# Sonic Agent

> Configure, extend, or contribute to Sonic Agent.

- Skill: `dabit3/sonic-agent` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add dabit3/sonic-agent`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/dabit3/sonic-agent/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- License: MIT
- Author: dabit3 (https://skillmd.com/u/dabit3)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/dabit3/sonic-agent

---


# Sonic Agent

Sonic Agent is an open-source AI agent framework by Nous Research that runs in your terminal, messaging platforms, and IDEs. It belongs to the same category as Claude Code (Anthropic), Codex (OpenAI), and OpenClaw — autonomous coding and task-execution agents that use tool calling to interact with your system. Sonic works with any LLM provider (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, local models, and 15+ others) and runs on Linux, macOS, and WSL.

What makes Sonic different:

- **Self-improving through skills** — Sonic learns from experience by saving reusable procedures as skills. When it solves a complex problem, discovers a workflow, or gets corrected, it can persist that knowledge as a skill document that loads into future sessions. Skills accumulate over time, making the agent better at your specific tasks and environment.
- **Persistent memory across sessions** — remembers who you are, your preferences, environment details, and lessons learned. Pluggable memory backends (built-in, Honcho, Mem0, and more) let you choose how memory works.
- **Multi-platform gateway** — the same agent runs on Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Matrix, Email, and 10+ other platforms with full tool access, not just chat.
- **Provider-agnostic** — swap models and providers mid-workflow without changing anything else. Credential pools rotate across multiple API keys automatically.
- **Profiles** — run multiple independent Sonic instances with isolated configs, sessions, skills, and memory.
- **Extensible** — plugins, MCP servers, custom tools, webhook triggers, cron scheduling, and the full Python ecosystem.

People use Sonic for software development, research, system administration, data analysis, content creation, home automation, and anything else that benefits from an AI agent with persistent context and full system access.

**This skill helps you work with Sonic Agent effectively** — setting it up, configuring features, spawning additional agent instances, troubleshooting issues, finding the right commands and settings, and understanding how the system works when you need to extend or contribute to it.

**Docs:** https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/

## Quick Start

```bash
# Install
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dabit3/sonic-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

# Interactive chat (default)
sonic

# Single query
sonic chat -q "What is the capital of France?"

# Setup wizard
sonic setup

# Change model/provider
sonic model

# Check health
sonic doctor
```

---

## CLI Reference

### Global Flags

```
sonic [flags] [command]

  --version, -V             Show version
  --resume, -r SESSION      Resume session by ID or title
  --continue, -c [NAME]     Resume by name, or most recent session
  --worktree, -w            Isolated git worktree mode (parallel agents)
  --skills, -s SKILL        Preload skills (comma-separate or repeat)
  --profile, -p NAME        Use a named profile
  --yolo                    Skip dangerous command approval
  --pass-session-id         Include session ID in system prompt
```

No subcommand defaults to `chat`.

### Chat

```
sonic chat [flags]
  -q, --query TEXT          Single query, non-interactive
  -m, --model MODEL         Model (e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4)
  -t, --toolsets LIST       Comma-separated toolsets
  --provider PROVIDER       Force provider (openrouter, anthropic, nous, etc.)
  -v, --verbose             Verbose output
  -Q, --quiet               Suppress banner, spinner, tool previews
  --checkpoints             Enable filesystem checkpoints (/rollback)
  --source TAG              Session source tag (default: cli)
```

### Configuration

```
sonic setup [section]      Interactive wizard (model|terminal|gateway|tools|agent)
sonic model                Interactive model/provider picker
sonic config               View current config
sonic config edit          Open config.yaml in $EDITOR
sonic config set KEY VAL   Set a config value
sonic config path          Print config.yaml path
sonic config env-path      Print .env path
sonic config check         Check for missing/outdated config
sonic config migrate       Update config with new options
sonic auth                 Interactive credential manager
sonic auth add PROVIDER    Add OAuth or API-key credential (e.g. nous, openai-codex, qwen-oauth)
sonic auth list            List stored credentials
sonic auth remove PROVIDER Remove a stored credential
sonic doctor [--fix]       Check dependencies and config
sonic status [--all]       Show component status
```

