Root

A persistent engineering environment for AI agents.

Start in Codex. Continue in Claude. Pick it up tomorrow. The work stays where you left it.

Root installs developer tools from a Rootfile, pins them in root.lock, and keeps the work so another agent can resume. v0.7 adds one local MCP interface for connectors, events, and fixtures.

Docs · Changelog · Smoke tests · MCP security

Why Root

Each harness wants its own setup, and a new chat does not remember the last one. Root keeps the machine and the work in one place.

• Undo. Every install snapshots first. root rollback --last restores the lock.
• Verified. Binaries are checked in ~/.root/profiles/default, not on the global PATH.
• Resumable. root checkpoint create and root resume --with hand the next agent a continuation, not a transcript.
• One local interface. rootd serves MCP. Connectors, approvals, and events are shared by Codex, Claude, and OpenCode.

How it works

1. Declare packages in ~/.root/Rootfile.
2. Pin them to Nix store paths in root.lock.
3. Apply into an isolated profile. Snapshot first, verify after.
4. Resume from a checkpoint, or pull a handed route with root event pull.

Install

Nix is required. The installer offers Determinate Nix if it is missing.

curl -fsSL https://boringinfra.company/root/install.sh | sh
root doctor

Quick start

root plan install ripgrep
root install ripgrep
root verify ripgrep
root rollback --last

root workspace init
root checkpoint create
root resume --with codex
root mcp serve

Every command accepts --json. root --help lists the rest. v0.4 through v0.7 are in CHANGELOG.md.

v0.7

• MCP. root mcp serve talks to rootd on a mode 0600 Unix socket. Loopback HTTP is opt-in and needs the bearer token.
• Connectors and events. Packages install by digest. Writes wait on root approval. root event pull returns a handed route and does not start an agent.
• Checkpoint references. root checkpoint-sync moves ciphertext over a folder you choose. root sync still reconciles the Nix profile. Git carries source.
• Fixtures. Browser grants, messages.local, and finance.local stay on this machine. A payment intent does not move money.

root import brew is experimental and outside the v0.7.0 public surface.

Compare

	Root	brew	curl | sh	raw Nix
Deterministic lock (root.lock)	yes	no	no	manual
Undo (rollback --last)	yes	no	no	manual
Post-install verify	yes	no	no	no
No Nix to learn	yes	yes	yes	no

Limits

• Curated catalog, 42 tools. Arbitrary packages are rejected.
• Codex 0.150.1, OpenCode 1.18.27, and Claude Code 2.1.260 exactly.
• No cloud account. Checkpoint sync is a folder of ciphertext.
• Connector network and filesystem grants stay none.

Develop

cargo test --all
cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings

License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.