Run Without A Vault

How to run the harness without a vault (single-repo local state)

Note

Goal: Opt a machine into vault-less state so every phase write lands in <repo>/.harness/ — no Obsidian / GDrive / mounted vault required. Prereqs: agentm v4.15.0+ (ships --local-state), python3 on PATH, a .git dir in the target repo.

Single-repo mode lets you drive the full phase workflow on a machine with no memory vault. You opt in explicitly — install.sh --local-state writes "state_mode": "local" to the on-host .agentm-config.json and skips vault wiring. From then on harness_memory.py reads and writes state under <repo>/.harness/ instead of routing through a vault. For the model behind it (and the higher-precedence per-repo .project-mode marker), see Single-repo state mode.

Steps

1. Opt the machine into local mode at install time:

   bash /path/to/agentm/install.sh --local-state /path/to/your-project
   # Windows / PowerShell 7+:
   #   install.ps1 -LocalState C:\path\to\your-project

   The installer writes "state_mode": "local" to .agentm-config.json and prints state_mode: local (repo-local, vault-less); skipping vault detection.

2. Confirm the device config carries the mode:

   python3 /path/to/agentm/scripts/agentm_config.py --get state_mode   # → local

   Already installed without the flag? Flip it without re-running the installer: python3 /path/to/agentm/scripts/agentm_config.py --state-mode local (use --state-mode vault to switch back). To override the device default for a single repo, write local to <repo>/.harness/.project-mode — that per-repo marker wins over the device setting.

3. Run a phase write (e.g. /plan) and confirm state lands repo-local under <repo>/.harness/ (e.g. PLAN.md) with no ValueError. Reads and writes round-trip against that directory with no vault configured.

Related

• Single-repo state mode — why this mode exists and the vault-vs-local resolution model.
• Installer CLI reference — the --local-state flag and the agentm_config.py --state-mode setter.
• Project config reference — how register() degrades when no vault is present.
• Repo layout reference — where the .project-mode marker sits on disk.