gridfleet-agent 0.20.1

GridFleet agent — runs on each host

GridFleet Agent

gridfleet-agent is the host-side service that registers a device host with a GridFleet manager, spawns Appium per device, and runs a Selenium Grid relay node so the hub can route WebDriver requests directly to the device.

The agent installs entirely under the operator's home directory — no sudo is required to install, start, update, or uninstall.

Contents

• Quick install
• Prerequisites
• Manual install
• Headless Linux: enable linger
• Commands
• Configuration reference
• Logs and service control
• Troubleshooting
• Security note

Quick install

Both Linux and macOS use the same bootstrap script. It installs uv if missing, creates a dedicated venv under the per-OS user-scope agent directory, installs gridfleet-agent into it, and runs gridfleet-agent install --start — all as the invoking operator, no sudo.

# Latest version (development hosts)
curl -LsSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/quidow/gridfleet/main/scripts/install-agent.sh \
    | sh -s -- --start --manager-url http://manager.example.com:8000

# Production: always pin VERSION
curl -LsSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/quidow/gridfleet/main/scripts/install-agent.sh \
    | VERSION=0.10.0 sh -s -- --start --manager-url http://manager.example.com:8000

The script refuses to run as root. The service runs as the operator that invoked the script.

Prerequisites

The agent itself only needs Python 3.12, which uv fetches automatically. Host-level tools probed during install:

Tool	Needed for	Detection
Java 11+	Android driver build tools	java -version, JAVA_HOME, /usr/libexec/java_home (macOS)
Node.js 20+	Per-pack Appium runtimes	nvm, fnm, $PATH
Android SDK platform-tools	ADB-based devices	ANDROID_HOME, ANDROID_SDK_ROOT, ~/Library/Android/sdk, ~/Android/Sdk

Manual install

# 1. Install uv
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

# 2. Create the dedicated venv and install gridfleet-agent.
#    Linux:
AGENT_DIR="${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/gridfleet-agent"
#    macOS:
#    AGENT_DIR="$HOME/Library/Application Support/gridfleet-agent"
mkdir -p "$AGENT_DIR"
uv venv --python 3.12 "$AGENT_DIR/venv"
uv pip install --python "$AGENT_DIR/venv/bin/python" "gridfleet-agent==0.10.0"

# 3. Provision the service from the dedicated venv. No sudo.
"$AGENT_DIR/venv/bin/gridfleet-agent" install --start --manager-url http://manager.example.com:8000

Headless Linux: enable linger

A systemd user instance runs only while the user has an active login session. For headless lab hosts, enable lingering once per host so the agent survives logout and reboots:

sudo loginctl enable-linger "$USER"

The installer probes this state after systemctl --user enable and prints a warning if linger is off — it does not abort, because desktop / dev hosts where the operator is always logged in do not need it.

Commands

install

Provision files, write the systemd user unit (Linux) or launchd LaunchAgent plist (macOS), optionally start the service. No sudo. Pass exactly one of --dry-run, --no-start, --start.

gridfleet-agent install --dry-run --manager-url http://manager.example.com:8000
gridfleet-agent install --no-start --manager-url http://manager.example.com:8000
gridfleet-agent install --start    --manager-url http://manager.example.com:8000

Exit codes: 0 success (including registration pending — printed as a WARNING); 1 files installed but local /agent/health failed; 2 invalid args or setup error.

status

Read-only. Reports config file, service file, service active/enabled, local /agent/health, operator identity, uv path, and the configured environment with secrets redacted.

gridfleet-agent status

update

Drain -> upgrade the dedicated venv in place -> restart -> re-poll health. No sudo.

gridfleet-agent update --to 0.10.0
gridfleet-agent update --dry-run
gridfleet-agent update --uv-bin /path/to/uv          # advanced

Exit codes: 0 success; 1 drain timeout or post-restart health failure; 2 uv pip install --upgrade or restart command failed.

uninstall

gridfleet-agent uninstall --yes
gridfleet-agent uninstall --yes --keep-config       # leave config dir in place
gridfleet-agent uninstall --yes --keep-agent-dir    # leave agent dir in place

Service internals: serve

gridfleet-agent serve is the entrypoint that systemd / launchd invoke; you should not run it by hand.

