rho

An AI agent that stays running, remembers what you told it yesterday, and checks in on its own. Runs on macOS, Linux, and Android.

Your data stays on your device. No cloud for your memories. Bring your own LLM provider. You own everything.

Built on pi coding agent.

Quick start

Install with your agent

Ask your coding agent to fetch and follow the install runbook.

npm

npm install -g @rhobot-dev/rho
rho init && rho sync
rho login && rho start

pi

pi install npm:@rhobot-dev/rho
rho init && rho sync
rho login && rho start

Prerequisites for both: Node.js (18+), tmux, git.

macOS / Linux

git clone https://github.com/mikeyobrien/rho.git ~/.rho/project
cd ~/.rho/project && ./install.sh

Prerequisites: Node.js (18+), tmux, git. The installer checks and tells you what's missing. NixOS is detected and supported.

Android (Termux)

Install Termux and Termux:API from F-Droid, then:

curl -fsSL https://rhobot.dev/install | bash

Or step by step:

pkg install nodejs-lts tmux git
npm install -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent
git clone https://github.com/mikeyobrien/rho.git ~/.rho/project
cd ~/.rho/project && ./install.sh

iPhone / iPad (via SSH)

Rho runs on a server you SSH into. Use Termius or any SSH client.

# On your server (VPS, home machine, or free Oracle Cloud instance):
git clone https://github.com/mikeyobrien/rho.git ~/.rho/project
cd ~/.rho/project && ./install.sh
rho login && rho start

# On your iPhone: connect via SSH, then:
rho

Full guide: docs/iphone-setup.md, including Termius config, Tailscale for home servers, and free VPS options.

Run

rho                      # Start and attach
rho init                 # Initialize Rho config in ~/.rho/
rho sync                 # Sync config to pi settings.json
rho doctor               # Check system health and config validity
rho login                # Authenticate with pi providers
rho start                # Start in background
rho stop                 # Stop
rho status               # Show daemon and module status
rho trigger              # Force an immediate heartbeat check-in
rho config               # Show current configuration
rho logs                 # Show recent heartbeat output
rho upgrade              # Update Rho and sync new modules
rho skills <args>        # Unified skills CRUD (default provider: vercel)

Inside a session:

/rho status              Show heartbeat state
/rho now                 Trigger check-in immediately
/rho interval 30m        Set check-in interval
/rho enable/disable      Toggle heartbeat
/bootstrap status        Show bootstrap state + managed count + agentic phase
/bootstrap run           Activate agentic bootstrap conversation
/bootstrap diff          Show agentic bootstrap mode/phase/injection state
/bootstrap reapply       Restart agentic bootstrap from identity discovery
/bootstrap upgrade       Alias for reapply (agentic restart)
/bootstrap reset --confirm RESET_BOOTSTRAP
                         Reset bootstrap state safely
/bootstrap audit         Show recent bootstrap lifecycle events
/subagents               Check spawned subagent status
/vault inbox             View captured items
/brain                   Interact with memory
/skill run pdd           Run the Prompt-Driven Development workflow
/skill run code-assist   Run the code implementation workflow

What it does

The heartbeat checks in periodically (default: every 30 min). Each check-in reads reminders and tasks from the brain, runs what needs running, and reports back.

The brain persists across sessions as a single brain.jsonl file. It stores behaviors, identity, learnings, preferences, tasks, reminders, and context — everything the agent needs to remember.

Agent email gives your agent a real email address at name@rhobot.dev. People and services can email your agent directly. The agent polls its inbox, reads messages, and can reply. Free tier gets receive + 1 outbound email per hour. Register with:

Ask your agent: "Set up my agent email at <name>@rhobot.dev"

Or use the /email command once registered:

/email check        Poll inbox for new mail
/email list         Show unread messages
/email send <to> <subject>   Send a quick email

Telegram channel adapter lets the agent receive prompts from Telegram and reply in-thread.

Quick setup:

# 1) Set bot token in your shell profile
export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN="<bot-token>"

# 2) Enable in ~/.rho/init.toml
# [settings.telegram]
# enabled = true

rho sync
rho telegram onboard
rho telegram start

Operator controls:

/telegram status
/telegram check
/telegram allow-chat <chat_id>
/telegram allow-user <user_id>

Common Telegram shortcuts:

/status    -> /telegram status
/check     -> /telegram check
/telegram  -> /telegram status

Approval flow for blocked senders:

rho telegram pending
rho telegram approve --pin 123456
rho telegram reject --pin 123456

Security model (MVP):

• Polling-only transport (getUpdates) with durable offset state
• Optional allowed_chat_ids / allowed_user_ids gates
• Group activation gate via require_mention_in_groups
• Bounded retries for transient send failures and 429 rate-limits

Rollout notes:

• MVP is polling-first; webhook mode is reserved for future work
• Keep allowlists tight before exposing in group chats
• If the module is disabled (settings.telegram.enabled = false), it is idle/no-op

Troubleshooting:

• Missing token env: export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN (or your configured bot_token_env)
• No group replies: mention the bot (or set require_mention_in_groups = false)
• Delivery delays: check /telegram status for retry/failure counters
• Long prompts: foreground soft-timeout (rpc_prompt_timeout_seconds) now forks work into durable /jobs tasks; use /jobs, /job <id>, /cancel <id> to manage long-running work

See full setup and smoke validation guide: docs/telegram.md.

