Devage

Autonomous coding agents on Windows (.NET 8). Phase 1 foundation plus Phase 2 multi-agent Master approval and Windows Service autostart.

Prerequisites

• .NET 8 SDK (or a newer SDK that can target net8.0)
• Docker Desktop (for local PostgreSQL)
• An OpenAI API key (for plan generation / decision classification)
• Administrator shell (only if installing the Windows Service)

Quick start

1. PostgreSQL

cd C:\devage
docker compose up -d

Default connection (override with DEVAGE_CONNECTION_STRING):

Host=localhost;Port=5432;Database=devage;Username=devage;Password=devage

2. OpenAI

$env:DEVAGE_OPENAI_API_KEY = "sk-..."

Optional: set OpenAI:ApiKey / OpenAI:Model in src/Devage.Host/appsettings.json.

3. Build

dotnet build C:\devage\Devage.sln

EF Core migrations apply automatically when the Host starts.

4. Start Host + use CLI

dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- host start
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -born
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -start <name>
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -list
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -status <name>
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -logs <name>
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -stop <name>
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -kill <name>
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- host stop

Or run the Host directly:

dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Host

Control API default: http://127.0.0.1:5088 (override with Host:Url or DEVAGE_HOST_URL for the CLI).

Interactive -born

Creates an agent in Born status and interactively asks:

1. Role (Agent | Master)
2. Optional Master (id/name) for subordinate Agents
3. Which tools to enable (from Host registry, including bundled web)
4. Per-tool configuration fields

Phase 2 — Master approve / multi-agent

Agents without a Master stay autonomous: they only ask the user for Important/Critical steps.

Agents with MasterId create a plan, notify the Master, and wait until the Master Approves, Rejects, or Modifies the plan.

# 1) Create a Master
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -born --name boss --role Master

# 2) Create a subordinate Agent (or assign later)
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -born --name worker --role Agent --master boss
# or:
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -assign-master worker boss
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -assign-master worker none   # detach → autonomous again

# 3) Start subordinate — it waits for Master plan review
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -start worker

# 4) Master reviews pending plans from all subordinates
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -pending-plans boss
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -subordinates boss
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -approve-plan <planId> --comment "LGTM"
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -reject-plan <planId> --comment "Too risky"
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- -modify-plan <planId> --steps-json .\modified-steps.json --title "Revised" --comment "Drop step 2"

--steps-json is a JSON array:

[
  {
    "title": "Research",
    "description": "Fetch docs",
    "toolName": "web",
    "toolInputJson": "{\"url\":\"https://learn.microsoft.com\"}",
    "decisionClass": "Routine",
    "justification": "Read-only"
  }
]

API surface (additive):

Method	Path	Purpose
POST	/api/agents/{id}/master	Assign / clear Master
GET	/api/masters/{id}/agents	List subordinates
GET	/api/masters/{id}/pending-plans	Pending plans for one Master
GET	/api/plans/pending?master=	Pending plans (optional filter)
POST	/api/plans/{planId}/master-decision	Approve / Reject / Modify

Phase 2 — Windows Service autostart

So Running agents resume after reboot, install Devage.Host as a Windows Service (elevated shell):

# Requires Administrator
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- host install-service
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- host service-status
dotnet run --project C:\devage\src\Devage.Cli -- host uninstall-service

install-service publishes the Host to %LOCALAPPDATA%\devage\service\, creates service DevageHost (start= auto), and starts it. Set DEVAGE_CONNECTION_STRING and DEVAGE_OPENAI_API_KEY as machine (or service-account) environment variables so the service can reach Postgres and OpenAI after reboot.

For day-to-day development you can still use devage host start (foreground/background process via CLI) without the service.

Runtime behavior

• Plan-first: on -start, Host builds a plan (LLM with fallback), then executes steps
• Master gate: if MasterId is set, plan stays Pending until Master Approve/Reject/Modify
• Decision class: Routine | Important | Critical — Important/Critical require user confirmation (even under a Master, after plan approval)
• Sandbox: file writes stay under each agent's WorkspaceRoot
• Checkpoint / resume: Host boot reloads agents with status Running
• Triple logging: console + data/agent-*.log + PostgreSQL action_logs
• Plugins: drop tool DLLs into plugins/; AssemblyLoadContext + FileSystemWatcher hot-load them

Solution layout

src/Devage.Cli
src/Devage.Host
src/Devage.Core
src/Devage.Llm
src/Devage.Persistence
src/Devage.Tools.Abstractions
src/Devage.Tools.Web
plugins/
data/
docker-compose.yml

Environment variables

Variable	Used by	Purpose
DEVAGE_CONNECTION_STRING	Host	PostgreSQL connection
DEVAGE_OPENAI_API_KEY	Host	OpenAI API key
DEVAGE_HOST_URL	CLI	Control API base URL

Roadmap

• Phase 2 — Master role approve/reject, multi-agent coordination, Windows Service autostart ✅
• Phase 3 — Email / Teams tools (Microsoft Graph)
• Phase 4 — Live dashboard + hardening

License

See LICENSE.