### Tools & Skills

```
sonic tools                Interactive tool enable/disable (curses UI)
sonic tools list           Show all tools and status
sonic tools enable NAME    Enable a toolset
sonic tools disable NAME   Disable a toolset

sonic skills list          List installed skills
sonic skills search QUERY  Search the skills hub
sonic skills install ID    Install a skill (ID can be a hub identifier OR a direct https://…/SKILL.md URL; pass --name to override when frontmatter has no name)
sonic skills inspect ID    Preview without installing
sonic skills config        Enable/disable skills per platform
sonic skills check         Check for updates
sonic skills update        Update outdated skills
sonic skills uninstall N   Remove a hub skill
sonic skills publish PATH  Publish to registry
sonic skills browse        Browse all available skills
sonic skills tap add REPO  Add a GitHub repo as skill source
```

### MCP Servers

```
sonic mcp serve            Run Sonic as an MCP server
sonic mcp add NAME         Add an MCP server (--url or --command)
sonic mcp remove NAME      Remove an MCP server
sonic mcp list             List configured servers
sonic mcp test NAME        Test connection
sonic mcp configure NAME   Toggle tool selection
```

How the built-in MCP client connects servers (stdio/HTTP), auto-discovers
their tools, and exposes them as first-class tools, plus catalog install
(`sonic mcp install <name>`): `skill_view(name="sonic-agent", file_path="references/native-mcp.md")`.

### Gateway (Messaging Platforms)

```
sonic gateway run          Start gateway foreground
sonic gateway install      Install as background service
sonic gateway start/stop   Control the service
sonic gateway restart      Restart the service
sonic gateway status       Check status
sonic gateway setup        Configure platforms
```

Supported platforms: Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Email, SMS, Matrix, Mattermost, Home Assistant, DingTalk, Feishu, WeCom, BlueBubbles (iMessage), Weixin (WeChat), API Server, Webhooks. Open WebUI connects via the API Server adapter.

Platform docs: https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/messaging/

### Sessions

```
sonic sessions list        List recent sessions
sonic sessions browse      Interactive picker
sonic sessions export OUT  Export to JSONL
sonic sessions rename ID T Rename a session
sonic sessions delete ID   Delete a session
sonic sessions prune       Clean up old sessions (--older-than N days)
sonic sessions stats       Session store statistics
```

### Cron Jobs

```
sonic cron list            List jobs (--all for disabled)
sonic cron create SCHED    Create: '30m', 'every 2h', '0 9 * * *'
sonic cron edit ID         Edit schedule, prompt, delivery
sonic cron pause/resume ID Control job state
sonic cron run ID          Trigger on next tick
sonic cron remove ID       Delete a job
sonic cron status          Scheduler status
```

### Webhooks

```
sonic webhook subscribe N  Create route at /webhooks/<name>
sonic webhook list         List subscriptions
sonic webhook remove NAME  Remove a subscription
sonic webhook test NAME    Send a test POST
```

Full setup, route config, payload templating, and event-driven agent-run
patterns: `skill_view(name="sonic-agent", file_path="references/webhooks.md")`.

### Profiles

```
sonic profile list         List all profiles
sonic profile create NAME  Create (--clone, --clone-all, --clone-from)
sonic profile use NAME     Set sticky default
sonic profile delete NAME  Delete a profile
sonic profile show NAME    Show details
sonic profile alias NAME   Manage wrapper scripts
sonic profile rename A B   Rename a profile
sonic profile export NAME  Export to tar.gz
sonic profile import FILE  Import from archive
```

### Credential Pools

```
sonic auth add             Interactive credential wizard
sonic auth list [PROVIDER] List pooled credentials
sonic auth remove P INDEX  Remove by provider + index
sonic auth reset PROVIDER  Clear exhaustion status
```