Skills are capability packages the agent loads on demand. The installer detects your OS and installs the right ones. Notifications, clipboard, and text-to-speech work on every platform. Android gets SMS, speech-to-text, camera, GPS, and Tasker automation on top of that.

Skills

Skill	Android	macOS	Linux	Description
notification	✓	✓	✓	System notifications
clipboard	✓	✓	✓	Clipboard read/write
tts	✓	✓	✓	Text-to-speech
open-url	✓	✓	✓	Open URLs and apps
sms	✓			Read and send SMS
stt	✓			Speech-to-text
media	✓			Audio, camera, recording
location	✓			GPS/network location
contacts	✓			Contact lookup
device	✓			Battery, torch, vibration
dialog	✓			Interactive input dialogs
tasker-xml	✓			Create Tasker automations
rho-cloud-onboard	✓	✓	✓	Register an agent email address
rho-cloud-email	✓	✓	✓	Manage agent email address
memory-consolidate	✓	✓	✓	Consolidate memory, decay stale entries, and mine sessions since last consolidation
update-pi	✓	✓	✓	Update pi to latest version

Extensions

Extension	Platforms	Description
rho/	All	Heartbeat, memory, tasks, vault tooling, plus workflow aliases (/plan, /code)
brave-search/	All	Web search via Brave API
x-search/	All	X (Twitter) search via xAI Grok (x_search)
telegram/	All	Telegram adapter (polling MVP, chat/session bridge, operator controls)
email/	All	Agent inbox at name@rhobot.dev
vault-search/	All	Full-text search over the vault (FTS + ripgrep fallback)
memory-viewer/	All	Browse and search memories
usage-bars/	All	Token/cost usage display
tasker.ts	Android	UI automation via Tasker

Skills vs extensions

Skills are markdown files. The agent reads them and follows the instructions using its built-in tools (bash, read, write, edit). No code runs. Think of them as runbooks. They're compatible with Claude Code and Codex too, since they follow the Agent Skills spec.

SOPs are a skill subtype (kind: sop in frontmatter). Run them with /skill run <name> — there is no separate legacy sop command surface.

Extensions are TypeScript that runs inside pi's process. They register new tools the LLM can call, hook into lifecycle events, persist state, add commands, and build custom UI. The heartbeat, the brain, and the vault are all extensions.

If the agent can already do it and just needs to know how, write a skill. If you need code running to make it possible, write an extension.

External skills providers

Rho ships a unified rho skills wrapper with provider routing.

Canonical commands:

• install
• list
• show
• update
• remove
• search

Default provider is vercel:

rho skills install vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill web-design-guidelines

This uses npx skills with Pi defaults (--agent pi --global) so skills are available under:

• ~/.pi/agent/skills/ (Pi-visible links)
• ~/.agents/skills/ (canonical store)

Use clawhub when you want registry-based installs like sonoscli:

rho skills --provider clawhub search sonos
rho skills --provider clawhub inspect sonoscli --versions
rho skills --provider clawhub install sonoscli

ClawHub installs directly under:

• ~/.pi/agent/skills/<slug>
• lockfile: ~/.pi/agent/.clawhub/lock.json

Web UI

A browser-based interface for chatting, browsing memory, managing tasks, and editing config. Useful for phones, tablets, or any device on your network.

rho web                  # Start on default port (3141)
rho web --port 4000      # Custom port
rho web --open           # Start and open browser

Then visit http://localhost:3141 (or your machine's IP for remote access — the server binds 0.0.0.0 by default).

Views

View	Description
Chat	Browse sessions, fork from any message, start new conversations. Model and thinking level selectable per session.
Memory	Filter, search, create, edit, and delete brain entries (learnings, preferences, behaviors, etc.)
Tasks	View and manage tasks from brain.jsonl
Config	Edit ~/.rho/init.toml directly in the browser

The Chat view connects to pi over RPC and WebSocket — responses stream in real-time. Forking creates a branch from any user message in a session's history.

Code Review

Extensions can open files for line-level review in the browser. The review UI supports multi-line selection, inline commenting, and submitting or cancelling. Access active reviews at /review.

