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OpenHands Automation Service

⚠️ Beta: This project is currently in beta. APIs and features may change without notice.

Scheduled and event-driven automation execution for OpenHands Cloud. This service allows users to create automations that run on a schedule (cron) or in response to events (webhooks).

Features

  • Scheduled Automations: Run OpenHands conversations on a cron schedule
  • Event-Driven: Trigger automations via webhooks (e.g., GitHub events)
  • API Key Management: Per-user API keys for secure automation access
  • Run History: Track automation runs with status and results

Repository boundaries

The Automation Service owns automation definitions, cron scheduling, webhooks, run history, dispatch, and sandbox lifecycle orchestration. It manages when work runs; the Agent Server and OpenHands/software-agent-sdk execute the agent conversations and own agent/tool behavior, workspaces, events, and API endpoints.

OpenHands/typescript-client provides typed browser access to the Agent Server API, while OpenHands/OpenHands owns Agent Canvas UI and frontend integration. If a change belongs in one of those repositories, open the PR there rather than duplicating the logic here.

Development

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.12+
  • uv for dependency management
  • PostgreSQL (or use testcontainers for testing)

Setup

# Install dependencies
uv sync --group dev

# Run the service locally (requires PostgreSQL)
uv run uvicorn openhands.automation.app:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --reload

Testing

# Run all tests
uv run pytest

# Run with coverage
uv run pytest --cov=openhands/automation --cov-report=term-missing

Code Quality

# Run pre-commit hooks
uv run pre-commit run --all-files

# Format code
uv run ruff format

# Lint code
uv run ruff check --fix

# Type check
uv run pyright

Database Migrations

# Create a new migration
uv run alembic revision --autogenerate -m "description"

# Apply migrations
uv run alembic upgrade head

SQLite databases are migrated on startup. PostgreSQL databases are not, unless AUTOMATION_RUN_MIGRATIONS_ON_STARTUP=true (or 1). With it set, each replica runs alembic upgrade head before it serves requests, and a failed migration stops it from starting. Replicas that start at the same time take turns through an advisory lock.

Set AUTOMATION_CREATE_DATABASE_IF_MISSING=true (or 1) to have the migrations create the PostgreSQL database first if it does not exist. This works both on startup and with alembic upgrade head. The migrations connect to the postgres database to create it, so the database user needs the CREATEDB privilege.

Docker

# Build the image
docker build -t automation -f containers/Dockerfile .

# Run the container
docker run -p 8000:8000 automation

Project Structure

openhands/
└── automation/      # Main application package (openhands.automation namespace)
    ├── app.py           # FastAPI application entry point
    ├── router.py        # API routes for CRUD operations
    ├── scheduler.py     # Background scheduler for cron jobs
    ├── dispatcher.py    # Dispatches pending runs to OpenHands
    ├── models.py        # SQLAlchemy models
    ├── schemas.py       # Pydantic schemas for API
    └── utils/           # Utility functions
migrations/          # Alembic database migrations
tests/               # Unit tests
containers/          # Docker configuration

Deployment

This service is deployed via the deploy repository. Docker images are automatically built and pushed to ghcr.io/openhands/automation on every push to main and on tags.

Metadata

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