Tack

Self-evolving idiomatic personal assistant. ~15k lines of Python. Local-first. Provider-agnostic.

Install

pip install tack-agent

Imports as tack. CLI command is tack.

From source:

git clone https://github.com/egmaminta/tack && cd tack
uv sync

MCP servers and the Discord connector ship with the base install. The only optional extra is the heavy document parser:

pip install 'tack-agent[docling]'  # PDF/DOCX/PPTX in ReadDoc

Quickstart

Point Tack at any provider that speaks OpenAI's chat-completions API.

ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:7b
tack

That's it. First run prompts you with three questions to seed the identity files (~/.tack/soul.md, <project>/.tack/user.md, <project>/.tack/agents.md). Skip with --no-bootstrap.

Configure

config.yaml in the project root, or ~/.tack/config.yaml for global. Minimal:

provider: ollama
model: qwen2.5-coder:7b

That's the entire required config. Defaults handle the rest.

For paid providers, add api_key: (or set LLM_API_KEY). For non-default endpoints, add api_base:. Everything else (identity, memory, cron, connectors, sandbox, dreaming) is opt-in and documented in the docs below.

Env vars override YAML: LLM_PROVIDER, LLM_MODEL, LLM_API_KEY, LLM_API_BASE, DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN. Prefer env or config.yaml over the --api-key CLI flag; argv values are visible to any process that can read /proc/<pid>/cmdline (Linux) or open Task Manager (Windows).

CLI

tack                          REPL
tack --session bug-auth       resume a named session
tack --provider ollama        override provider
tack --model qwen2.5:7b       override model
tack --thinking high          reasoning effort: none|low|medium|high|xhigh|auto
tack --verbose                show reasoning + telemetry
tack --trace                  write state transitions to ~/.tack/trace/
tack --no-sandbox             run Bash on host instead of Docker
tack --no-mcp                 disable MCP servers
tack --no-bootstrap           skip first-run identity dialogue
tack --daemon                 headless: cron + heartbeat, no stdin

Slash commands

/help       /config     /thinking [level]   /verbose
/compact    /reset      /session {list|load|new|rename}
/skills     /soul       /user               /agents
/mcp        /listen     /copy               /exit

Tools

40 built-in:

MCP tools merge in as mcp__<server>__<tool>.

Mutating tools (Bash, Write, Edit, identity edits, skill mutations, every cron and heartbeat change, DiscordChannelCreate, DreamRun, EmailSend) require approval. approval_policy: auto cannot auto-approve identity, skill, cron, heartbeat, dream, or email sends.

Profiles: lean (6), minimal (12), standard (21, default), full (40). See TOOLS.md.

Layout

tack/
  __init__.py           boot + dispatch (REPL or daemon)
  config.py             layered config: defaults < yaml < env < CLI
  agent/                loop, prompt, session, identity, memory, cron, daemon
  tools/                built-in tools + dispatcher
  connectors/           connector protocol + Discord
  mcp/                  MCP client + manager
  ui/                   abstract UIBridge, RichBridge (REPL), SilentBridge (daemon)

~/.tack/
  sessions/<hash>/      per-workdir session transcripts
  memory.db             SQLite FTS5 cross-session index
  soul.md               global persona
  cron/<id>.json        scheduled jobs
  logs/daemon.log       daemon output

<project>/.tack/
  user.md               per-project profile
  agents.md             per-project rules

Docs

Status

• Currently pre-release: v1.x.x. GitHub releases.
• Python 3.12+, no cloud services required for core function.
• CI: Linux, macOS, Windows. uv run pytest tests/ -q runs the suite locally.
• MIT license. See LICENSE.