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R6.17 — your machine as a tool in the web chat

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@nwaddon nwaddon released this 04 Aug 23:18
· 4 commits to main since this release
v6.17
dd4f540

execai R6 — your machine as a tool in the web chat

The big one: bind a directory to a web-chat project, start a background listener — and ask the model in your browser to do things on your machine. The task runs in the project's directory, the answer comes back into the chat.

Projects — /project

/project              # your projects; ● — bound to this directory
/project bind <name>  # bind the current directory + add this machine to the project
/project on|off       # the same on/off toggle as in the web project card
/project unbind       # remove the binding and the machine from the project

Your machine becomes a regular tool inside a project — exactly like an ssh profile, with the same on/off toggle in the project card. The UI shows machine aliases; the underlying id is stable and survives reinstall and re-login.

Background mode — execai serve

execai serve

Listens for tasks from the web chat and executes them:

  • Runs in the directory bound to the task's project — not where serve was started. Directory missing → a clear error instead of running in the wrong place.
  • Allowed tools = your permissions.json — what you approved with "FOREVER" in the TUI. Anything else is refused: there is nobody around to confirm. Empty file → everything allowed, with a loud warning at start.
  • --read-only — look-but-don't-touch mode.
  • Every tool call goes to an audit log ~/.config/execai/serve-audit.log (rotates at 8 MB) — so you can see what the agent did overnight.
  • One daemon per machine. --status shows pid/uptime/endpoint, --stop stops gracefully (lets the current task finish), --stop --force kills after 5 s.
  • Agent offline → the chat gets an honest "agent not responding" in ~12 s; the task stays queued and runs as soon as serve starts. Delivery is acknowledged, so a task handed into a dead connection is never lost.

The web side needs the «Agents» tool in your project catalog on execai.ru — it is being rolled out gradually. The CLI half works today.

Also in this release

  • Agent memory: import and export. Pull in memory written by other agents (CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, Copilot instructions) with provenance kept, export yours to any directory. A sync: false mark keeps a record on this machine only.
  • Encryption layer (age). /key generates an X25519 identity; memory can be encrypted with keys you hold. Recipient model — several machines/people, one encrypted copy.
  • Questions with options. The agent can ask a multiple-choice question instead of guessing when the answer would change the work.
  • Subagents. Delegated read-only tasks in a nested loop, with a tighter iteration budget.
  • zai-api source — pay-per-token Z.ai as a compliant alternative to the Coding Plan.

Fixes

  • Agent tasks: the delivery contract with the tool pipeline is now respected — a completed task no longer looked like an empty answer in the chat.
  • Tasks are no longer lost when the daemon dies mid-poll: delivery is offered, then acknowledged.
  • A task now runs in the project selected in the chat, not in an arbitrary bound project.
  • Machine names show as aliases everywhere instead of raw ids.

Install / upgrade:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/execai/execai-agent/main/install.sh | bash

Windows:

iwr -useb https://storage.yandexcloud.net/execai-agent-prod/execai/stable/install.ps1 | iex

Full manual: README · Русский

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