# Overview (pre-alpha)

![albedo in a terminal](docs/screenshot.png)

Albedo is an agentic coding harness that can act on your device and soon able to manage sessions on other devices with agents that can act remotely on different machines or within containers. Our hope is that it being built on BEAM allows it to maintain low memory usage while running many concurrent agents and subagents across devices.

It is daemonized with the CLI and the web client being clients of this daemon. This ensures the agents can be programatically created, controlled, and even stopped all while still providing an experience similar to other harnesses like Claude Code and Codex. Albedo provides a Python REPL for the agents to use as a scratchpad and data manipulation allowing them to experiment, reason, and play with code before actually writing it down. This is similar to what other harnesses call CodeMode, and is based on [prime-agent's](https://github.com/PrimeIntellect-ai/prime-agent/)'s Python REPL and design.

The CLI is written in Go and uses the Charm stack. 

```sh
# build native go cli
go -C cli build -o bin/albedo ./cmd/albedo
./cli/bin/albedo

# or to install it globally
go -C cli install ./cmd/albedo
albedo
```

When installed globally outside the checkout, set `ALBEDO_ROOT` to the absolute repo path if the daemon needs to be started:
```sh
ALBEDO_ROOT=/path/to/albedo albedo
```
or embed the root at install time:
```sh
go -C cli install -ldflags "-X main.buildRoot=$(pwd)" ./cmd/albedo
```

The default Nix package includes the client, compiled server, Python runtime, and Chrome Headless Shell for browser automation. The development shell also includes the browser:

```sh
nix build .#albedo
nix run . -- --help
nix-build -A default   # without flakes: the root default.nix goes through flake-compat
# package checks, with a local mock provider (no model credentials):
python3 test/manual/nix_package_smoke.py "$PWD/result/bin/albedo"
ALBEDO_NO_BROWSER=1 ALBEDO_TEST_BINARY="$PWD/result/bin/albedo" python3 test/daemon/integration.py
```

The client and server also build separately:

```sh
nix build .#albedo-client --out-link result-client
nix build .#albedo-server --out-link result-server
ALBEDO_DAEMON="$PWD/result-server/bin/albedo-daemon" ./result-client/bin/albedo
```

optional: `view`, which lets the model see its changes and code as highlighted
images for a final review pass. needs cargo.

```sh
native/render/install.sh   # then enable `view` in /extensions
```

## CLI usage

Run `albedo` to open the terminal interface, or use `--prompt` to print a reply:

```sh
albedo -p "Explain this project"
albedo --prompt "Run the checks" --session SESSION_ID --timeout 10m
albedo resume SESSION_ID
albedo sessions --json
albedo sessions read SESSION_ID 3      # the newest 3 turns (default 1); --json for structure
albedo sessions send SESSION_ID "message"
```

Session IDs can be shortened to any unique prefix. Run `albedo --help` or
`albedo COMMAND --help` for command options.

To inspect disk usage without starting the daemon, run `albedo storage --json`
or `albedo storage --sessions`. Offline database inspection and cleanup use the
local daemon executable without starting its server. Set `ALBEDO_DAEMON` to a
packaged executable or `ALBEDO_ROOT` to a source checkout. These storage commands
do not require Python. To clean up local files, stop the daemon first:

```sh
albedo daemon --stop
albedo storage prune --backups
```

Cleanup shows a preview and asks for confirmation. To permanently delete sessions,
use `albedo storage prune --session SESSION_ID`, repeating `--session` for each
full ID. Add `--yes` to skip confirmation in scripts.

## Web usage

The web client is a canvas of chat windows on a desktop and one chat at a
time on a phone. It lives in `web/` (Svelte). The Nix package includes it, so
`albedo web` works straight away:

```sh
nix run . -- web           # serves on 127.0.0.1:4317 and opens the browser
albedo web --port 0 --no-open
nix build .#albedo-web     # just the built client
```

From a checkout without Nix, build it once first:

```sh
npm --prefix web ci
npm --prefix web run build
```

`albedo web` finds or starts the daemon the same way the terminal client does,
and keeps the daemon's token to itself. It prints a link that signs the browser
in, so don't share it. It only answers on localhost unless you allow a network:

```sh
albedo web --allow 10.0.0.0 --allow 100.64.0.0   # home LAN and tailnet
albedo web --allow 192.168.1.0/24 --save         # remember it for next time
albedo web --save                                # forget the saved networks
```

A network is CIDR, or an address whose trailing zeros stand for any
(`10.0.0.0` is `10.0.0.0/8`). It then also listens on this machine's addresses
in those networks, prints a sign-in link for each, and refuses devices from
anywhere else. Set `ALBEDO_WEB_DIST` to serve a client built somewhere else.

What it does: new sessions (pick a folder, provider, model and effort), live
chats with images, `/` commands and a model picker in the composer, reviews of
a turn's changes on highlighted diffs, and notes you can tie to a message, a
window or diff lines and send back as one message. Press ⌘K for everything
else.

To work on the client, run the Vite dev server against the running daemon:

```sh
npm --prefix web run dev   # http://localhost:5173, restart it after the daemon restarts
npm --prefix web run check # svelte-check
```

The dev server listens on the local network with no sign-in, so other devices
at home can open it, and anyone who reaches it gets full control of the daemon.
Only run it on a network you trust. `robot-docs/web.md` describes how the client
is put together.

formatting

```sh
nix fmt                         # treefmt: Nix, Gleam, Go, Python, and shell files
pre-commit install              # once per checkout; available in `nix develop`
pre-commit run --all-files       # format, lint Python, and type-check Python
test/quick.sh                   # every static check, without a hook
gleam format src test           # fix Gleam formatting
ruff format priv/python test    # fix Python formatting
ruff check                      # lint Python
ty check                        # type-check the kernel, plugins, and tests
```

The commit hook formats staged files and runs the Python checks; it needs
`gleam` on PATH. `jj` runs no git hooks, so with `jj` run `test/quick.sh` before
each commit.

tests

```sh
./test.sh               # gleam, native go cli, and daemon suites
go -C cli test ./...    # native go cli tests
go -C cli vet ./...     # native go cli vet
gleam test              # gleam suite
```

`test/manual` holds opt-in checks that need a packaged binary or real credentials.

todo
- [] flesh out plugin system more
- [] sdk and -p, command to print out most recent assistant message from session
- [✓] compaction strategy plugins LCM and snapcompact
- [] compaction evaluations: old-fact recall, corrected instructions, tool pairing, images, restarts, and token/cost comparisons
- [✓] subagents plugin
- [] social plugins like discord
- [✓] plugins like heartbeat and skills
- [ish] oauth that we shamelessly rip from omp
- [] ai powered approve for me (jev/llm)
- [] improve verbose mode on tui
- [ish] webui: canvas on desktop, single chat on phones
- [] connect to other albedos on tui/webui and manage sessions
- [ish we have remote but model opts into it, not yet able to have the model natively act in a different machine] ability to offload tools like python/bash onto other machines/containers

## license

albedo is Copyright © 2026 okami.mom, ptr.pet and aly.codes, and the other contributors in its git history, under the [Mozilla Public License 2.0](LICENSE). See [AUTHORS.md](AUTHORS.md) and [THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md](THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md).