Daemon

webagents daemon serves every agent under a folder over HTTP: this folder, or the one --watch names. It reloads an agent when its file changes, lets it go when the file is deleted, and runs any cron: schedules the files declare. It runs in the foreground until Ctrl+C. The command, its flags and which files it serves are the same in both SDKs.

An agent is a file named exactly AGENT.md or AGENT-<name>.md, anywhere under the folder, except inside a tool's own directory: .git, .hg, .svn, .webagents, node_modules, .venv, venv, __pycache__, .tox, .mypy_cache and .pytest_cache are never searched. AGENTS.md and agent.md are not agents. When two files declare the same name:, the one read last is served and the daemon says so.

To keep one running after the terminal closes, run webagents daemon under whatever runs services on the machine: launchd, systemd, a container.

The chat does not need a daemon: it builds the agent in its own process. For one agent over HTTP, webagents serve is simpler.

Highest first:

The daemon listens on this machine only unless --host says otherwise. Its management routes are not authenticated, because it is built for the machine it runs on. daemon.host must be an address on this machine (127.0.0.1, ::1 or localhost): a project's .webagents/config.json is often committed, so a configured address never opens the daemon to the network. Any other value is refused, naming the file it came from. To listen elsewhere, say so on the command line: webagents daemon --host 0.0.0.0. Inference routes require a credential either way.

An agent declares its schedule in its own front matter:

The daemon picks that up when it registers the file. --no-cron turns the schedules off. For a single run on a schedule without a daemon, have the machine's scheduler call webagents -a reporter -p "...".