uatu 0.1.6

The Watcher - An agentic system troubleshooting tool powered by Claude

Uatu

Your AI partner for system operations and troubleshooting.

Core capabilities:

• Interactive chat: Conversational troubleshooting with your system
• Stdin mode: Pipe logs and data for instant AI analysis
• Security-first: Granular command approval and allowlist system
• Intelligent analysis: Connect CPU spikes, memory leaks, and process behavior

Tested on Platforms:

• macOS
• Linux

Installation

Using pipx (recommended)

# Install with pipx for isolated environment
pipx install uatu

# Configure API key
echo "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_key" > .env

Using pip

# Install globally or in a virtual environment
pip install uatu

# Configure API key
echo "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_key" > .env

From source with uv

# Install uv (if not already installed)
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/fractalops/uatu.git
cd uatu
uv sync

# Configure API key
echo "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_key" > .env

Quick Start

Interactive Chat Mode (Default)

Start a conversational troubleshooting session:

# Default mode
uatu

# Allow bash commands with approval prompts
UATU_READ_ONLY=false uatu

Ask questions naturally and get AI-powered system analysis:

• "What's causing high CPU usage?"
• "Why is my server running slowly?"
• "Investigate recent memory issues"
• "What's listening on port 8080?"

Security: Bash commands require user approval. Use UATU_READ_ONLY=true for read-only mode (MCP tools only).

Stdin Mode (One-Shot Analysis)

Pipe system data directly for instant troubleshooting:

# Analyze application logs
cat /var/log/app.log | uatu "find errors and suggest fixes"

# Investigate crashed process
journalctl -u myservice --since "1 hour ago" | uatu "why did this crash?"

# Debug high memory usage
ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -20 | uatu "diagnose memory issues"

# Network troubleshooting
netstat -tulpn | uatu "find port conflicts"

For automated monitoring/scripts:

# Read-only mode (safest for automation)
UATU_READ_ONLY=true tail -100 /var/log/syslog | uatu "check for issues"

# Trust allowlist (requires pre-approved commands)
UATU_REQUIRE_APPROVAL=false dmesg | uatu "check hardware errors"

Workflow for scripts:

1. Run uatu interactively first
2. Approve diagnostic commands with "Always allow"
3. Use UATU_REQUIRE_APPROVAL=false in scripts to trust allowlist

Configuration

Create .env with options:

# Required
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_key

# Optional
UATU_MODEL=claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929  # Claude model to use
UATU_READ_ONLY=true                     # Agent can only read, not modify system
UATU_REQUIRE_APPROVAL=true              # Require approval for risky actions
UATU_ALLOW_NETWORK=false                # Block network commands (curl, wget, etc.)

Security Features

Command Approval System

All bash commands require approval unless allowlisted:

⚠ Bash command approval required
Risk: Credential Access

⚠ Warning: This command may access SSH keys, certificates, or other credentials

ls -la ~/.ssh/

  ○ Allow once
  ○ Always allow (exact)
  → Deny

Audit Logging

All security decisions are logged:

# View audit log
uatu audit show

# View recent events
uatu audit show --last 20

# View specific event types
uatu audit show --type bash_approval

Allowlist Management

View and manage approved commands:

# View allowlist
cat ~/.config/uatu/allowlist.json

# Interactive chat commands (with tab completion)
/allowlist                              # Show approved commands
/allowlist add <command>                # Add command to allowlist
/allowlist remove <pattern>             # Remove pattern from allowlist
/allowlist clear                        # Clear all entries

Development

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Lint
uv run ruff check .

# Format
uv run ruff format .

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Claude Agent SDK for Python for building the agent.
• Typer for the terminal UI
• Rich for formatting text in the terminal.