### Other

```
sonic insights [--days N]  Usage analytics
sonic update               Update to latest version
sonic pairing list/approve/revoke  DM authorization
sonic plugins list/install/remove  Plugin management
sonic honcho setup/status  Honcho memory integration (requires honcho plugin)
sonic memory setup/status/off  Memory provider config
sonic completion bash|zsh  Shell completions
sonic acp                  ACP server (IDE integration)
sonic claw migrate         Migrate from OpenClaw
sonic uninstall            Uninstall Sonic
```

---

## Slash Commands (In-Session)

Type these during an interactive chat session. New commands land fairly
often; if something below looks stale, run `/help` in-session for the
authoritative list or see the [live slash commands reference](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/slash-commands).
The registry of record is `sonic_cli/commands.py` — every consumer
(autocomplete, Telegram menu, Slack mapping, `/help`) derives from it.

### Session Control
```
/new (/reset)        Fresh session
/clear               Clear screen + new session (CLI)
/retry               Resend last message
/undo                Remove last exchange
/title [name]        Name the session
/compress            Manually compress context
/stop                Kill background processes
/rollback [N]        Restore filesystem checkpoint
/snapshot [sub]      Create or restore state snapshots of Sonic config/state (CLI)
/background <prompt> Run prompt in background
/queue <prompt>      Queue for next turn
/steer <prompt>      Inject a message after the next tool call without interrupting
/agents (/tasks)     Show active agents and running tasks
/resume [name]       Resume a named session
/goal [text|sub]     Set a standing goal Sonic works on across turns until achieved
                     (subcommands: status, pause, resume, clear)
/redraw              Force a full UI repaint (CLI)
```

### Configuration
```
/config              Show config (CLI)
/model [name]        Show or change model
/personality [name]  Set personality
/reasoning [level]   Set reasoning (none|minimal|low|medium|high|xhigh|show|hide)
/verbose             Cycle: off → new → all → verbose
/voice [on|off|tts]  Voice mode
/yolo                Toggle approval bypass
/busy [sub]          Control what Enter does while Sonic is working (CLI)
                     (subcommands: queue, steer, interrupt, status)
/indicator [style]   Pick the TUI busy-indicator style (CLI)
                     (styles: kaomoji, emoji, unicode, ascii)
/footer [on|off]     Toggle gateway runtime-metadata footer on final replies
/skin [name]         Change theme (CLI)
/statusbar           Toggle status bar (CLI)
```

### Tools & Skills
```
/tools               Manage tools (CLI)
/toolsets            List toolsets (CLI)
/skills              Search/install skills (CLI)
/skill <name>        Load a skill into session
/reload-skills       Re-scan ~/.sonic/skills/ for added/removed skills
/reload              Reload .env variables into the running session (CLI)
/reload-mcp          Reload MCP servers
/cron                Manage cron jobs (CLI)
/curator [sub]       Background skill maintenance (status, run, pin, archive, …)
/kanban [sub]        Multi-profile collaboration board (tasks, links, comments)
/plugins             List plugins (CLI)
```

### Gateway
```
/approve             Approve a pending command (gateway)
/deny                Deny a pending command (gateway)
/restart             Restart gateway (gateway)
/sethome             Set current chat as home channel (gateway)
/update              Update Sonic to latest (gateway)
/topic [sub]         Enable or inspect Telegram DM topic sessions (gateway)
/platforms (/gateway) Show platform connection status (gateway)
```

### Utility
```
/branch (/fork)      Branch the current session
/fast                Toggle priority/fast processing
/browser             Open CDP browser connection
/history             Show conversation history (CLI)
/save                Save conversation to file (CLI)
/copy [N]            Copy the last assistant response to clipboard (CLI)
/paste               Attach clipboard image (CLI)
/image               Attach local image file (CLI)
```

### Info
```
/help                Show commands
/commands [page]     Browse all commands (gateway)
/usage               Token usage
/insights [days]     Usage analytics
/gquota              Show Google Gemini Code Assist quota usage (CLI)
/status              Session info (gateway)
/profile             Active profile info
/debug               Upload debug report (system info + logs) and get shareable links
```

