automaton/AGENTS.md

AGENTS.md — Automaton Framework

This file contains the information coding agents need to work effectively on the automaton framework itself.

Project Overview

Automaton is a prompt-driven, contract-based workflow framework for LLM agents. It is intentionally not an agent harness: the framework provides prompts, conventions, scripts, and a dashboard, but enforcement is soft and relies on agent discipline.

Repository Layout

~/.automaton/
├── .agent.md              # Global router (autopilot mode, task routing)
├── .rules.md              # Global rules and failure modes
├── system-prompt.md       # Session startup prompt
├── config.md              # Global VRAM/model configuration
├── README.md              # Human-facing documentation
├── AGENTS.md              # This file
├── CHANGELOG.md           # Release notes
├── scripts/               # Bash/Python helper scripts
│   ├── install.sh
│   ├── update.sh
│   ├── migrate-project.sh
│   ├── vram_detect.py
│   └── dashboard.sh
├── prompts/               # Phase-specific LLM prompts
│   ├── orchestrate.md
│   ├── research.md
│   ├── implement.md
│   └── ...
├── contracts/             # Contract checklists
├── templates/             # Task templates
│   └── tasks/
│       ├── bad-impl/
│       ├── research-task/
│       └── subtask-parent/
├── automaton/             # Python dashboard package
│   └── dashboard/
│       ├── __main__.py
│       ├── config.py
│       ├── core/
│       └── ui/
├── tests/                 # pytest suite
└── tasks/                 # Framework development tasks

Build & Test Commands

# Compile all Python files
python -m py_compile automaton/**/*.py automaton/dashboard/**/*.py

# Run the test suite
python -m pytest tests/ -v

# Run a single test file
python -m pytest tests/test_task.py -v

# Syntax-check shell scripts
bash -n scripts/*.sh

# Start the dashboard
python -m automaton.dashboard

Conventions

• Prompts live in prompts/ and use {placeholder} syntax.
• Task paths must always be written as {project}/.automaton/tasks/{task-name}/.
• Scripts should be written in Python if they need complex parsing or testing; Bash is OK for simple glue.
• Tests are required for any new Python code or significant script logic.
• No orchestrator runtime — keep the framework prompt-driven. Do not add an agent harness.
• No Rust rewrite — Python/Bash are the implementation languages.

Adding or Updating Prompts

1. Edit the relevant file in prompts/.
2. Run python -m pytest tests/test_prompt_paths.py to ensure task paths are canonical.
3. Update CHANGELOG.md under [unreleased].

Adding a New Script

1. Place the script in scripts/.
2. Make it executable if it is entry-point code (chmod +x).
3. Add tests in tests/ if the script is Python.
4. Update README.md and any prompts that reference it.

Dashboard Development

• The dashboard is a web application served by a Python HTTP server.
• Static assets are in automaton/dashboard/html/.
• Core logic is in automaton/dashboard/core/.
• The dashboard is scope-aware: framework mode when run from ~/.automaton/, project mode otherwise.

CI

Gitea CI runs on every push:

• python -m py_compile
• python -m pytest tests/
• bash -n scripts/*.sh

See .gitea/workflows/ci.yml.