Deepagents Cli

Deep Agents CLI

Terminal coding agent with persistent memory, skills, sandboxed execution, and 20+ LLM providers. Built on LangGraph. See the official overview and CLI guide.

> Routing: This file covers quick start, core concepts, and common workflows. For deeper details, read the appropriate reference file: CLI flags and shortcuts → references/cli-reference.md | Models and providers → references/providers.md | Skills → references/skills-system.md | Memory → references/memory-and-persistence.md | Sandboxes → references/sandboxes.md | SDK/programmatic usage → references/sdk-customization.md | Automation/CI → references/workflows.md | Streaming → references/streaming.md | Editor integrations → references/acp.md

> Note: All official documentation content is included in the local reference files. Only fetch external URLs if the local content appears inaccurate or incomplete.

Quick Start

# Interactive session (default agent, default model)
deepagents

# Interactive with specific agent and model
deepagents -a myagent -M anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-5

# Non-interactive one-shot task
deepagents -n "Summarize README.md"

# Non-interactive with shell access
deepagents -n "List Python files and count lines" --shell-allow-list ls,wc,find

# Resume last session
deepagents -r

Core Concepts

Agents = Isolated Personas

Each agent has its own memory, skills, and AGENTS.md context file (default agent shown; use -a for named agents):

~/.deepagents/default/
├── AGENTS.md          # Always-loaded context (preferences, conventions)
├── memories/          # Auto-saved topic memories
└── skills/            # User-level skills

deepagents -a researcher      # Use "researcher" agent
deepagents -a coder           # Use "coder" agent
deepagents list               # List all agents
deepagents reset --agent NAME # Clear agent memory

Memory vs Skills

| Aspect | Memory (AGENTS.md + memories/) | Skills (SKILL.md) | |--------|-------------------------------|-------------------| | Loading | Always injected at startup | On-demand via progressive disclosure | | Purpose | Preferences, conventions | Task-specific workflows | | Use when | Context is always relevant | Instructions are large or situational |

See [Memory & Persistence](references/memory-and-persistence.md) and [Skills System](references/skills-system.md) for details on each system.

Two Operating Modes

| Mode | Command | Use Case | |------|---------|----------| | Interactive | deepagents | Exploration, conversation, complex tasks | | Non-interactive | deepagents -n "task" | Automation, scripting, CI/CD |

Interactive Mode

Launch the REPL with deepagents. Key controls (see [CLI Reference](references/cli-reference.md) for the complete list):

| Action | Key/Command | |--------|-------------| | Submit | Enter | | Newline | Shift+Enter, Ctrl+J, Alt+Enter, or Ctrl+Enter | | Expand/collapse tool output | Ctrl+E | | Toggle auto-approve | Shift+Tab or Ctrl+T | | Select all text | Ctrl+A | | File autocomplete | @filename | | Run shell command | !git status | | Interrupt | Escape or Ctrl+C | | Exit | Ctrl+D or /quit |

Slash Commands

/model               # Interactive model selector
/model provider:name # Switch to specific model
/remember [context]  # Update memory and skills from conversation
/tokens              # Show token usage
/clear               # Clear conversation history and start new thread
/threads             # Browse and resume previous threads
/trace               # Open current thread in LangSmith
/changelog           # Open CLI changelog in browser
/docs                # Open documentation in browser
/feedback            # File bug report or feature request
/version             # Show version
/quit                # Exit CLI (alias: /q)
/help                # Show all commands

Non-Interactive Mode

For automation and scripting — runs a single task and exits (see [Workflows & Patterns](references/workflows.md) for CI/CD recipes):

# Basic task
deepagents -n "Analyze this codebase for security issues"

# With shell access (default: no shell in non-interactive)
deepagents -n "Run tests and report failures" --shell-allow-list recommended
deepagents -n "Search logs for errors" --shell-allow-list ls,cat,grep

# Auto-approve all tool calls
deepagents --auto-approve -n "Generate docs for all modules"

# Specific model
deepagents -M ollama:qwen3:8b -n "Explain this code"

Shell access in non-interactive mode is disabled by default. Use --shell-allow-list:

• recommended — safe defaults
• ls,cat,grep,... — explicit comma-separated list

Piping and stdin

The CLI accepts piped input via stdin. When input is piped, the CLI automatically runs non-interactively:

# Pipe content for analysis
echo "Explain this code" | deepagents
cat error.log | deepagents -n "What's causing this error?"
git diff | deepagents -n "Review these changes"

# Clean output for piping to other commands
deepagents -n "Generate a .gitignore for Python" -q > .gitignore
deepagents -n "List dependencies" -q --no-stream | sort

When piped input is combined with -n or -m, the piped content is prepended to the flag's value. The maximum piped input size is 10 MiB.

Model Selection

See [Providers & Models](references/providers.md) for all 20+ supported providers, API key setup, and config.toml format. See also the official providers guide.

