Agents

The catalog

Every runtime is one entry in packages/hive-agents — identity, icon, screen status detector, and a typed capability set — read by the desktop UI, the hive CLI, and the control plane (docs/design/agent-providers.md). A runtime’s limits are declared, so unsupported requests are refused up front with an exit code instead of timing out.

Spawnable runtimes

	Prompt delivery	Turn signal	Resume	Supervision	Model / modes
claude	argv	yes	own session id	brokered to supervisor	yes / yes
codex	typed	no	newest for cwd	stays with human	no / no
opencode	typed	no	none	stays with human	no / no
droid	typed	yes	newest for cwd	stays with human	no / no
pi	argv	yes	newest for cwd	none (no permission system)	no / no
kiro	typed	yes	own session id	brokered to supervisor	no / no

• argv runtimes get the task as a trailing argument; typed runtimes get it keyed into their TUI once the screen reads idle, so delivery depends on idle detection.
• Turn signal is required to be an HCP worker: hive ctl read and hive ctl workflow gather replies only from these runtimes. Others are driven by hand.
• Resume applies after a daemon restart or reboot.
• Supervision: only claude and kiro support permission brokering; pi is refused at spawn; codex/droid/opencode accept a supervise request but prompts stay with the human.

codex spawns with --sandbox workspace-write --ask-for-approval on-request.

Recognised for status only

gemini, cursor, antigravity, cline, copilot, kimi, amp, grok, hermes, openclaw — hivemind scrapes their screen for status when you run them yourself; they are not offered for spawning.

cursor is recognised by its agent binary, cursor-agent — a bare cursor is the Cursor editor, not the agent. A cursor tile you start yourself resumes its last chat for that folder after a restart.

Add your own, or turn one off

Any agent can be switched off in Settings ▸ Agents, including these built-in ones. To add an agent that is not listed here, describe it in one file — see Add your own agent.

Live status

Tiles show working, idle, or blocked (needs you), detected from the rendered screen; claude alone distinguishes permission prompts from questions. Status feeds the frame header, Layers rail, and view tiles. Probe your machine with:

hive agent detect   # probes PATH for catalogued CLIs, records in config.yaml

Assignees

Issues can be assigned to an agent:

hive update MYP-1 --assignee claude --assignee-type agent
hive new "…" --assignee pi

.hivemind/.agent.md is regenerated on writes so a new agent session can read one file for board state. HIVE_AGENT_ID signs hive ctl activity rows inside spawned tiles.

Refusal behaviour

hive ctl spawn --agent <id> validates against the spawnable list (unknown → exit 2 with the valid ids). Worker operations without a turn signal exit 7 UNSUPPORTED before spawning, listing capable runtimes. --model and --mode apply only where the provider declares them.