Configuration

Add to ~/.rho/init.toml to configure the web server:

[settings.web]
port = 3141       # Server port (default: 3141)
enabled = false   # Auto-start with `rho start`

Customize

Brain

Everything lives in ~/.rho/brain/brain.jsonl — a single append-only log of structured entries:

Type	Stores
behavior	How the agent acts (do, don't, value)
identity	Who the agent is
user	Facts about the user
preference	User likes/dislikes by category
learning	Things discovered in sessions
context	Project-specific settings
task	Checklist items
reminder	Time-based triggers

Modify via the brain tool:

/brain                           # Open memory viewer
brain action=add type=behavior category=do text="..."
brain action=add type=reminder text="Check weather" cadence={kind:"daily",at:"08:00"}
brain action=add type=task text="Review PRs" priority=high

Or edit directly (the file is plain JSONL, one entry per line).

Auto-extraction

The memory-consolidate skill runs to:

• Decay stale learnings (>90 days, low score)
• Consolidate duplicates and merge related entries
• Mine sessions since the last consolidation checkpoint
• Relocate reference-heavy entries to the vault for ad-hoc search

Run manually:

Run memory-consolidate with session mining

Vault

For reference material that needs structure (architecture docs, research, project overviews), use the vault:

vault write slug=my-project-arch type=concept

Creates markdown notes with wikilinks in ~/.rho/vault/.

Tasker setup (Android, optional)

For UI automation (reading screens, tapping elements, controlling apps):

1. Install Tasker and AutoInput
2. In Tasker: long-press home icon > Import Project > select tasker/Rho.prj.xml
3. Enable the imported profiles

Optional (screenshot without permission dialog):

# Enable wireless ADB in Developer Options, then:
adb pair <ip>:<port> <pairing-code>
adb connect <ip>:<port>
adb shell appops set net.dinglisch.android.taskerm PROJECT_MEDIA allow

Project structure

rho/
├── cli/                     # Node.js CLI (rho init/sync/doctor/upgrade/...)
│   ├── index.ts
│   ├── config.ts
│   ├── registry.ts
│   ├── sync-core.ts
│   ├── doctor-core.ts
│   ├── daemon-core.ts
│   └── commands/
├── templates/               # Default ~/.rho/*.toml templates
│   ├── init.toml
│   └── packages.toml
├── extensions/              # Core pi extensions (loaded via pi package entry)
│   ├── brave-search/
│   ├── email/
│   ├── memory-viewer/
│   ├── rho/
│   ├── usage-bars/
│   ├── vault-search/
│   └── lib/                  # shared modules (NOT an extension)
│       └── mod.ts            # barrel exports (do not name this index.ts)
├── skills/                  # Core skills (loaded via pi package entry)
│   ├── memory-consolidate/
│   ├── pdd/
│   ├── code-assist/
│   ├── small-improvement/
│   ├── vault-clean/
│   ├── rho-cloud-email/
│   ├── rho-cloud-onboard/
│   ├── session-search/
│   └── update-pi/
├── platforms/               # Platform-only local skills/extensions installed by install.sh
│   ├── android/
│   │   ├── extensions/      # tasker.ts
│   │   ├── skills/          # notification, clipboard, sms, stt, tts, ...
│   │   └── scripts/bin/     # stt, stt-send
│   ├── macos/
│   │   ├── skills/          # notification, clipboard, open-url, tts
│   │   └── setup.sh
│   └── linux/
│       ├── skills/          # notification, clipboard, open-url, tts
│       └── setup.sh
├── web/                     # Web UI server and frontend
│   ├── server.ts            # Hono server (REST + WebSocket + RPC bridge)
│   ├── rpc-manager.ts       # pi RPC process manager
│   ├── config.ts            # Web config helpers
│   └── public/              # Static assets (HTML, CSS, JS)
├── configs/                 # Configuration files
│   └── tmux-rho.conf        # SSH-friendly tmux config (used by rho's tmux socket)
├── brain/                   # Default brain.jsonl with core behaviors
├── tasker/                  # Importable Tasker profiles (Android)
├── SKILL.md                 # Portable install skill (works with any agent)
├── bootstrap.sh             # Universal installer (curl | bash)
└── install.sh               # Cross-platform installer (platform extras + rho init/sync)

Configuration

Doom-style config lives in:

• ~/.rho/init.toml (modules + settings)
• ~/.rho/packages.toml (third-party pi packages)

install.sh installs the rho command on your PATH (typically $PREFIX/bin on Termux or ~/.local/bin on macOS/Linux).

After editing either file, run:

rho sync

Adding a platform

1. Create platforms/<name>/skills/ with SKILL.md files for the platform
2. Optionally add platforms/<name>/extensions/ for platform-specific extensions
3. Optionally add platforms/<name>/setup.sh to check/install dependencies
4. Add a detection case in install.sh (detect_platform function)
5. Submit a PR

Environment variables

BRAVE_API_KEY="..."     # For web search (optional)

Links

• Brain bootstrapping guide
• Skills providers (vercel + clawhub)
• Demo walkthrough
• iPhone/iPad setup
• VPS setup guide
• pi coding agent
• @tau_rho_ai, Tau, an agent running on rho