git.giacomolli.uk - onechat/blob - README.rst

   1 #########
   2  OneChat
   3 #########
   4
   5 OneChat is one AI agent in a single chat that never ends. A daemon owns
   6 the agent and its files, and a terminal client and a Telegram bot talk
   7 to it. It is in early development. Linux is supported.
   8
   9 ****************
  10  Data directory
  11 ****************
  12
  13 OneChat keeps its data and its token file in one directory. It uses the
  14 first of these:
  15
  16 #. ``ONECHAT_DIR``, when it is set.
  17 #. ``$XDG_DATA_HOME/onechat``, when ``XDG_DATA_HOME`` is an absolute
  18    path. A relative value is ignored.
  19 #. ``~/.local/share/onechat``. With no home directory, OneChat exits
  20    with an error.
  21
  22 OneChat creates the directory with mode 0700.
  23
  24 ***************
  25  Configuration
  26 ***************
  27
  28 ``config.json`` in the data directory holds the settings. OneChat does
  29 not create it. A missing file or field takes the default, and an unknown
  30 field is an error.
  31
  32 .. code:: json
  33
  34    {
  35      "endpoint": "chatgpt",
  36      "compactor": {"model": "gpt-6.1-sol", "effort": "high"}
  37    }
  38
  39 ``endpoint``
  40    ``chatgpt`` (the default) sends model calls to the ChatGPT backend
  41    with the subscription login. ``api`` sends them to the OpenAI API
  42    with the key in ``OPENAI_API_KEY``, which must then be set. With
  43    ``chatgpt``, OneChat ignores ``OPENAI_API_KEY``.
  44
  45 ``compactor``
  46    The model and the reasoning effort of the summaries. The defaults are
  47    ``gpt-6.1-sol`` and ``high``.
  48
  49 *******
  50  Login
  51 *******
  52
  53 The ``chatgpt`` endpoint needs a login with a ChatGPT account:
  54
  55 .. code:: console
  56
  57    onechat login
  58
  59 The command shows a link and a code. Open the link on any device, enter
  60 the code, and approve the login. Device code login must be allowed in
  61 the ChatGPT security settings. OneChat writes the tokens to
  62 ``auth.json`` in the data directory, with mode 0600, and refreshes them
  63 before they expire. The file belongs to OneChat only. Do not share it
  64 with the Codex CLI, because each program rotates the refresh token and
  65 logs the other out.
  66
  67 *******
  68  Agent
  69 *******
  70
  71 Start the daemon, and then the client in another terminal:
  72
  73 .. code:: console
  74
  75    onechat daemon
  76    onechat chat
  77
  78 The daemon owns the root agent in ``agent/`` in the data directory and
  79 listens on the Unix socket ``onechat.sock`` there. In the client, each
  80 line is a message to the agent, the line ``/stop`` interrupts the
  81 running turn, the line ``/stop NAME`` stops the subagent NAME, and
  82 Ctrl-D ends the client. The client shows the replies, the tool calls,
  83 and the first lines of each tool result as they happen. It also shows
  84 each message that the user sends from another client, with the client as
  85 a mark, such as ``[telegram] text``. The daemon is the only process that
  86 uses the token file while it runs, so ``onechat login`` and ``onechat
  87 probe`` refuse to start until it stops.
  88
  89 The agent runs commands with bash as the user in its working directory,
  90 with no sandbox. It has the rights of the user, also on the token file.
  91
  92 When the user asks for it, the agent starts subagents for long tasks.
  93 Each subagent has a name, such as ``GreenOtter``, and runs in the
  94 background while the agent answers other messages. It gets the view of
  95 the agent and its task, and it runs its tools as the agent does, in
  96 ``agent/subagents/NAME/work``. A task in a repository gives the path of
  97 the repository. The steps of a subagent go to its own log in
  98 ``agent/subagents/NAME``, not to the chat, and its final reply comes
  99 back to the agent as one message that starts with ``[NAME]``. The agent
 100 can send a subagent more messages: a running subagent reads them between
 101 its tool calls, and a finished one goes on from its log, and its reply
 102 comes back in the same way. When the user stops a subagent, the chat
 103 gets a note, and the report of the subagent is logged, but it starts no
 104 turn. Each model call of a subagent has the name in the ``agent`` field
 105 of ``agent/usage.jsonl``.
