autonomous-starter: An ElizaOS Autonomous Agent Example

Introduction

"autonomous-starter" is an example project for the ElizaOS ecosystem, designed to demonstrate and facilitate the development of autonomous agents. It showcases core capabilities essential for autonomy, including robust shell command execution via plugin-shell and a foundational autonomous loop service provided by plugin-auto. This starter kit serves as a launchpad for building sophisticated agents capable of independent operation, decision-making, and interaction with their environment.

Core Functionality: Autonomous Operation & Shell Access

• The agent can execute shell commands through plugin-shell, enabling direct interaction with the underlying operating system in a controlled manner.
• The agent can operate autonomously using plugin-auto, which facilitates a loop for goal-oriented behavior, reflection, and decision-making.
• These plugins interact: the autonomous loop might decide to execute specific shell commands to gather information, perform actions, or manage system resources as part of achieving its goals.
• All significant outcomes, including shell command results and errors, are saved as message memories, providing a traceable log of operations (as seen in plugin-shell/action.ts).

Safety & Debugging Features

Kill Command for Debugging

A shell action KILL_AUTONOMOUS allows you to stop the autonomous loop at any time:

• Command: "kill autonomous loop", "stop autonomous mode", "halt autonomous"
• Action: KILL_AUTONOMOUS
• Purpose: Immediately stops the autonomous service for debugging

Example usage:

User: "kill the autonomous loop"
Agent: "Autonomous loop has been killed. The agent will no longer run autonomously until restarted."

Loop Interval Control

Control how frequently the autonomous loop runs:

• Default interval: 1000ms (1 second)
• Environment variable: AUTONOMOUS_LOOP_INTERVAL (in milliseconds)
• Runtime setting: AUTONOMOUS_LOOP_INTERVAL (in milliseconds)

Example:

# Set 5-second intervals for slower, more deliberate operation
export AUTONOMOUS_LOOP_INTERVAL=5000
npm start

Key Plugins & Services

• plugin-shell (packages/auto/src/plugin-shell):
  • Provides actions like RUN_SHELL_COMMAND to execute arbitrary shell commands.
  • Manages the current working directory (CWD) for the session.
  • Includes CLEAR_SHELL_HISTORY for managing command history within a session.
  • Extracts commands from natural language and logs execution details (output, error, exit code) to the message feed.
• plugin-auto (packages/auto/src/plugin-auto):
  • Facilitates the agent's autonomous operation.
  • Includes actions like REFLECT (plugin-auto/reflect.ts), allowing the agent to process its current state, thoughts, and formulate responses or subsequent actions.
  • Designed to be extensible with more sophisticated goal management and planning capabilities.