Running agents locally

This guide walks through running agents with fullsend on your machine. It sets the base to help you run any agent, default or custom. Both macOS and Linux are supported with Podman as the container runtime.

For building fullsend from source, see the "Building from source" section in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Prerequisites

Requirement	macOS	Linux
Container runtime	Podman Desktop with a running machine	Podman
OpenShell	0.0.63	0.0.63
GCP project	Agent Platform API enabled with Claude models enabled	Same
GCP credentials	Service account key (see section below)	Same
GitHub PAT	Classic PAT with repo scope (see section below)	Same

Download the fullsend CLI

Download the latest release from GitHub Releases. Pick the archive matching your platform:

Platform	Archive
macOS (Apple Silicon)	fullsend_{version}_darwin_arm64.tar.gz
macOS (Intel)	fullsend_{version}_darwin_amd64.tar.gz
Linux (x86_64)	fullsend_{version}_linux_amd64.tar.gz
Linux (arm64)	fullsend_{version}_linux_arm64.tar.gz

Extract and move to a directory in your PATH:

tar xzf fullsend_{version}_darwin_arm64.tar.gz
mv fullsend_{version}_darwin_arm64/fullsend $HOME/.local/bin/

Verify the installation:

Note: the fullsend binary is not signed, on macOS you need to run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine fullsend

fullsend --version

Install OpenShell

OpenShell provides the sandbox runtime. There are multiple ways to install it, here we use one similar to how we download it on Fullsend. Use the same version printed on your Fullsend workflow for better reproducibility.

export OPENSHELL_VERSION=0.0.63
curl -LsSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NVIDIA/OpenShell/v${OPENSHELL_VERSION}/install.sh | OPENSHELL_VERSION=v${OPENSHELL_VERSION} sh
openshell --version

Get Google Cloud Platform credentials

Fullsend uses GCP's VertexAI to run inference, so you need a GCP project. After authenticating on gcloud run:

gcloud iam service-accounts create fullsend-local \
  --display-name="Fullsend local agent runner" \
  --project={project-id}

gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding {project-id} \
  --member="serviceAccount:fullsend-local@{project-id}.iam.gserviceaccount.com" \
  --role="roles/aiplatform.user"

gcloud iam service-accounts keys create fullsend-local-credentials.json \
  --iam-account=fullsend-local@{project-id}.iam.gserviceaccount.com
chmod 600 fullsend-local-credentials.json

This creates a service account and a local file to authenticate with that account. If you lack permissions give yourself or ask your GCP administrator for permissions or a key for local development.

Create an environment file somewhere secure, current directory or $HOME may be a good option. In our example it is ./fullsend-gcp.env:

# fullsend-gcp.env
ANTHROPIC_VERTEX_PROJECT_ID={project-id}
GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT={project-id}
CLOUD_ML_REGION=global
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=fullsend-local-credentials.json

Get a GitHub token

Create a fine grained token at GitHub. The permissions depend on the agent to execute, but generally with Write access to Issues, Contents and Pull Requests you cover most of them. If this is not enough, explore the codebase or ask in our community channels.

Clone repositories

First clone your target repository locally:

git clone git@github:{org}/{target_repository} /tmp/target-repo

Next clone the repository where the agent lives, in this guide case you need to clone Fullsend's repository. To learn more about custom agents visit Customizing Agents.

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/fullsend-ai/fullsend.git /tmp/fullsend-ai_fullsend/

Run default agents

Depending on the agent you want to run you need a different set of environment variables. Check the variables they need in their environment files, referenced in their harness files.

Tip: use --no-post-script in the fullsend run calls to avoid side-effects. You can also use --keep-sandbox to debug failures (but remember to remove them).

Note: to run custom agents set --fullsend-dir to the directory where your custom agent definitions exist.

Triage agent

Add to an env file:

# fullsend-triage.env
GH_TOKEN={github-pat}
GITHUB_ISSUE_URL=https://github.com/{org}/{repo}/issues/{issue_num}

fullsend run triage \
  --fullsend-dir /tmp/fullsend-ai_fullsend/internal/scaffold/fullsend-repo/ \
  --target-repo /tmp/target-repo/ \
  --env-file fullsend-gcp.env \
  --env-file fullsend-triage.env

Review agent

Add to an env file:

# fullsend-review.env
# In CI, REVIEW_TOKEN is auto-minted by the binary when --mint-url is provided.
# For local runs, supply a GitHub PAT manually:
REVIEW_TOKEN={github-pat}
GITHUB_PR_URL="https://github.com/{org}/{repo}/pull/{pr_number}"
PR_NUMBER="{pr_number}"
REPO_FULL_NAME="{org}/{repo}"

fullsend run review \
  --fullsend-dir /tmp/fullsend-ai_fullsend/internal/scaffold/fullsend-repo/ \
  --target-repo /tmp/target-repo/ \
  --env-file fullsend-gcp.env \
  --env-file fullsend-review.env

Code agent

Add to an env file:

# fullsend-code.env
# In CI, GH_TOKEN and PUSH_TOKEN are auto-minted by the binary when --mint-url is provided.
# For local runs, supply GitHub PATs manually:
GH_TOKEN={github-pat}
PUSH_TOKEN={github-pat}
PUSH_TOKEN_SOURCE=pat
GITHUB_ISSUE_URL=https://github.com/{org}/{repo}/issues/{issue_num}
REPO_FULL_NAME={org}/{repo}
ISSUE_NUMBER={issue_num}
CODE_ALLOWED_TARGET_BRANCHES=main
REPO_DIR=/tmp/repo-dir
GITHUB_WORKSPACE=/tmp/

fullsend run code \
  --fullsend-dir /tmp/fullsend-ai_fullsend/internal/scaffold/fullsend-repo/ \
  --target-repo /tmp/target-repo/ \
  --env-file fullsend-gcp.env \
  --env-file fullsend-code.env

