Contributing to Omnigent

Thanks for your interest in improving Omnigent. Issues and pull requests are welcome. For larger changes, open an issue first so we can discuss the approach.

Please don't include secrets, internal URLs, customer data, or private configuration in issues, tests, examples, or logs.

Development setup

This is a Python package with an optional frontend under web/. Use uv for local development:

Supported dev OS: macOS or Linux. Native Windows is not supported for development — some test dependencies are POSIX-only (pexpect/pyte are excluded on Windows), a few modules import POSIX stdlib or call os.getuid() at import time, and the pre-commit hooks assume the Unix .venv/bin/ layout, so pytest and pre-commit cannot pass natively. On Windows, use WSL2 (Ubuntu) and clone into the Linux filesystem (~/…, not /mnt/c); this matches CI. Git Bash is not sufficient — it runs native-Windows Python.

Install local prerequisites first:

• uv for Python environments and dependency management.
• tmux, required for native Claude/Codex terminals launched by the local host (brew install tmux on macOS, or apt install tmux on Debian/Ubuntu).
• bubblewrap (bwrap), Linux only, used to OS-sandbox those native Claude/Codex/Pi terminals (apt install bubblewrap on Debian/Ubuntu). macOS uses the built-in seatbelt sandbox and needs nothing extra.
• Node.js 22 LTS or newer with pnpm (install via corepack enable or npm install -g pnpm) when working on web/.
• A Rust toolchain for the recommended omnidev local development supervisor.

git clone https://github.com/omnigent-ai/omnigent.git
cd omnigent

uv python install
uv venv --python "$(cat .python-version)"
uv sync --extra all --extra dev
source .venv/bin/activate    # or prefix commands with `uv run`

Common checks:

uv run pytest                      # Python tests (e2e/live skipped by default)
uv run ruff check . && uv run ruff format --check .
uv run pre-commit run --all-files

When touching web/:

cd web && pnpm install && pnpm run lint && pnpm run build

Running locally

Start with the smallest relevant automated test described in Tests. For full-stack manual testing, use omnidev.

Recommended: worktree-safe testing with omnidev

omnidev runs the current checkout's server, host, and Vite frontend in one terminal. Each checkout path, including each worktree, gets isolated state, configuration, database, artifacts, logs, and automatically allocated ports, so it can run alongside your normal Omnigent installation and other worktrees.

Install the supervisor once from an up-to-date checkout:

cargo install --path dev/omnidev --force

Then run it from anywhere inside the branch checkout or worktree you want to test. A fresh worktree needs its own Python environment first:

cd /path/to/omnigent-worktree
uv sync --extra all --extra dev
omnidev

Open the exact ui URL displayed in the header; do not assume the Vite port is 5173. Python changes under omnigent/ reload the server and host, while frontend changes use Vite HMR.

Run CLI commands against the development pod through the passthrough so they use that checkout and its isolated state instead of a globally installed omnigent:

omnidev omnigent config show
omnidev omnigent agent list

Keep omnidev in the foreground and quit with q or Ctrl-C so it tears down all three processes. An interactive terminal inside an existing Omnigent session also works; use git rev-parse --show-toplevel to confirm that its current checkout is the one you intend to test.

See dev/omnidev/README.md for log controls, clean-state testing, backend-only and LAN modes, and other options.

Manual three-terminal fallback

Use the manual flow when you need to run or debug each component separately. Unlike omnidev, it does not isolate state or allocate ports. These commands assume the default ports are free:

# Terminal 1: local server on :6767
uv run omnigent server

# Terminal 2: register your machine as a host
uv run omnigent host --server http://localhost:6767

# Terminal 3: frontend dev server
cd web
pnpm run dev

Open the Vite URL from the frontend dev server, usually http://localhost:5173/. The host registration is what lets the web UI browse your filesystem and start new sessions on your machine — without it, the web UI is read/continue-only.

omni is an alias for omnigent, so omni host --server ... works too. The host URL can also be passed positionally (omnigent host http://localhost:6767). See the README for more on hosts, harnesses, and credentials.

