deepagent/deepagents_sourcecode/libs/deepagents-cli

🚀🧠 Deep Agents CLI

The deepagents CLI is an open source coding assistant that runs in your terminal, similar to Claude Code.

Key Features:

• Built-in Tools: File operations (read, write, edit, glob, grep), shell commands, web search, and subagent delegation
• Customizable Skills: Add domain-specific capabilities through a progressive disclosure skill system
• Persistent Memory: Agent remembers your preferences, coding style, and project context across sessions
• Project-Aware: Automatically detects project roots and loads project-specific configurations

🚀 Quickstart

deepagents-cli is a Python package that can be installed via pip or uv.

Install via pip:

pip install deepagents-cli

Or using uv (recommended):

# Create a virtual environment
uv venv

# Install the package
uv pip install deepagents-cli

Run the agent in your terminal:

deepagents

Get help:

deepagents help

Common options:

# Use a specific agent configuration
deepagents --agent mybot

# Use a specific model (auto-detects provider)
deepagents --model claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929
deepagents --model gpt-4o

# Auto-approve tool usage (skip human-in-the-loop prompts)
deepagents --auto-approve

# Execute code in a remote sandbox
deepagents --sandbox modal        # or runloop, daytona
deepagents --sandbox-id dbx_123   # reuse existing sandbox

Type naturally as you would in a chat interface. The agent will use its built-in tools, skills, and memory to help you with tasks.

Model Configuration

The CLI supports three LLM providers with automatic provider detection based on model name:

Supported Providers:

• OpenAI - Models like gpt-4o, gpt-5-mini, o1-preview, o3-mini (default: gpt-5-mini)
• Anthropic - Models like claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929, claude-3-opus-20240229 (default: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929)
• Google - Models like gemini-3-pro-preview, gemini-1.5-pro (default: gemini-3-pro-preview)

Specify model at startup:

# Auto-detects Anthropic from model name pattern
deepagents --model claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929

# Auto-detects OpenAI from model name pattern
deepagents --model gpt-4o

Or use environment variables:

# Set provider-specific model defaults
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL="claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929"
export OPENAI_MODEL="gpt-4o"
export GOOGLE_MODEL="gemini-1.5-pro"

# Set API keys (required)
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-key"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-key"
export GOOGLE_API_KEY="your-key"

Model name conventions:

Model names follow each provider's official naming convention:

• OpenAI: See OpenAI Models Documentation
• Anthropic: See Anthropic Models Documentation
• Google: See Google Gemini Models Documentation

The active model is displayed at startup in the CLI interface.

Built-in Tools

The agent comes with the following built-in tools (always available without configuration):

Tool	Description
ls	List files and directories
read_file	Read contents of a file
write_file	Create or overwrite a file
edit_file	Make targeted edits to existing files
glob	Find files matching a pattern (e.g., **/*.py)
grep	Search for text patterns across files
shell	Execute shell commands (local mode)
execute	Execute commands in remote sandbox (sandbox mode)
web_search	Search the web using Tavily API
fetch_url	Fetch and convert web pages to markdown
task	Delegate work to subagents for parallel execution
write_todos	Create and manage task lists for complex work

Warning

Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) Approval Required

Potentially destructive operations require user approval before execution:

• File operations: write_file, edit_file
• Command execution: shell, execute
• External requests: web_search, fetch_url
• Delegation: task (subagents)

Each operation will prompt for approval showing the action details. Use --auto-approve to skip prompts:

deepagents --auto-approve

Agent Configuration

Each agent has its own configuration directory at ~/.deepagents/<agent_name>/, with default agent.

# List all configured agents
deepagents list

# Create a new agent
deepagents create <agent_name>

Environment Variables

LangSmith Tracing

The CLI supports separate LangSmith project configuration for agent tracing vs user code tracing:

Agent Tracing - Traces deepagents operations (tool calls, agent decisions):

export DEEPAGENTS_LANGSMITH_PROJECT="my-agent-project"

User Code Tracing - Traces code executed via shell commands:

export LANGSMITH_PROJECT="my-user-code-project"

Complete Setup Example:

# Enable LangSmith tracing
export LANGCHAIN_TRACING_V2=true
export LANGCHAIN_API_KEY="your-api-key"

# Configure separate projects
export DEEPAGENTS_LANGSMITH_PROJECT="agent-traces"
export LANGSMITH_PROJECT="user-code-traces"

# Run deepagents
deepagents

When both are configured, the CLI displays:

✓ LangSmith tracing enabled: Deepagents → 'agent-traces'
  User code (shell) → 'user-code-traces'

Why separate projects?

• Keep agent operations separate from your application code traces
• Easier debugging by isolating agent vs user code behavior
• Different retention policies or access controls per project

Backwards Compatibility: If DEEPAGENTS_LANGSMITH_PROJECT is not set, both agent and user code trace to the same project specified by LANGSMITH_PROJECT.

Customization

There are two primary ways to customize any agent: memory and skills.

