agent6

A coding agent that jails model commands and uses editable state machines for long-running tasks.

The model can write code and ask to run commands, but those commands go through a jail with restricted filesystem and network access. Long-running workflows can be written, reviewed, edited, resumed, and replayed as declarative state machines instead of being left to an open-ended agent loop.

Full documentation: agent6.dev

the TUI the full agent, as a live dashboard

the CLI the full agent, in any terminal

the web UI the full agent, desktop or phone

Features

• Jailed commands: Landlock + seccomp, and under strict (what the default auto picks when the host allows it) user namespaces, pivot_root, read-only .git, no route off the box (Security)
• Providers: Anthropic, any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (OpenAI, OpenRouter, Ollama, vLLM, llama.cpp, LM Studio), or a ChatGPT subscription (agent6 connect chatgpt); model + reasoning effort per role (Config)
• Clean checkout: per-step commits on a detached ref, sessions merge to land them, snapshot resume, fork at any turn
• Verify gate: inferred when unset, pinned for the run, green/red on every surface; a worker can propose a replacement gate instead of reverting
• Budget: hard max_usd cap, token cap for calls the provider does not price
• Sessions: run, plan, ask (plan and ask never edit); --from <id> seeds from another, cross-session reads, /btw asks beside a live run
• Four front-ends, one engine: CLI, TUI, browser (stdlib server, no JS deps, phone), and editor over ACP; attach, exec, forward, history
• Background commands: background: true hands back a handle, read_background polls, /shells lists them; none outlive the run
• Context control: compaction visible on every surface, /compact [focus], /pin, repo memory injected per run
• State machines: LLM-drafted, operator-reviewed, journaled, replayable; they pause for input, take events, steer from any front-end (State machines)
• Task graph: the worker keeps its plan in a persistent DAG (dependencies, acceptance criteria, statuses) journaled with the run; it survives crash and compaction restarts, shows live on every surface, and decompose = "auto" front-loads it for models measured to need it
• Code review: agent6 review on any diff, plus an in-loop panel of adversarial reviewers where only blocking-category findings gate
• Parallel fan-out: --parallel N|model-a,model-b clone-based lanes, auto-compared into a ranked report; sessions compare for past runs, /parallel mid-run (Architecture)
• Skills: SKILL.md packs (the format Claude Code and most agents share) index into the prompt, load on demand, fire as /name or --skill; repo instructions from AGENTS.md
• Fixed tool surface: extended only by operator-configured MCP servers, off by default, jailed by default
• Eight runtime dependencies, no telemetry, no auto-update

Install

From PyPI with uv or pipx:

uv tool install agent6        # or: pipx install agent6

If agent6 is not found, you can add the uv or pipx bin dir (~/.local/bin) to your PATH with uv tool update-shell or pipx ensurepath.

Enable shell completion with agent6 completions (supports bash, zsh, fish, and xonsh).

agent6 requires Python 3.12+ and the sandbox only supports Linux (x86_64/aarch64). Other platforms run without the sandbox behind a warning. See installation for the full requirements and building from source.

Usage

# Connect a provider (stored in ~/.config/agent6/, key in a 0600 secrets file).
# If already connected, skip both; `agent6 check` verifies it.
agent6 connect                # interactive: pick provider, paste API key
# (or `agent6 connect chatgpt` to sign in with a ChatGPT subscription)
agent6 model worker anthropic claude-sonnet-5

# Run the agent on a task, create a plan, or ask a question.
cd your-repo
agent6 run "add a --json output mode to the CLI"
agent6 plan "how to add a --json output mode to the CLI"
agent6 ask "how to add a --json output mode to the CLI"

# Watch and drive runs from a terminal, a TUI, a browser, or an editor.
agent6 attach <session-id>    # follow + answer a run live (--raw for events)
agent6 tui                    # full-screen dashboard hub
agent6 web                    # browser UI on http://127.0.0.1:7658
agent6 acp                    # speak ACP on stdio; an editor spawns this

# Audit the effective config, check the sandbox, resume or fork a run.
agent6 config show
agent6 check
agent6 resume <session-id>
agent6 fork <session-id> --at-turn 7

# See all commands with `agent6 --help` or `agent6 <command> --help`.

See usage for the full command tour, the web UI for driving runs from a phone, configuration for every field, and the security model for what the sandbox enforces.

Config is layered, lowest precedence first: built-in defaults, the global ~/.config/agent6/config.toml, the per-repo config (in the state dir, out of the workspace, per-machine, never committed), then --config FILE. agent6 config show prints every effective value with the layer that set it. Every field has a default, and security-sensitive fields default to the safe value: isolation = "auto", network = "auto", run_commands = "ask", protect_git = true. Under "auto" the sandbox picks the most secure option available on the host and warns if it cannot enforce the full policy; an explicitly set value it cannot enforce refuses to run. protect_git = true re-binds .git read-only, which needs strict; on hardened the default warns and an explicitly set true refuses to run. agent6 itself does not push, rewrite history, or reset --hard, and no config key can enable them.