Disposable backend-only validation

Use this when you want to validate the Python backend and local API server from a source checkout without building the web UI, configuring provider credentials, creating sessions, or running agents -- a quick server/API smoke check on your working copy or current main.

scripts/backend-smoke.sh automates it:

scripts/backend-smoke.sh              # boots on port 18080
PORT=18090 scripts/backend-smoke.sh   # override the port if 18080 is busy

It installs uv into a throwaway toolchain venv, runs uv sync --frozen, starts the server in API-only mode (OMNIGENT_SKIP_WEB_UI=true), waits for /health, and smoke-tests /, /health, /docs, /v1/agents, and /v1/sessions -- expecting HTTP 200 from all five. It exits non-zero if any check fails.

Notes:

• Requires bash or zsh (the script's #!/usr/bin/env bash shebang guarantees this); it is not POSIX-sh portable. Also needs Python 3.12+ as python3, git, curl, and network access to PyPI. No provider credentials are needed. Works on Linux and macOS.
• Fully isolated, disposable: every artifact -- the toolchain and project venvs, config, data, the SQLite database, artifacts, logs, and pip/uv caches -- lives under one mktemp -d runtime directory removed on exit, so the run never touches your real ~/.omnigent, ~/.config / ~/Library, or package caches. HOME is the primary isolation lever (it redirects ~/.config on Linux and ~/Library on macOS); the explicit UV_* / PIP_* / OMNIGENT_* overrides pin the toolchain and app state regardless of OS, and XDG_* are set so an XDG_* already exported in your shell cannot redirect state back to your real home.
• What it does not cover: the web UI, mobile access, human-in-the-loop approval flows, provider-backed sessions, or agent execution. Use the full local development flow above when working on those areas.

Tests

A change that alters behaviour under omnigent/ should ship with a test, and a bug fix should add a test that fails before the fix. Pure refactors, renames, type-only changes, dependency bumps, and edits with no observable behaviour change don't need a new test.

Prefer the smallest test that covers the change. A fast, focused unit test in the area suite is the default and what most changes need. Reach for tests/integration/ only when behaviour genuinely spans components, and for tests/e2e/ only for full-stack flows that a unit test can't capture — these are slower and (for e2e) gateway-bound, so don't use them where a unit test would do.

Put the test in the suite that matches the area you changed — most backend areas mirror their source directory under tests/:

Area changed (omnigent/…)	Test suite (tests/…)
server/	server/
runner/	runner/
runtime/	runtime/
tools/	tools/
inner/	inner/
llms/	llms/
db/	db/ (a schema migration especially warrants one)
policies/	policies/
repl/	repl/
entities/	entities/
stores/	stores/
host/	host/
spec/	spec/

Two cross-cutting suites sit on top of these:

• tests/integration/ — behaviour that spans several components (e.g. server + runtime) and isn't captured by any single area's unit test.
• tests/e2e/ — full-stack flows driven against a live LLM (sessions, the runtime, sub-agent dispatch, client-tool tunneling, transports, native harness bridges, steering/cancellation). These are slow and gateway-bound, so reserve them for genuine end-to-end behaviour — but a PR that adds new user-facing functionality must include at least one e2e happy-path test (see .github/copilot-instructions.md).

Frontend (web/)

Frontend changes follow the same expectation with a different toolchain:

• Add or update a colocated Vitest test — a *.test.ts/*.test.tsx file next to the component or module you changed — and run it with pnpm test.
• A change to user-facing UI behaviour also needs a Playwright test under tests/e2e_ui/. This one is enforced mechanically by the E2E UI Required check, so a UI PR won't merge without a covering test (or a maintainer waiver) — see .github/workflows/e2e-ui-required.yml.
• Styling/formatting-only changes, copy tweaks with no flow change, and refactors with no behaviour change are exempt, same as the backend.

Developer Certificate of Origin

To contribute to this repository, you must sign off your commits to certify that you have the right to contribute the code and that it complies with the open source license. If you can certify the contents of the DCO, add a Signed-off-by line to each commit message:

Signed-off-by: Joe Smith <joe.smith@email.com>

Please use your real name — pseudonymous/anonymous contributions are not accepted. If your user.name and user.email git configs are set, git commit -s adds the sign-off automatically. The DCO check on every pull request enforces this, so unsigned commits will block merging.

Pull requests

• Branch from main, keep changes focused, and include tests or docs when relevant.
• Sign off your commits with git commit -s (see Developer Certificate of Origin above).
• Fill in the PR template. For UI / frontend changes, check the "UI / frontend change" box and attach a video or images in the Demo section showing the new behaviour, so reviewers can see it without checking out the branch.