I'm here for the terminal CLI
Slash commands, plan mode, sub-agents, memory, replay, non-interactive entry points — everything terminal-side, in 12 chapters.
CLI reference →
A 3-line Python import, or stdio JSON-RPC for any language. Tools, permissions, memory, multi-tenant — included.
Agentao is an embeddable Python agent runtime — from agentao import Agentao and you have a stateful, tool-using assistant inside your app. Same runtime also speaks the ACP stdio protocol so non-Python hosts (IDE plugins, Node, Go, Rust) can drive it without re-implementing anything.
What's in the box: built-in tools (files / shell / web / search), MCP client, permission engine, multi-tenant working directories, conversation compression, SQLite-backed memory, runtime LLM swap.
| If you're… | Read in order |
|---|---|
| Just exploring | 1.4 Hello → 1.2 Core Concepts |
| A Python backend engineer shipping a feature | 1.4 → Part 2 → 5.1 Custom Tools → Part 6 |
| Building an IDE / editor plugin | 1.3 Modes → Part 3 · ACP → Part 4 · Events |
| Building platform extensions / audit automation | Part 5 · Extend Agent Behavior → 5.7 Plugin Hooks → 4.7 Harness Contract |
| You already know the product shape | Part 7 · Blueprints → matching blueprint → linked reference chapters |
| DevOps / SRE | 1.5 Requirements → Part 6 |
| Security reviewer | Part 6 · Defense → 5.4 Permission Engine → 6.5 Secrets & Injection |
Prefer Chinese? → 简体中文版本
Assumes basic familiarity with LLMs and function/tool calling. JSON-RPC is only needed for the ACP path.