tack-agent 1.0.3

Self-evolving coding agent. Small, sharp, gets things done. Yours.

Tack

Self-evolving coding agent. ~14k lines of Python. Local-first. Provider-agnostic.

Install

pip install tack-agent

The distribution is tack-agent because tack was already taken on PyPI. The importable package and the CLI command stay 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.

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:

Group	Tools
Core	Bash, Read, Write, Edit, MultiEdit, LS, Grep, Glob, ReadImage, ReadDoc
Sub-agent	Agent, ReadSidechain, Compact
Todo + Tasks	TodoRead, TodoWrite, TaskCreate, TaskUpdate, TaskList, TaskGet, TaskNext
Web	WebSearch, WebFetch
Identity	SoulEdit, UserEdit, AgentsEdit
Skills	SkillCreate, SkillDelete, SkillList
Memory	MemorySearch
Cron	CronCreate, CronList, CronDelete, CronEnable, CronDisable
Heartbeat	HeartbeatEdit
Discord	DiscordChannelCreate, DiscordChannelList
Dream	DreamRun, DreamRead
Email	EmailSend

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: full (40), core (28, no Web), minimal (11).

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

HOW-TO-SOUL.md	Identity files, agent self-edits, git integration
HOW-TO-SKILLS.md	Built-in skills, enable/disable, write your own
HOW-TO-MEMORY.md	SQLite FTS5 cross-session recall
HOW-TO-CRON.md	Cron expressions, daemon mode, failure handling
HOW-TO-DISCORD.md	Bot setup, allowlist, security model
HOW-TO-DREAM.md	Nightly memory consolidation
HOW-TO-EMAIL.md	SMTP+TLS, allowlist, approval gate
HOW-TO-MCP.md	Connect any MCP server
TROUBLESHOOTING.md	Top failure modes, 5-minute fixes
CHANGELOG.md	Per-release notes, newest first

Status

• Version 1.0.0. 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.