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.