### Exit
```
/quit (/exit, /q)    Exit CLI
```

---

## Key Paths & Config

```
~/.sonic/config.yaml       Main configuration
~/.sonic/.env              API keys and secrets (under $SONIC_HOME if set)
$SONIC_HOME/skills/        Installed skills
~/.sonic/sessions/         Gateway routing index, request dumps, *.jsonl transcripts (and optional per-session JSON snapshots when sessions.write_json_snapshots: true)
~/.sonic/state.db          Canonical session store (SQLite + FTS5)
~/.sonic/logs/             Gateway and error logs
~/.sonic/auth.json         OAuth tokens and credential pools
~/.sonic/sonic-agent/     Source code (if git-installed)
```

Profiles use `~/.sonic/profiles/<name>/` with the same layout.

### Config Sections

Edit with `sonic config edit` or `sonic config set section.key value`.

| Section | Key options |
|---------|-------------|
| `model` | `default`, `provider`, `base_url`, `api_key`, `context_length` |
| `agent` | `max_turns` (90), `tool_use_enforcement` |
| `terminal` | `backend` (local/docker/ssh/modal), `cwd`, `timeout` (180) |
| `compression` | `enabled`, `threshold` (0.50), `target_ratio` (0.20) |
| `display` | `skin`, `tool_progress`, `show_reasoning`, `show_cost` |
| `stt` | `enabled`, `provider` (local/groq/openai/mistral) |
| `tts` | `provider` (edge/elevenlabs/openai/minimax/mistral/neutts) |
| `memory` | `memory_enabled`, `user_profile_enabled`, `provider` |
| `security` | `tirith_enabled`, `website_blocklist` |
| `delegation` | `model`, `provider`, `base_url`, `api_key`, `max_iterations` (50), `reasoning_effort` |
| `checkpoints` | `enabled`, `max_snapshots` (50) |

Full config reference: https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/configuration

### Providers

20+ providers supported. Set via `sonic model` or `sonic setup`.

| Provider | Auth | Key env var |
|----------|------|-------------|
| OpenRouter | API key | `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` |
| Anthropic | API key | `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` |
| Nous Portal | OAuth | `sonic auth` |
| OpenAI Codex | OAuth | `sonic auth` |
| GitHub Copilot | Token | `COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN` |
| Google Gemini | API key | `GOOGLE_API_KEY` or `GEMINI_API_KEY` |
| DeepSeek | API key | `DEEPSEEK_API_KEY` |
| xAI / Grok | API key | `XAI_API_KEY` |
| Hugging Face | Token | `HF_TOKEN` |
| Z.AI / GLM | API key | `GLM_API_KEY` |
| MiniMax | API key | `MINIMAX_API_KEY` |
| MiniMax CN | API key | `MINIMAX_CN_API_KEY` |
| Kimi / Moonshot | API key | `KIMI_API_KEY` |
| Alibaba / DashScope | API key | `DASHSCOPE_API_KEY` |
| Xiaomi MiMo | API key | `XIAOMI_API_KEY` |
| Kilo Code | API key | `KILOCODE_API_KEY` |
| OpenCode Zen | API key | `OPENCODE_ZEN_API_KEY` |
| OpenCode Go | API key | `OPENCODE_GO_API_KEY` |
| Qwen OAuth | OAuth | `sonic auth add qwen-oauth` |
| Custom endpoint | Config | `model.base_url` + `model.api_key` in config.yaml |
| GitHub Copilot ACP | External | `COPILOT_CLI_PATH` or Copilot CLI |

Full provider docs: https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/providers

### Toolsets

Enable/disable via `sonic tools` (interactive) or `sonic tools enable/disable NAME`.

