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teamctl

The `.team/` folder

A repo with a teamctl team carries a .team/ directory at its root, the same way a git repo carries .git/. teamctl walks up from the current working directory looking for the nearest .team/team-compose.yaml, so every subcommand “just works” wherever you are inside the tree.

Layout

my-repo/
├── .team/
│   ├── team-compose.yaml      # global: broker, supervisor, hitl, …
│   ├── projects/
│   │   └── <id>.yaml          # one or more
│   ├── roles/
│   │   └── <agent>.md         # role prompts referenced by agents
│   ├── runtimes/              # optional overrides for shipped runtimes
│   ├── .env                   # gitignored — secrets and chat-ids
│   ├── .env.example           # checked-in template
│   ├── .gitignore             # auto-generated
│   └── state/                 # gitignored — mailbox + rendered artifacts
└── … rest of the repo

Discovery

$ pwd
/Users/me/work/my-repo/src/deep/nested
$ teamctl status
…shows agents, even though we're four levels deep

Resolution order:

  1. --root <path> flag.
  2. TEAMCTL_ROOT env var.
  3. Active context (see teamctl context).
  4. Walk up from CWD looking for .team/team-compose.yaml.
  5. Walk up looking for a flat team-compose.yaml (legacy fallback; prints a deprecation warning).

Multiple teams on one machine

Use teamctl context:

$ teamctl context ls
*  newsroom            /Users/me/work/news/.team
   startup             /Users/me/work/startup/.team


$ teamctl context use startup
$ teamctl status              # now shows the startup team

teamctl up auto-registers the current root as a context the first time it runs.

Bootstrapping a new team

teamctl init                          # interactive (default: Guided)
teamctl init --template essentials --yes
teamctl init --template blank --yes --project my-thing

Templates are baked into the binary — init works offline.

Env / secrets

.team/.env is the only place secrets live. .env.example lists every variable the compose tree references with placeholder values; commit it. .env itself is gitignored.

$ teamctl env
VAR                              STATE     REFERENCED FROM
TEAMCTL_TG_PM_TOKEN              set       managers.pm.interfaces.telegram.bot_token_env
TEAMCTL_TG_PM_CHATS              UNSET     managers.pm.interfaces.telegram.chat_ids_env


$ teamctl env --doctor
1 required env var(s) unset

teamctl up invokes --doctor implicitly and refuses to start when anything required is missing.

Inspection

teamctl status                 # table: agent, runtime, state, inbox, last activity
teamctl mail <agent>           # this agent's inbox
teamctl mail --all             # every agent's inbox depth + sample
teamctl tail <agent> -f        # live message stream
teamctl inspect <agent>        # full snapshot of one agent
teamctl logs <agent>           # tmux pane scrollback
teamctl attach <agent>         # tmux attach (read-write — keystrokes reach the agent)
teamctl attach <agent> --ro    # read-only: observe without sending input
teamctl exec <agent> -- ls     # run a command in the agent's CWD with its env
teamctl shell <agent>          # interactive shell with the agent's env loaded
teamctl approvals              # pending HITL requests
teamctl bridge ls              # cross-project bridges

The old status, pending, bridge list, etc. commands still work — they’re aliases.

Migrating from a flat layout

mkdir .team
git mv team-compose.yaml projects roles runtimes .team/   # whatever exists

Anything that used to live alongside team-compose.yaml moves into .team/. State directories (state/) and .env files should already be gitignored at the repo root — recreate the gitignore inside .team/ (teamctl init provides one).