 106
 107 ``agent/config.json`` holds the settings of the agent. The first start
 108 writes it with the defaults and a random ID. Do not change the ID: the
 109 prompt cache key comes from it.
 110
 111 .. code:: json
 112
 113    {
 114      "name": "OneChat",
 115      "id": "0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef",
 116      "model": "gpt-6.1-sol",
 117      "effort": "medium",
 118      "workdir": "/home/user"
 119    }
 120
 121 ``workdir`` is an absolute path, and its default is the home directory.
 122 ``agent/instructions.md`` holds the user's instructions: who they are,
 123 how their files are organized, and how they want work done. The prompt
 124 ends with them, and a change applies at the next call.
 125
 126 **********
 127  Telegram
 128 **********
 129
 130 The daemon also connects the agent to a Telegram bot when
 131 ``telegram.json`` exists in the data directory. It polls the Bot API for
 132 new messages, so it needs no open port.
 133
 134 #. Make a bot with BotFather and keep its token.
 135
 136 #. Find your numeric Telegram user ID.
 137
 138 #. Write the token and the ID to ``telegram.json``, and give the file
 139    mode 0600, because the token is a secret. The daemon refuses the file
 140    with any other mode.
 141
 142 #. Start the daemon, open a private chat with the bot, and write.
 143
 144 .. code:: json
 145
 146    {"token": "123456:ABC-token-from-BotFather", "owner": 123456789}
 147
 148 The bot reads only the private chat of the owner and ignores all other
 149 updates. Each text message goes to the agent as a user message, the line
 150 ``/stop`` interrupts the running turn, and the line ``/stop NAME`` stops
 151 the subagent NAME. The bot sends the replies in parts of at most 4096
 152 characters, with their Markdown as Telegram formats: bold, italic,
 153 strikethrough, code, code blocks, links, and headings as bold text. When
 154 Telegram refuses the formats of a part, the bot sends the part again as
 155 plain text. Each error goes as a short message in plain text. It shows
 156 the typing action while a turn runs. It does not send the tool calls. It
 157 sends each message that the user types in the terminal client, with the
 158 mark ``[terminal]``.
 159
 160 ``agent/telegram-offset.json`` holds the ID of the next update. The bot
 161 moves it past an update only after the message is durable in the log, so
 162 a restart of the daemon does not lose a message. A crash just after the
 163 write of a message can make the message repeat once. A network failure
 164 or a rate limit makes the bot wait and try again, and does not stop the
 165 daemon.
 166
 167 *******
 168  Probe
 169 *******
 170
 171 ``onechat probe LOG COUNT [BUILDS]`` measures the compactor on a log. It
 172 appends the first COUNT messages of LOG, one JSON object ``{"kind",
 173 "text"}`` on each line, to a new chat in ``probe/`` in the data
 174 directory, and builds its tree with real model calls. The calls use the
 175 quota of the account. The run stops at the first failed call, after 660
 176 calls, or when the used percent of a quota window grows by more than 15
 177 points. At the end it reports the calls per message, the cached share of
 178 the input tokens, the retries, the line sizes, and the quota at the
 179 first and the last call. BUILDS, from 1 to 8, limits the model calls at
 180 once in the run.
 181
 182 A test writes a generated log of readable made-up messages:
 183
 184 .. code:: console
 185
 186    ONECHAT_PROBE_LOG=probe.jsonl go test -run TestProbeLogHasTheSyntheticMix
 187
 188 *************
 189  Development
 190 *************
 191
 192 Nix supplies the Go toolchain and all tools. Enter the development shell
 193 with direnv:
 194
 195 .. code:: console
 196
 197    direnv allow
 198
 199 Or enter it directly:
 200
 201 .. code:: console
 202
 203    nix develop
 204
 205 The shell sets ``ONECHAT_DIR`` to ``.devenv/onechat`` in the checkout,
 206 unless it is already set. Development data goes there, and Git ignores
 207 ``.devenv``.
 208
 209 Build and run:
 210
 211 .. code:: console
 212
 213    nix build
 214    ./result/bin/onechat
 215
 216 Format and check all files:
 217
 218 .. code:: console
 219
 220    bin/format
 221    bin/check
 222    nix flake check
 223
 224 ``bin/check`` and ``nix build`` run a short replay of the synthetic log.
 225 ``nix flake check`` also runs the full replay of 100,000 messages.