| Toolset | What it provides |
|---------|-----------------|
| `web` | Web search and content extraction |
| `search` | Web search only (subset of `web`) |
| `browser` | Browser automation (Browserbase, Camofox, or local Chromium) |
| `terminal` | Shell commands and process management |
| `file` | File read/write/search/patch |
| `code_execution` | Sandboxed Python execution |
| `vision` | Image analysis |
| `image_gen` | AI image generation |
| `video` | Video analysis and generation |
| `tts` | Text-to-speech |
| `skills` | Skill browsing and management |
| `memory` | Persistent cross-session memory |
| `session_search` | Search past conversations |
| `delegation` | Subagent task delegation |
| `cronjob` | Scheduled task management |
| `clarify` | Ask user clarifying questions |
| `messaging` | Cross-platform message sending |
| `todo` | In-session task planning and tracking |
| `kanban` | Multi-agent work-queue tools (gated to workers) |
| `debugging` | Extra introspection/debug tools (off by default) |
| `safe` | Minimal, low-risk toolset for locked-down sessions |
| `spotify` | Spotify playback and playlist control |
| `homeassistant` | Smart home control (off by default) |
| `discord` | Discord integration tools |
| `discord_admin` | Discord admin/moderation tools |
| `feishu_doc` | Feishu (Lark) document tools |
| `feishu_drive` | Feishu (Lark) drive tools |
| `yuanbao` | Yuanbao integration tools |
| `rl` | Reinforcement learning tools (off by default) |
| `moa` | Mixture of Agents (off by default) |

Full enumeration lives in `toolsets.py` as the `TOOLSETS` dict; `_SONIC_CORE_TOOLS` is the default bundle most platforms inherit from.

Tool changes take effect on `/reset` (new session). They do NOT apply mid-conversation to preserve prompt caching.

---

## Security & Privacy Toggles

Common "why is Sonic doing X to my output / tool calls / commands?" toggles — and the exact commands to change them. Most of these need a fresh session (`/reset` in chat, or start a new `sonic` invocation) because they're read once at startup.

### Secret redaction in tool output

Secret redaction is **on by default** — tool output (terminal stdout, `read_file`, web content, subagent summaries, etc.) is scanned for strings that look like API keys, tokens, and secrets before it enters the conversation context and logs. Leave it enabled for normal use:

```bash
sonic config set security.redact_secrets true       # keep enabled globally
```

**Restart required.** `security.redact_secrets` is snapshotted at import time — toggling it mid-session (e.g. via `export SONIC_REDACT_SECRETS=false` from a tool call) will NOT take effect for the running process. Tell the user to change it in config from a terminal, then start a new session. This is deliberate — it prevents an LLM from flipping the toggle on itself mid-task.

Disable only when you deliberately need raw credential-like strings for debugging or redactor development:
```bash
sonic config set security.redact_secrets false
```

### PII redaction in gateway messages

Separate from secret redaction. When enabled, the gateway hashes user IDs and strips phone numbers from the session context before it reaches the model:

```bash
sonic config set privacy.redact_pii true    # enable
sonic config set privacy.redact_pii false   # disable (default)
```

### Command approval prompts

By default (`approvals.mode: manual`), Sonic prompts the user before running shell commands flagged as destructive (`rm -rf`, `git reset --hard`, etc.). The modes are:

- `manual` — always prompt (default)
- `smart` — use an auxiliary LLM to auto-approve low-risk commands, prompt on high-risk
- `off` — skip all approval prompts (equivalent to `--yolo`)

```bash
sonic config set approvals.mode smart       # recommended middle ground
sonic config set approvals.mode off         # bypass everything (not recommended)
```

Per-invocation bypass without changing config:
- `sonic --yolo …`
- `export SONIC_YOLO_MODE=1`

Note: YOLO / `approvals.mode: off` does NOT turn off secret redaction. They are independent.

### Shell hooks allowlist

Some shell-hook integrations require explicit allowlisting before they fire. Managed via `~/.sonic/shell-hooks-allowlist.json` — prompted interactively the first time a hook wants to run.

### Disabling the web/browser/image-gen tools

To keep the model away from network or media tools entirely, open `sonic tools` and toggle per-platform. Takes effect on next session (`/reset`). See the Tools & Skills section above.