Remote resource flags

When your harness references URL-based skills with transitive dependencies (see ADR-0038), you can tune resolution limits:

Flag	Default	Description
--forge	(auto-detect)	Forge platform to use (github, gitlab). Auto-detected from CI env vars (GITHUB_ACTIONS, GITLAB_CI) when omitted
--max-depth	10	Maximum dependency depth for transitive resolution (0 disables)
--max-resources	50	Maximum total remote resources fetched per harness
--offline	false	Reject network fetches; only use cached remote resources

Lock files

If a lock.yaml file exists in the fullsend directory, fullsend run uses it to skip re-resolution when the harness has not changed since the lock was generated. Generate or update a lock file with:

fullsend lock code --fullsend-dir /path/to/.fullsend

To lock all harnesses in the directory at once:

fullsend lock --all --fullsend-dir /path/to/.fullsend

When --forge is specified, only that platform variant is locked. When omitted, all forge variants defined in the harness are resolved and the union of their dependencies is locked.

When the lock entry is current (harness SHA256 matches), dependencies are resolved from the local cache without network access. If the harness has changed or a cached artifact is missing, fullsend run falls back to normal network resolution and prints a warning suggesting you re-run fullsend lock.

Use --update to force re-resolution even if the lock entry appears current.

Status notification flags

When running agents locally you can optionally enable status comments on the target issue/PR. These flags mirror what the CI workflows pass automatically:

Flag	Description
--run-url	URL of the CI/CD run shown in the status comment
--status-repo	Repository (owner/repo) to post status comments on
--status-number	Issue or PR number for status comments
--mint-url	Mint service URL for on-demand status comment tokens (default: $FULLSEND_MINT_URL)

Example:

fullsend run triage \
  --fullsend-dir /tmp/fullsend-ai_fullsend/internal/scaffold/fullsend-repo/ \
  --target-repo /tmp/target-repo/ \
  --env-file fullsend-gcp.env \
  --env-file fullsend-triage.env \
  --status-repo myorg/myrepo \
  --status-number 42 \
  --run-url "https://github.com/myorg/myrepo/actions/runs/12345"

Status comment behavior is configured via status_notifications in config.yaml. See the operations guide.

Simulating Fullsend's real customization layers

Fullsend automatically aggregates different layers of information before running fullsend run. In case you want to test how customizations impact default agents, or you custom agents, follow the next steps.

Start by cloning fullsend-ai/fullsend and copying the scaffold over to a dedicated directory:

mkdir /tmp/agents

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/fullsend-ai/fullsend.git /tmp/fullsend-ai_fullsend/
cp -r /tmp/fullsend-ai_fullsend/internal/scaffold/fullsend-repo/. /tmp/agents/

Then apply your organization customizations, if any:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/{org}/.fullsend.git /tmp/org-fullsend/
cp -r /tmp/org-fullsend/customized/. /tmp/agents/

And finally apply your own target repository customizations, if any:

git clone https://github.com/{org}/{target-repo} /tmp/target-repo
cp -r /tmp/target-repo/.fullsend/customized/. /tmp/agents/

When you execute fullsend run, pass --fullsend-dir as /tmp/agents/.

Platform notes

macOS

• Podman machine: ensure the Podman machine is running (podman machine start) before invoking fullsend. The CLI does not start it automatically.
• Podman host-gateway: if sandbox creation fails with unable to replace "host-gateway", set host_containers_internal_ip = "192.168.127.254" under [containers] in ~/.config/containers/containers.conf and restart the Podman machine.
• Architecture mismatch: if your sandbox image uses a different CPU architecture than the host (e.g. amd64 image on an arm64 Mac via QEMU emulation), set FULLSEND_SANDBOX_ARCH=amd64 so the CLI downloads the correct binary. This is not needed in the typical setup where the Podman VM matches the host arch.

Linux

• Rootless Podman: Podman runs rootless by default. Ensure your user has subuids/subgids configured (grep $USER /etc/subuid). If not, run sudo usermod --add-subuids 100000-165535 --add-subgids 100000-165535 $USER && podman system migrate.
• Gateway connectivity: The sandbox does not move to Ready state and its logs say that it can't connect to the server (gateway). It is likely that you need to bind the gateway to 0.0.0.0. Add OPENSHELL_BIND_ADDRESS on $HOME/.config/openshell/gateway.env and restart the openshell-gateway service.
• SELinux: on Fedora/RHEL, bind-mounted volumes may need the :z suffix for standalone podman run. OpenShell handles this automatically.

Troubleshooting

Sandbox creation fails immediately

• Check that podman machine start has been run (macOS only)
• Verify OpenShell is installed: openshell --version
• Verify the gateway is running: openshell gateway list

Gateway not running or no openshell gateway running

• Check the openshell-gateway service.
• Verify it's healthy: curl -sf https://127.0.0.1:8081/healthz
• Check that it's registered: openshell gateway list

Syntax error: "(" unexpected inside sandbox

• The macOS Mach-O binary was injected instead of a Linux ELF. Update to fullsend 0.4.0+ which auto-resolves the correct binary, or provide one explicitly with --fullsend-binary

Agent fails with missing environment variable

• Check your env file contains all variables listed in the agent's harness YAML (harness/{agent}.yaml in the .fullsend config directory)

arm64 sandbox image pull fails

• The default :latest tag is amd64-only. Add FULLSEND_SANDBOX_IMAGE=ghcr.io/fullsend-ai/fullsend-sandbox:dev to your env file

unable to replace "host-gateway" on macOS

• Set host_containers_internal_ip = "192.168.127.254" under [containers] in ~/.config/containers/containers.conf and restart the Podman machine