes the agcoord console executable. Replace downstream shell commands, service units, and automation with agc; the PyPI project, Python import, stable state-directory name, and python -m agcoord entry point remain agcoord.

Before upgrading, let every 0.1.x job finish, wait for its on-demand broker to relinquish the idle spool, and back up the state directory when its history matters. Move capacity, resource binding, and cgroup-root values from AGCOORD_CAPACITIES, AGCOORD_RESOURCE_BINDINGS, and AGCOORD_CGROUP_ROOT into that state directory's single config.json; those three environment variables and the old comma-separated capacity syntax are no longer accepted. After installing 0.2.0, run agc migrate once for the idle default spool (or agc --state-dir /path/to/state migrate), then use agc list to start the new broker. Migration preserves historical meaning and never reinterprets legacy resource names as enforced limits.

There is no separate service-install step. The first command starts the detached broker on demand; later shells and repositories join the same user-scoped coordinator:

agc list
agc tui

State defaults to ${XDG_STATE_HOME:-~/.local/state}/agcoord. Set AGCOORD_STATE_DIR or pass --state-dir to use a deliberate alternate spool. Machine capacity defaults to two concurrent job slots. One JSON file, config.json in the state directory, configures the broker that owns it:

{"capacities": {"jobs": 4, "cpu": 8, "browser": 1}, "database_timeout": 10}

database_timeout is the optional positive SQLite lock-wait limit in seconds and defaults to 10. Current-protocol spools use WAL mode automatically so ordinary readers do not block behind writers; transient broker-pump and idle-check contention is retried.

Run work

Submit focused checks with the resources they consume:

agc run --label "unit tests" --resource cpu=2 -- python -m pytest -q

Every job implicitly holds one jobs slot. Repeatable --resource options add only named, configured resources; unknown or impossible requests fail instead of waiting forever. Those names are admission accounting by default. Optional bindings entries in the same config.json give selected names explicit units and admission-only, best-effort, or required backend semantics; every run then reports what was requested, actually applied, and measured. See the resource contract for the strict binding shape and current backend availability.

On Linux, the built-in cgroup-v2 backend can own the complete descendant lifecycle for an explicitly delegated, namespace-safe cgroup root. It attaches the blocked launcher before user code, kills detached descendants on finish or cancellation, and recovers ownership across broker restart. Typed cpu/logical-cpu and processes/processes bindings add aggregate cpu.max and pids.max limits plus peak and violation reporting; they do not imply CPU affinity. Memory and swap envelopes, bounded temporary storage, and verified per-device block-I/O limits remain separate opt-in contracts. See delegated cgroup setup before enabling a required binding.

If a gate starts several worker-owning tools concurrently, admitted subprocesses can use the public Python child CPU lease API to divide the job's declared CPU budget fairly. Leases support exact or partial grants, waiting, cancellation, crash reclamation, and broker recovery without creating nested jobs. Install agcoord[xdist] to activate the optional pytest-xdist adapter: positive -n modes then lease their worker count inside admitted runs, while plain pytest, -n 0, and pytest outside AGCoord keep their upstream behavior.

Run a standalone full validation for an exact clean Git head when publication is not part of the request:

agc full --label "release gate" --resource cpu=4 -- ./scripts/test.sh

full records the checkout's full 40-character HEAD, checks that the worktree is clean, and establishes a barrier in that repository's lane. It remains useful for validation and release preparation, but normal landing does not compose a full row with a later publication row. It is not a machine-global lock: compatible work in other repositories can overlap when configured resource capacities allow it.

After pushing the exact clean head and opening a pull request, gate and publish it as one indivisible request:

agc land 123 \
  --label "gate and publish PR 123" \
  --resource cpu=4 \
  -- ./scripts/test.sh
# GitHub is the convenience default and may also be named explicitly.
agc land 123 --adapter github -- ./scripts/test.sh

land stores the adapter, request, exact checkout/head, gate command, caller environment, and resource claim in one durable repository barrier. The core record keeps adapter and request separate even though the current installed adapter uses GitHub pull-request numbers. It rejects a stale target before the gate, runs the gate once, and publishes immediately after a green result without releasing the lane or resources. A red gate publishes nothing. --adapter github is the default when the option is omitted; the core request remains forge-neutral.

AGCoord never refreshes, rebases, or rewrites the checkout. If the source head or target branch moves before or during the gate, the same job ends with a named handback and does not publish. Update the branch yourself, push it, and submit a fresh agc land request; a separate full-plus-merge sequence is not a landing substitute.

Inspect or manage jobs from any terminal:

agc list
agc show land-0123456789ab
agc log land-0123456789ab --follow
agc cancel land-0123456789ab
agc clear

clear removes terminal history and its logs only. It refuses while queued or running work exists and never removes the spool, broker ownership, or migration history.

The full operating contract, recovery behavior, TUI keys, and resource model are in the coordinator guide. Package maintainers should also read the release guide, and published user-facing changes are recorded in the changelog. Contributors follow the repository workflow in AGENTS.md.

Project status

AGCoord is distributed as the agcoord project on PyPI, with import package agcoord and the agc console command. The python -m agcoord module entry point remains available. Build and install development checkouts in an isolated environment rather than copying modules into another project.

The gourd mascot and its asset notes live under docs/assets.