Add Agent

Add Agent

Interactive wizard for creating a fully configured Hydra agent. Handles persona customization, mount configuration, Telegram integration, model selection, and environment variables.

Run all commands automatically. Only pause when user action is required (choosing options, pasting tokens).

UX Note: Use AskUserQuestion for all choices instead of plain text prompts.

0. Prerequisites

Check that the project is ready for agent creation:

[ -f hydra.yaml ] && echo "Config exists" || echo "NO_CONFIG"

If hydra.yaml does not exist, tell the user:

You need to run /setup first to create the base configuration.

Stop here if no config.

docker images | grep hydra-agent | head -5

If no image found, build it:

./container/build.sh

Read the current state:

cat hydra.yaml

Also check for the mount allowlist:

[ -f ~/.config/hydra/mount-allowlist.json ] && cat ~/.config/hydra/mount-allowlist.json || echo "NO_ALLOWLIST"

Note existing agents, bots, and security config for later steps.

1. Agent Identity

Ask the user:

What should this agent be called?

Name: Display name (e.g., "Merlin", "Dev Helper", "Research Bot") Folder: Short lowercase identifier (e.g., "merlin", "dev", "research")

Suggest folder as name.toLowerCase().replace(/\s+/g, '-').

Validate:

• Folder must match ^[a-z0-9_-]+$
• Folder must not already exist in agents/ or in hydra.yaml agents list

Create the agent:

hydra agent create --name "<NAME>" --folder <FOLDER>

This creates agents/<FOLDER>/CLAUDE.md with a template and appends a basic entry to hydra.yaml.

2. Persona & Model

Persona

Ask the user:

How should this agent behave? Describe its role and personality.

Examples:

• "You are a senior full-stack developer focused on TypeScript and React"
• "You are a research assistant that summarizes papers and finds citations"
• "You are a DevOps engineer that helps with infrastructure and deployments"

Or skip to keep the default generic persona.

If the user provides a persona description:

1. Read agents/<FOLDER>/CLAUDE.md
2. Replace the line You are <NAME>. Describe your persona and capabilities here. with the user's description
3. Keep the ## Filesystem Layout, ## Memory, and all other sections intact

Model

Ask the user:

Which Claude model should this agent use?

1. Sonnet (Recommended) — fast, capable, cost-effective
2. Opus — most capable, slower, higher cost
3. Skip — use system default

If a model is selected, read hydra.yaml, find the agent entry just created, and add model: sonnet or model: opus to it. Use the Edit tool to modify hydra.yaml.

3. Mounts

Ask the user:

Does this agent need access to directories outside its own agent folder?

Examples: source code repos (~/src), project folders, documents. Without mounts, the agent can only access agents/<FOLDER>/.

If no, skip to Section 4.

If yes:

Existing Roots

Check what's already configured. Read hydra.yaml security.mounts.allowed_roots and ~/.config/hydra/mount-allowlist.json.

If there are existing allowed roots, present them:

These directories are already allowed for mounting:

• ~/src (read-write) — Source code repositories
• ~/projects (read-write) — Project files

Which should this agent access? Or add a new directory.

New Roots

If the user wants a directory not in the allowed roots:

Ask:

What host directory? (e.g., ~/Documents, ~/projects/myapp)

Ask:

Should it be read-write or read-only?

Then update both files:

1. hydra.yaml — add to security.mounts.allowed_roots if not already present:

   security:
     mounts:
       allowed_roots:
         - path: ~/new-dir
           allow_read_write: true
           description: User-provided description
   

2. ~/.config/hydra/mount-allowlist.json — add to allowedRoots array (create file if needed):

   {
     "path": "~/new-dir",
     "allowReadWrite": true,
     "description": "User-provided description"
   }
   

   Note: allowlist uses camelCase, hydra.yaml uses snake_case.