At Launch

deepagents -M anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-5
deepagents -M openai:gpt-4o
deepagents -M ollama:qwen3:8b

During Session

/model                          # Interactive picker
/model anthropic:claude-opus-4-6  # Direct switch

Default Model

deepagents --default-model anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-5  # Set default
deepagents --default-model                               # Show current
deepagents --clear-default-model                         # Clear default

Resolution Order

1. -M flag (always wins)
2. [models].default in ~/.deepagents/config.toml
3. [models].recent (last /model switch, auto-saved)
4. First available API key: OPENAI_API_KEY → ANTHROPIC_API_KEY → GOOGLE_API_KEY → GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT

Skills Management

See [Skills System](references/skills-system.md) for the full SKILL.md format and progressive disclosure. See also the official skills docs.

deepagents skills create my-skill             # Create user skill
deepagents skills create my-skill --project   # Create project skill
deepagents skills list                        # List user skills
deepagents skills list --project              # List project skills
deepagents skills info my-skill               # Show skill details
deepagents skills delete my-skill             # Delete user skill
deepagents skills delete my-skill --project   # Delete project skill

User skills: ~/.deepagents//skills/ Project skills: /.deepagents/skills/ (requires .git in project root)

Project skills override user skills with the same name.

Sandbox Execution

Run agent code in isolated environments (see [Sandboxes](references/sandboxes.md) for setup guides and official sandbox docs):

deepagents --sandbox modal --sandbox-setup ./setup.sh
deepagents --sandbox runloop
deepagents --sandbox daytona
deepagents --sandbox langsmith
deepagents --sandbox-id EXISTING_ID    # Reuse sandbox

Sandbox providers: Modal (ML/GPU), Runloop (disposable devboxes), Daytona (fast cold starts), LangSmith (cloud deployment).

Built-in Tools

| Tool | Description | Approval Required | |------|-------------|:-:| | ls | List files/directories | — | | read_file | Read file contents; supports images (.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp) | — | | write_file | Create/overwrite files | ✓ | | edit_file | Targeted string replacements | ✓ | | glob | Find files by pattern | — | | grep | Search file contents | — | | shell | Execute shell commands (local) | ✓ | | execute | Execute in sandbox | ✓ | | web_search | Search web (Tavily) | ✓ | | fetch_url | Fetch web pages as markdown | ✓ | | task | Delegate to [subagents](references/sdk-customization.md#subagents) | ✓ | | write_todos | Task planning/tracking | — |

Use --auto-approve or Shift+Tab in REPL to bypass approval prompts.

Common Workflows

Code Analysis (Safe, Read-Only)

deepagents -n "Analyze src/ for code quality issues"

Code Generation with File Writing

deepagents --auto-approve -n "Generate unit tests for src/auth.py"

Research with Memory Persistence

deepagents -a researcher -m "Research best practices for Python async"
# Agent saves findings to memories/ automatically
# Next session:
deepagents -a researcher -m "What did we learn about async?"

Project-Scoped Agent

cd my-project
# Create .deepagents/AGENTS.md with project conventions
mkdir -p .deepagents
echo "# Project uses FastAPI, PostgreSQL, pytest" > .deepagents/AGENTS.md
deepagents -m "Help me add a new API endpoint"

Configuration

Global config: ~/.deepagents/config.toml (see [Providers & Models](references/providers.md) for the full config.toml schema)

[models]
default = "anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-5"

[models.providers.ollama]
base_url = "http://localhost:11434"
models = ["qwen3:8b", "llama3"]

[models.providers.ollama.params]
temperature = 0
num_ctx = 8192

References

For detailed documentation:

• [CLI Reference](references/cli-reference.md) — Complete flags, commands, slash commands, keyboard shortcuts
• [Providers & Models](references/providers.md) — All 20+ providers, config.toml format, model switching
• [Skills System](references/skills-system.md) — Creating skills, progressive disclosure, SKILL.md format
• [Memory & Persistence](references/memory-and-persistence.md) — Auto-memory, AGENTS.md, SDK long-term memory
• [Sandboxes](references/sandboxes.md) — Modal/Runloop/Daytona setup, security considerations
• [SDK Customization](references/sdk-customization.md) — createdeepagent(), middleware, subagents, backends
• [Workflows & Patterns](references/workflows.md) — Automation, CI/CD, subagent patterns, troubleshooting
• [Streaming](references/streaming.md) — Streaming modes, subgraph streaming, frontend integration
• [Agent Client Protocol](references/acp.md) — ACP server, editor integrations (Zed, VSCode, JetBrains, Neovim)

Tips

• @filename in REPL auto-completes and injects file contents into your prompt
• !command runs shell commands directly without agent interpretation
• /remember [context] explicitly triggers memory/skill updates — pass optional context to guide the update
• -n mode has no shell by default — add --shell-allow-list recommended for safe commands
• Local models (Ollama) work for simple tasks but may struggle with complex tool-calling — use Anthropic/OpenAI for multi-step work
• Reset an agent with deepagents reset --agent NAME if memories accumulate irrelevant info

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Gitmaxd
• Source: Gitmaxd/deepagents-cli-droid-skill
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.