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Installing a computer

People connect their own machines for their agents to work on: where the computer program comes from, the one line that installs it, and what it does on the machine.

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A person connects their own machine with one line, and their agents can then work on it once they say yes.

A computer belongs to a space. An agent uses a computer of the space its chat is in, for the person it works for, and only where that person reaches. Only the person says yes: an agent, a key or a routine can't answer for them, since computer.approve is inPerson.

Where the program comes from

People's computers run the computer program, plugins/compute/computers/program/. It's a single executable for macOS, Linux and Windows.

Each Copilotz release on GitHub has it, tagged v<version>. A release holds a binary per platform, install.sh, install.ps1, and manifest.json with their sizes and SHA-256.

An app serves it from there by default. It can also serve a folder of its own, or point elsewhere:

TypeScript
import { computerDownloads } from "copilotz/plugins/compute/downloads";

plugins: [...plugins, await computerDownloads()], // this Copilotz's release
plugins: [...plugins, await computerDownloads({ dir: "dist/computer/1.0.0-rc.45" })], // its own: /computer/download/
plugins: [...plugins, await computerDownloads({ url: "https://downloads.example.com/computer/" })], // or elsewhere

computerDownloads serves the program on Node.

How a release is built

The publish workflow builds the program when a v1.* tag is pushed. It runs on a Mac, where the macOS binaries are signed.

A release whose program is the same as the last one's takes that release's binaries, version and all, so computers don't update to what they already have. The manifest's source says what the program is: a hash of its code without its version, its install scripts and the Bun that builds it.

To build one yourself:

Terminal
node scripts/computer/build.ts                 # dist/computer/<version>/
node scripts/computer/build.ts --reuse <url>   # that release's, when it's the same program

The one line

A space's Computer tab, or /computer connect in the terminal, gives the one line to run on the machine, for its system. It has a one-time code in it. The tab also offers the binaries, to download instead.

On macOS and Linux:

Terminal
curl -fsSL https://app.example.com/computer/download/install.sh | sh -s -- https://app.example.com --code K7Q-4MZ

On Windows:

& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://app.example.com/computer/download/install.ps1))) https://app.example.com -Code K7Q-4MZ

What the line does

  1. It downloads that machine's binary.
  2. It checks its SHA-256 against the release's manifest.
  3. It puts it in ~/.copilotz/bin (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Copilotz\bin on Windows), on the PATH.
  4. It connects it with the code.
  5. It keeps it running from login on: a launchd agent on macOS, a systemd user unit on Linux, a scheduled task on Windows.

The binaries aren't signed yet, so macOS and Windows warn about one downloaded with a browser. The line doesn't need that.

On the machine

  • computer uninstall stops it, and computer install starts it again.
  • computer forget forgets it.
  • computer run runs it in the foreground instead.
  • computer list says which apps it's connected to, and where their spaces are.
  • computer disconnect <app-url> leaves one app.

Its commands run in bash. On Windows they run in PowerShell, 7 when it's there, else 5.1. Agents are told which.

Updates

A computer older than the app's release updates itself as it connects. The app tells it the version, and its binary's URL, size and SHA-256. The computer checks them, checks that the new one runs, swaps it in and starts again.

Many apps on one machine

One machine can serve several apps, or several orgs of one. Run the line from each, and each is a computer of its own there, in one program.

Each one's spaces go in a folder of its own under ~/Copilotz. It's named for the org, which the line from an org says (--folder acme), or else for the app's host.

In Build Compass

Chapter 38 connects a machine to Compass, where North gets a terminal, jobs, files, a browser and web search, and asks before it runs anything.

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