agents-live

Take your agents live. Turn Claude Code and GitHub Copilot agents into scheduled and file-triggered local automations, without moving them to another agent platform.

Definitions can be conforming Agent Skill directories or flat Markdown files in configured repository directories. Agents Live reads their namespaced execution metadata, adds local triggers, and repairs drift using standard host tools.

Agents/markdown-polisher/SKILL.md

---
name: markdown-polisher
description: Polish Markdown documents when they change.
metadata:
  agents-live.schema-version: "2"
  agents-live.selector: "claude"
  agents-live.mode: "write"
  agents-live.watch: "docs/** debounce 1s"
---
Correct spelling, grammar, and Markdown formatting errors in the selected files.
Preserve their meaning, links, code, and frontmatter. When a `Files changed:`
list is present, process only those files.

Quick start

See Installation for required host tools and installation details.

uv tool install agents-live
agents-live init
agents-live start markdown-polisher

The package also installs al as an exact shorthand for agents-live, so al status and agents-live status are interchangeable. uv refuses the installation if an unrelated al executable already exists; remove or rename that executable before retrying rather than using --force.

The watcher sleeps until a file changes, then runs the agent immediately with the changed paths. Add or edit a Markdown file under docs/, then open the file to see the fixes.

Manage the running agent with status and stop:

agents-live status
agents-live stop markdown-polisher

There is no polling interval or clock tick. The agent runs only when the operating system reports a change in the watched directory.

Lightweight

There is no listener service, separate application runtime, or database to deploy and maintain. The core stack is the Claude Code or GitHub Copilot CLI you already use, uv, and your host scheduler and file-watch facility.

Cron-only agents have no persistent process. A file-watch agent uses one small local watcher. There are no externally reachable ports or databases. Custom post-processors and plugins may bring their own dependencies; Agents Live core does not require them.

Safe by default

Execution modes make write access explicit:

1. plan is read-only. The agent emits JSON for a validated post-processor to apply.
2. pipeline limits the agent to a schema-checked data channel shared with your pre-processors and post-processors.
3. write grants full write access as an explicit per-agent choice.

This is tool policy, not a sandbox. Agents still inherit the permissions of your local account and agent CLI.

The example uses write so it can fix documents directly. For tighter control, use the complete plan and pipeline Markdown-polisher examples. They apply the same correction task through validated, deterministic write boundaries.

Installation

Install at least one supported provider CLI using its current official installer: Claude Code or GitHub Copilot CLI. The preferred fresh-install path is the verified release bootstrap. It installs uv when needed, authenticates the exact Agents Live release assets against GitHub release metadata, stages and validates an immutable generation, and only then activates it. Omitting a version selects GitHub's latest stable release.

On Debian or Ubuntu:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
sudo apt install cron inotify-tools
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf \
  https://github.com/johnshew/agents-live/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh
agents-live init

cron runs scheduled agents and automatic maintenance; inotifywait is only needed when definitions watch files or directories. On WSL, the first convergence stages and verifies Windows-side liveness before replacing an existing task, so scheduled runs do not require an open session.

Automatic maintenance rotates framework logs and removes retained transcripts and processor output after 30 days by default. Set retention_days to a positive integer in .agents-live.toml (or [tool.agents-live]) to change the repository policy. Rotated records remain available through agents-live logs until their retention boundary.

On Windows:

winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode
# Or: winget install GitHub.Copilot

Install the latest stable release. The final line prints and invokes the exact stable executable path, so the current shell does not depend on refreshed PATH:

irm https://github.com/johnshew/agents-live/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 | iex
$agentsLive = Join-Path $env:LOCALAPPDATA "agents-live\current\Scripts\agents-live.exe"
& $agentsLive --repo C:\path\to\repository init

Pass an exact stable or prerelease version as the first script argument after downloading the installer when reproducibility requires pinning. Prereleases must be selected explicitly; omitting the version always selects the latest stable release. Re-running the same version is idempotent. An existing uv-managed install is retired only after the generation is active; a host where uv and an active generation both claim ownership is refused with corrective guidance. Network, proxy, TLS, missing-digest, size, and checksum failures stop without a package-index or stale-cache fallback.

Install a published Windows bake by its complete commit-qualified version:

$version = "<complete-commit-qualified-version>"
$tag = [Uri]::EscapeDataString("v$version")
$installer = Join-Path $env:TEMP "agents-live-install-$version.ps1"
Invoke-WebRequest `
  "https://github.com/johnshew/agents-live/releases/download/$tag/install.ps1" `
  -OutFile $installer
& $installer $version

$agentsLiveBin = Join-Path $env:LOCALAPPDATA "agents-live\current\Scripts"
& (Join-Path $agentsLiveBin "agents-live.exe") --version

GitHub direct URLs encode the version's + as %2B; the installer argument does not. The installer updates the persisted user PATH, but an already-open or activated PowerShell environment can retain an older PATH snapshot. Open a new terminal, or prepend $agentsLiveBin to $env:Path for the current process, before judging bare agents-live command resolution.

Agents Live retains immutable versions side by side and selects one through the stable current path. Local bake versions include their commit suffix, so multiple builds from the same release line can coexist. Before a generation is sealed, installation validates the registered repositories and installs every declared plugin wheel into that generation. Selecting a generation runs host maintenance through that selected version so native triggers and still-started watchers converge without rewriting another installed version.

Windows uses Task Scheduler and a built-in watcher, so there is nothing more to install. init prints the PowerShell completion script path and the exact line to add to $PROFILE.

The installed .claude/skills/agents-live/ payload is tool-managed and carries a directory-local .gitignore; project-authored sibling skills are unaffected. For an existing repository that already tracks the payload, run git rm -r --cached .claude/skills/agents-live, then git add -f .claude/skills/agents-live/.gitignore. Agents Live never changes the Git index itself.

Note that macOS is untested.

Run agents-live doctor to diagnose missing requirements and inspect configuration. Use agents-live doctor --repair to repair supported configuration issues.

Go further

Definitions live under a registered repository's Agents/ directory by default, and Agents Live also searches .claude/skills/, .github/skills/, and .agents/skills/, claiming a skill there only when it carries agents-live. execution metadata. Set agent_directories = ["foo"] in .agents-live.toml to also discover immediate foo/<name>.md files and foo/<name>/SKILL.md bundles. Register another repository with agents-live init --repo <path>. Once registered, run, start, stop, and status fall back to the other registered repositories when a name is not present locally.

Cross-machine assignment is optional. Repository registration and ownership backend installation leave a project local-only. Run agents-live ownership enable to validate the backend and owners document before enabling transfers; agents-live ownership status reports the mode.

See the command reference for repository workflows, health checks and repair, upgrades, dashboards, shell completion, plugins, ownership, and multi-repository operations. The architecture guide covers runtime, safety, persistence, and maintenance behavior.

Documentation

Every workflow is an ordinary CLI command.

• Overview
• Starter templates
• Definition format
• Skill reference
• Changelog

Design documents and the high-level backlog for the project itself live in docs/; they are not installed with the skill.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome in Issues.

License

MIT