Each agent has its own global configuration directory at ~/.deepagents/<agent_name>/:

~/.deepagents/<agent_name>/
  ├── agent.md              # Auto-loaded global personality/style
  └── skills/               # Auto-loaded agent-specific skills
      ├── web-research/
      │   └── SKILL.md
      └── langgraph-docs/
          └── SKILL.md

Projects can extend the global configuration with project-specific instructions and skills:

my-project/
  ├── .git/
  └── .deepagents/
      ├── agent.md          # Project-specific instructions
      └── skills/           # Project-specific skills
          └── custom-tool/
              └── SKILL.md

The CLI automatically detects project roots (via .git) and loads:

• Project-specific agent.md from [project-root]/.deepagents/agent.md
• Project-specific skills from [project-root]/.deepagents/skills/

Both global and project configurations are loaded together, allowing you to:

• Keep general coding style/preferences in global agent.md
• Add project-specific context, conventions, or guidelines in project agent.md
• Share project-specific skills with your team (committed to version control)
• Override global skills with project-specific versions (when skill names match)

agent.md files

agent.md files provide persistent memory that is always loaded at session start. Both global and project-level agent.md files are loaded together and injected into the system prompt.

Global agent.md (~/.deepagents/agent/agent.md)

• Your personality, style, and universal coding preferences
• General tone and communication style
• Universal coding preferences (formatting, type hints, etc.)
• Tool usage patterns that apply everywhere
• Workflows and methodologies that don't change per-project

Project agent.md (.deepagents/agent.md in project root)

• Project-specific context and conventions
• Project architecture and design patterns
• Coding conventions specific to this codebase
• Testing strategies and deployment processes
• Team guidelines and project structure

How it works (AgentMemoryMiddleware):

• Loads both files at startup and injects into system prompt as <user_memory> and <project_memory>
• Appends memory management instructions on when/how to update memory files

When the agent updates memory:

• IMMEDIATELY when you describe how it should behave
• IMMEDIATELY when you give feedback on its work
• When you explicitly ask it to remember something
• When patterns or preferences emerge from your interactions

The agent uses edit_file to update memories when learning preferences or receiving feedback.

Project memory files

Beyond agent.md, you can create additional memory files in .deepagents/ for structured project knowledge. These work similarly to Anthropic's Memory Tool. The agent receives detailed instructions on when to read and update these files.

How it works:

1. Create markdown files in [project-root]/.deepagents/ (e.g., api-design.md, architecture.md, deployment.md)
2. The agent checks these files when relevant to a task (not auto-loaded into every prompt)
3. The agent uses write_file or edit_file to create/update memory files when learning project patterns

Example workflow:

# Agent discovers deployment pattern and saves it
.deepagents/
├── agent.md           # Always loaded (personality + conventions)
├── architecture.md    # Loaded on-demand (system design)
└── deployment.md      # Loaded on-demand (deploy procedures)

When the agent reads memory files:

• At the start of new sessions (checks what files exist)
• Before answering questions about project-specific topics
• When you reference past work or patterns
• When performing tasks that match saved knowledge domains

Benefits:

• Persistent learning: Agent remembers project patterns across sessions
• Team collaboration: Share project knowledge through version control
• Contextual retrieval: Load only relevant memory when needed (reduces token usage)
• Structured knowledge: Organize information by domain (APIs, architecture, deployment, etc.)

Skills

Skills are reusable agent capabilities that provide specialized workflows and domain knowledge. Example skills are provided in the examples/skills/ directory:

• web-research - Structured web research workflow with planning, parallel delegation, and synthesis
• langgraph-docs - LangGraph documentation lookup and guidance

To use an example skill globally with the default agent, just copy them to the agent's skills global or project-level skills directory:

mkdir -p ~/.deepagents/agent/skills
cp -r examples/skills/web-research ~/.deepagents/agent/skills/

To manage skills:

# List all skills (global + project)
deepagents skills list

# List only project skills
deepagents skills list --project

# Create a new global skill from template
deepagents skills create my-skill

# Create a new project skill
deepagents skills create my-tool --project

# View detailed information about a skill
deepagents skills info web-research

# View info for a project skill only
deepagents skills info my-tool --project

To use skills (e.g., the langgraph-docs skill), just type a request relevant to a skill and the skill will be used automatically.

$ deepagents 
$ "create a agent.py script that implements a LangGraph agent" 

Skills follow Anthropic's progressive disclosure pattern - the agent knows skills exist but only reads full instructions when needed.

1. At startup - SkillsMiddleware scans ~/.deepagents/agent/skills/ and .deepagents/skills/ directories
2. Parse metadata - Extracts YAML frontmatter (name + description) from each SKILL.md file
3. Inject into prompt - Adds skill list with descriptions to system prompt: "Available Skills: web-research - Use for web research tasks..."
4. Progressive loading - Agent reads full SKILL.md content with read_file only when a task matches the skill's description
5. Execute workflow - Agent follows the step-by-step instructions in the skill file

Development

Running Tests

To run the test suite:

uv sync --all-groups

make test

Running During Development

# From libs/deepagents-cli directory
uv run deepagents

# Or install in editable mode
uv pip install -e .
deepagents

Modifying the CLI

• UI changes → Edit ui.py or input.py
• Add new tools → Edit tools.py
• Change execution flow → Edit execution.py
• Add commands → Edit commands.py
• Agent configuration → Edit agent.py
• Skills system → Edit skills/ modules
• Constants/colors → Edit config.py