Bash Agent Example

A bash script demonstrating how an AI agent can use bd to manage tasks autonomously.

Features

Pure bash implementation (no Python/Node required)
Colorized terminal output
Automatic work discovery
Random issue creation to simulate real agent behavior
Dependency linking with discovered-from
Statistics display

Prerequisites

bash 4.0+
bd installed: go install github.com/steveyegge/beads/cmd/bd@latest
jq for JSON parsing: brew install jq (macOS) or apt install jq (Linux)
A beads database initialized: bd init

Usage

# Make executable
chmod +x agent.sh

# Run with default 10 iterations
./agent.sh

# Run with custom iteration limit
./agent.sh 20

What It Does

The agent runs in a loop:

Looks for ready work (no blockers)
Claims the task (sets status to in_progress)
"Works" on it (simulates 1 second of work)
50% chance to discover a follow-up issue
If discovered, creates and links the new issue
Completes the original task
Shows statistics and repeats

Example Output

🚀 Beads Agent starting...
   Max iterations: 10

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════
  Beads Statistics
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════
Open: 5  In Progress: 0  Closed: 2

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════
  Iteration 1/10
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════
ℹ Looking for ready work...
ℹ Claiming task: bd-3
✓ Task claimed
ℹ Working on: Fix authentication bug (bd-3)
  Priority: 1
⚠ Discovered issue while working!
✓ Created issue: bd-8
✓ Linked bd-8 ← discovered-from ← bd-3
ℹ Completing task: bd-3
✓ Task completed: bd-3

Use Cases

Continuous Integration

# Run agent in CI to process testing tasks
./agent.sh 5

Cron Jobs

# Run agent every hour
0 * * * * cd /path/to/project && /path/to/agent.sh 3

One-off Task Processing

# Process exactly one task and exit
./agent.sh 1

Customization

Edit the script to customize behavior:

# Change discovery probability (line ~80)
if [[ $((RANDOM % 2)) -eq 0 ]]; then  # 50% chance
# Change to:
if [[ $((RANDOM % 10)) -lt 3 ]]; then  # 30% chance

# Add assignee filtering
bd ready --json --assignee "bot" --limit 1

# Add priority filtering
bd ready --json --priority 1 --limit 1

# Add custom labels
bd create "New task" -l "automated,agent-discovered"

Integration with Real Agents

This script is a starting point. To integrate with a real LLM:

Replace do_work() with calls to your LLM API
Parse the LLM's response for tasks to create
Use issue IDs to maintain context
Track conversation state in issue metadata

README.md Unescape Escape