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Running materialized agents

How aw team add materializes agent homes and how aw team up starts local agent runtimes.

Running materialized agents

Use this guide after a workspace is already connected to a team. If you want the shortest human path, start with Create and run your first team or Add an AI tool to a team.

1. Materialize a member, not just a directory

Run aw team add from a directory whose own .aw state is connected to the team you want to extend:

aw team add [email protected]/developer=claude-code
aw team add [email protected]/reviewer=pi

The command uses that active workspace as the membership authority. It creates or connects a distinct team member, gives that member its own .aw identity and membership state, materializes the selected profile, and records pinned provenance under .aw/profile/. It does not copy or share the caller’s .aw directory.

Let D be the directory where you run the command. Let R be the Git top-level when D is inside a Git worktree; outside Git, R is D. Default homes are created at:

R/agents/instances/<name>/

So running the command from repo/src/ creates repo/agents/instances/<name>/, not repo/src/agents/instances/<name>/. The command prints the absolute home path when it finishes.

Each home contains the member’s identity, profile, runtime adapters, and work boundary:

<name>/
  .aw/             # this member's identity, certificate, team, and connection
  .aw/profile/     # materialized profile and pinned source provenance
  AGENTS.md
  CLAUDE.md        # when the selected runtime needs this adapter
  worktree/        # isolated Git worktree when a work repository is available

Current materialization runtimes are claude-code, codex, pi, and local-shell; if you omit =RUNTIME and --runtime, the CLI uses claude-code. The runtime is an operator choice at materialization time, not a profile hint.

When scope is omitted, the profile supplies the default. Every currently published aweb.team profile defaults to local. Pass :local or :global explicitly to override it:

aw team add [email protected]/developer:local=claude-code
aw team add [email protected]/reviewer:global=pi
  • :local selects a team-scoped identity.
  • :global creates or reuses a durable AWID identity that can hold public addresses and memberships in more than one team.

Home isolation: worktree/ and work-main/

aw team add separates the agent’s home (identity + instructions, where aw resolves its identity) from its work (where the agent runs git and builds). When a work repository is available, it:

  • creates <home>/worktree/ — a Git worktree on a branch named after the agent — as the isolated place for Git and build work; and
  • adds the generated home to the source repository’s .gitignore.

Profiles marked works_on_main: true (coordination roles) also get <home>/work-main/, a symlink to the main checkout, for deliberate operations on main. Code roles (works_on_main: false) get worktree/ only. The operating rule is: run aw from the home, run Git and builds from worktree/, and touch main only through the named work-main/.

Point the worktree at a separate project repository with --work-dir:

aw team add [email protected]/developer=pi --work-dir ~/prj/my-project

The checkout at ~/prj/my-project remains untouched. Its Git worktree is created at <home>/worktree/; the home can live elsewhere. If the home is not in a Git repository and no --work-dir is given, worktree setup is skipped and the agent works directly in its home.

2. Materialization does not necessarily start a process

Plain aw team add ... stops after creating the membership, home, profile, and worktree. No Claude Code, Pi, Codex, or shell process is running yet.

Use --start to materialize and launch exactly one supported agent:

aw team add [email protected]/developer=pi --start

--start requires exactly one agent and is rejected with --layout-only. It takes the same --session, --attach, and --no-attach options as aw team up, and skips launching if the home is already a running process’s current working directory.

3. Start and access materialized agents

aw team up is a local tmux convenience. Run it from any directory in the Git worktree that owns R/agents/instances/; outside Git, run it from the directory that contains agents/instances/.

aw team up --dry-run
aw team up

The command resolves the same R, scans R/agents/instances/, and launches homes that contain a materialized .aw/profile/profile.yaml. A profileless founding workspace is not launched.

Every runtime process starts with the agent home as its current working directory:

cd <agent-home> && exec <runtime-command>

It does not start in worktree/. This is how the runtime loads the home’s instructions and resolves the correct aweb identity. The agent changes into worktree/ for Git, tests, and builds.

By default, aw team up attaches your terminal to a tmux session with one window per launched agent, named after the agent. Use normal tmux window navigation to move between agents. --no-attach leaves the session running in the background; the command output names the session to attach to later.

If tmux is unavailable, the command prints the exact cd <home> && <command> line for each agent. Run those commands in separate terminals. The output of aw workspace status from an agent home also shows that member’s path and host.

Current launch support is narrower than materialization support:

  • claude-code starts with the aweb channel plugin;
  • pi starts with the aweb extension and --approve;
  • codex and local-shell can be materialized, but aw team up currently rejects them. Start those runtimes manually from the materialized home and have the agent poll aw mail inbox and aw chat pending.

Before starting windows, aw team up installs or verifies the supported runtime channel and handles the known trust and development-channel prompts. The command is an idempotent reconcile: it skips a home that is already the current working directory of a running process. Use --force to ignore that running-process check. --recreate kills and recreates the tmux session only when the target session has no running agent windows; otherwise it refuses unless you pass --force-kill.

Dogfood and test launches should use a throwaway --session name and an isolated TMUX_TMPDIR; direct tmux experiments should use an isolated socket such as tmux -L awdogfood ... so they cannot touch the live agent tmux server.

4. Public blueprint source

aw team add and aw team create --agent ... read public profile payloads from the Library catalog API and materialize them locally. The public path does not import to the private shelf, bind through the Library plugin, or call the server-side /v1/materialize endpoint.

Defaults:

  1. --library-url
  2. AWEB_LIBRARY_URL
  3. https://library.aweb.ai

For profile-only selectors, the blueprint default is:

  1. --blueprint
  2. AWEB_BLUEPRINT
  3. aweb.team

The private Library shelf remains an opt-in app for the profile evolution loop:

aw plugin install https://library.aweb.ai/.well-known/aweb-app.json

For the wire contract and pin file shape, see blueprint-materialization-contract.md.

Implementation anchors

These claims were checked against the current CLI implementation and the released CLI’s path behavior:

  • Team creation, the exact invocation-directory root workspace, and roster materialization: cli/go/cmd/aw/team_human.go.
  • Git-top-level fallback outside/inside Git: cli/go/cmd/aw/inject_docs.go.
  • Member home creation, identity setup, --home, --work-dir, worktree isolation, .gitignore, work-main, and --start: cli/go/cmd/aw/team_human.go.
  • Team-up root resolution, profile-home scan, runtime commands, home cwd, preflight, prompt handling, and tmux lifecycle: cli/go/cmd/aw/team_up.go.
  • Public materialization selectors, source, and runtime validation: cli/go/cmd/aw/library_profile.go.
  • Runtime channel installers: cli/go/cmd/aw/channel_setup.go.