Agent container kit for the TAU platform. Provides portable, local-first execution environments where agents operate as users of containerized machines — leveraging local compute for tool execution while connecting to model providers and external services as needed.
- OCI-aligned runtime interface with Docker as the first implementation and containerd/Podman as natural extensions
- Dual execution models: toolkit mode (agent on host, container as sandbox) and embedded mode (kernel + agent running inside the container)
- Image capability manifest (
/etc/tau/manifest.json) for declaring available tools, CLIs, packages, and services so agents understand their environment - Tool-wrapped persistent shell and structured file/process tools, all flowing through the standard tool-call paradigm
- Local-first compute — container orchestration, tool execution, and file operations run on local hardware; only model inference and external services incur cost
protocol ─── format ─── agent ─── kernel
│ │
└── container ───────┘
The container package sits between the format and kernel layers. It depends on protocol and format for types and tool definitions. The kernel optionally depends on it for containerized execution. No Go module dependency on agent or kernel.
Under development. See _project/README.md for the full concept, architecture, and phase roadmap.