   If the file doesn't exist, create it with default blocked patterns:

   {
     "allowedRoots": [...],
     "blockedPatterns": [
       ".ssh", ".gnupg", ".aws", "credentials", ".env",
       ".netrc", ".npmrc", "id_rsa", "id_ed25519", "private_key", ".secret"
     ],
     "nonMainReadOnly": true
   }
   

Add Mounts to Agent

For each directory the user selected, add a container.mounts entry to the agent in hydra.yaml:

    container:
      mounts:
        - host_path: ~/src
          container_path: src
          readonly: false

The container_path should be a short name derived from the last segment of the host path.

Update Agent's CLAUDE.md

Read agents/<FOLDER>/CLAUDE.md and update the Filesystem Layout table to include the actual mount paths:

| `/workspace/extra/<container_path>/` | Mounted from `<host_path>` on the host — <description>. |

Add a row for each mount, keeping the existing rows intact.

4. Integration

Ask the user:

How will you interact with this agent?

1. CLI only (default) — use hydra exec <FOLDER> to chat
2. Telegram — connect to a Telegram bot for mobile access

If CLI only, skip to Section 5.

If Telegram:

Existing Bots

Check hydra.yaml bots: section. If bots exist, present them:

You have these Telegram bots configured:

• anton — Anton
• merlin — Merlin

Use an existing bot, or create a new one?

Existing Bot

If user picks an existing bot, get the bot's name for the trigger.

New Bot

If creating a new bot:

1. Tell the user:

   1. Open Telegram and message @BotFather
   2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts
   3. Copy the bot token (looks like 123456:ABC-DEF...)
   4. Paste the token here

2. Ask for the bot's name (used as trigger word)

3. Choose an env var name (e.g., NEW_BOT_TOKEN) and add to .env:

   echo "NEW_BOT_TOKEN=<token>" >> .env
   

4. Add bot entry to hydra.yaml bots: section:

   bots:
     <bot_key>:
       name: <BotName>
       token: env:NEW_BOT_TOKEN
       platform: telegram
   

Update Agent Entry

Add trigger, bot, and chat_id to the agent entry in hydra.yaml:

    trigger: "@<BotName>"
    bot: <bot_key>
    chat_id: ""        # Auto-populated when user first messages the bot

5. Environment Variables / Secrets

Ask the user:

Does this agent need any additional environment variables?

Examples: GITHUB_TOKEN, OPENAI_API_KEY, custom API keys.

Default variables (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, memory keys) are automatically available. Choose skip if no additional variables are needed.

If the user provides variables:

For each variable:

1. Ask for the variable name and value
2. Check if it already exists in .env
3. If not, append to .env:

   echo "<VAR_NAME>=<value>" >> .env
   

4. Document in agents/<FOLDER>/CLAUDE.md — add a note about available environment variables (without exposing actual values)

6. Validate & Test

Run validation:

hydra config validate

If validation fails, read the error carefully and fix the config. Common issues:

• Bot referenced in agent doesn't exist in bots: section
• Duplicate agent folders
• Invalid folder names
• Missing required fields

If validation passes, ask the user:

Want to test the agent interactively?

If yes:

hydra exec <FOLDER>

Tell the user:

This drops you into a live Claude Code session inside the agent's container. Type a message to test. Exit with /exit or Ctrl+C.

7. Summary

Print a summary of everything created:

Agent created successfully!

Setting	Value
Name
Folder	agents/<FOLDER>/
Persona	<custom/default>
Model	<sonnet/opus/default>
Mounts	<list or "none">
Integration	<CLI only / Telegram via @BotName>
Extra env vars	<list or "none">

Files modified:

• agents/<FOLDER>/CLAUDE.md — agent persona
• hydra.yaml — agent entry added
• .env — (if new tokens/keys added)
• ~/.config/hydra/mount-allowlist.json — (if new roots added)

Next steps:

• Edit agents/<FOLDER>/CLAUDE.md to further refine the persona
• Run hydra exec <FOLDER> to chat with the agent
• Run /add-agent again to create another agent