--version

gridfleet-agent --version

Configuration reference

All flags below belong to install. status, update, and uninstall accept their own subset (update adds --to, --dry-run, --uv-bin).

Flag	Default	Mapped env var	Notes
--manager-url	http://localhost:8000	AGENT_MANAGER_URL	Manager base URL.
--port	5100	AGENT_AGENT_PORT	Agent HTTP port.
--advertise-ip	auto-detect	AGENT_ADVERTISE_IP	Hostname or IP the agent advertises to the manager. Set to host.docker.internal when the manager runs in Docker on the same host.
--manager-auth-username	none	AGENT_MANAGER_AUTH_USERNAME	Required pair with --manager-auth-password.
--manager-auth-password	none	AGENT_MANAGER_AUTH_PASSWORD	Required pair with --manager-auth-username.
--api-auth-username	none	AGENT_API_AUTH_USERNAME	Required pair with --api-auth-password.
--api-auth-password	none	AGENT_API_AUTH_PASSWORD	Required pair with --api-auth-username.
--grid-hub-url	http://localhost:4444	AGENT_GRID_HUB_URL	Selenium Grid hub.
--grid-publish-url	tcp://localhost:4442	AGENT_GRID_PUBLISH_URL	Grid event bus publish.
--grid-subscribe-url	tcp://localhost:4443	AGENT_GRID_SUBSCRIBE_URL	Grid event bus subscribe.
--grid-node-port-start	5555	AGENT_GRID_NODE_PORT_START	First port allocated to relay nodes.

Install paths (defaults; override with --agent-dir, --config-dir):

OS	agent_dir	config_dir	Service file	Logs
Linux	${XDG_DATA_HOME:-~/.local/share}/gridfleet-agent	${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/gridfleet-agent	${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/systemd/user/gridfleet-agent.service	journald (user instance)
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/gridfleet-agent	~/Library/Application Support/gridfleet-agent/config	~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.gridfleet.agent.plist	~/Library/Logs/gridfleet-agent/{stdout,stderr}.log

install also creates a ~/.local/bin/gridfleet-agent symlink pointing at the dedicated venv so gridfleet-agent status / update / uninstall work without typing the full venv path. Add ~/.local/bin to your PATH if it is not there already (export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"). If a non-symlink file already exists at that path the installer leaves it untouched and prints a warning. uninstall removes the symlink only when it still points into the agent's agent_dir.

Logs and service control

Linux

journalctl --user -u gridfleet-agent -f
systemctl --user status gridfleet-agent
systemctl --user restart gridfleet-agent

macOS

tail -f ~/Library/Logs/gridfleet-agent/stdout.log
tail -f ~/Library/Logs/gridfleet-agent/stderr.log
launchctl print "gui/$(id -u)/com.gridfleet.agent"
launchctl kickstart -k "gui/$(id -u)/com.gridfleet.agent"

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Install ends with WARNING: agent registration pending	Manager requires manual approval or machine auth	Approve in the manager UI, or pass --manager-auth-username / --manager-auth-password.
WARNING: user-instance linger is off	Linux headless host without lingering enabled	sudo loginctl enable-linger "$USER".
systemctl --user start gridfleet-agent says Failed to connect to bus	No $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR; SSH session has no D-Bus user session	Log in via console or loginctl enable-linger so a user systemd instance always runs.
/agent/health returns 401	--api-auth-* mismatch between agent and operator's curl	Recheck flags; gridfleet-agent status shows the configured username.
Port 5100 / 5555+ / 4444 already in use	Another service bound the port	Pick free ports via --port / --grid-node-port-start.

Security note

The quick install pipes a shell script from the main branch — pin VERSION= for production hosts. uv pip install verifies the package wheel against PyPI's hash. Do not run the agent on hosts where uploaded driver-pack adapter wheels are not trusted: those wheels execute in the agent's runtime venv.