---

## Voice & Transcription

### STT (Voice → Text)

Voice messages from messaging platforms are auto-transcribed.

Provider priority (auto-detected):
1. **Local faster-whisper** — free, no API key: `pip install faster-whisper`
2. **Groq Whisper** — free tier: set `GROQ_API_KEY`
3. **OpenAI Whisper** — paid: set `VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY`
4. **Mistral Voxtral** — set `MISTRAL_API_KEY`

Config:
```yaml
stt:
  enabled: true
  provider: local        # local, groq, openai, mistral
  local:
    model: base          # tiny, base, small, medium, large-v3
```

### TTS (Text → Voice)

| Provider | Env var | Free? |
|----------|---------|-------|
| Edge TTS | None | Yes (default) |
| ElevenLabs | `ELEVENLABS_API_KEY` | Free tier |
| OpenAI | `VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY` | Paid |
| MiniMax | `MINIMAX_API_KEY` | Paid |
| Mistral (Voxtral) | `MISTRAL_API_KEY` | Paid |
| NeuTTS (local) | None (`pip install neutts[all]` + `espeak-ng`) | Free |

Voice commands: `/voice on` (voice-to-voice), `/voice tts` (always voice), `/voice off`.

---

## Spawning Additional Sonic Instances

Run additional Sonic processes as fully independent subprocesses — separate sessions, tools, and environments.

### When to Use This vs delegate_task

| | `delegate_task` | Spawning `sonic` process |
|-|-----------------|--------------------------|
| Isolation | Separate conversation, shared process | Fully independent process |
| Duration | Minutes (bounded by parent loop) | Hours/days |
| Tool access | Subset of parent's tools | Full tool access |
| Interactive | No | Yes (PTY mode) |
| Use case | Quick parallel subtasks | Long autonomous missions |

### One-Shot Mode

```
terminal(command="sonic chat -q 'Research GRPO papers and write summary to ~/research/grpo.md'", timeout=300)

# Background for long tasks:
terminal(command="sonic chat -q 'Set up CI/CD for ~/myapp'", background=true)
```

### Interactive PTY Mode (via tmux)

Sonic uses prompt_toolkit, which requires a real terminal. Use tmux for interactive spawning:

```
# Start
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s agent1 -x 120 -y 40 'sonic'", timeout=10)

# Wait for startup, then send a message
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t agent1 'Build a FastAPI auth service' Enter", timeout=15)

# Read output
terminal(command="sleep 20 && tmux capture-pane -t agent1 -p", timeout=5)

# Send follow-up
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t agent1 'Add rate limiting middleware' Enter", timeout=5)

# Exit
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t agent1 '/exit' Enter && sleep 2 && tmux kill-session -t agent1", timeout=10)
```

### Multi-Agent Coordination

```
# Agent A: backend
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s backend -x 120 -y 40 'sonic -w'", timeout=10)
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t backend 'Build REST API for user management' Enter", timeout=15)

# Agent B: frontend
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s frontend -x 120 -y 40 'sonic -w'", timeout=10)
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t frontend 'Build React dashboard for user management' Enter", timeout=15)

# Check progress, relay context between them
terminal(command="tmux capture-pane -t backend -p | tail -30", timeout=5)
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t frontend 'Here is the API schema from the backend agent: ...' Enter", timeout=5)
```

### Session Resume

```
# Resume most recent session
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'sonic --continue'", timeout=10)

# Resume specific session
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'sonic --resume 20260225_143052_a1b2c3'", timeout=10)
```

### Tips

- **Prefer `delegate_task` for quick subtasks** — less overhead than spawning a full process
- **Use `-w` (worktree mode)** when spawning agents that edit code — prevents git conflicts
- **Set timeouts** for one-shot mode — complex tasks can take 5-10 minutes
- **Use `sonic chat -q` for fire-and-forget** — no PTY needed
- **Use tmux for interactive sessions** — raw PTY mode has `\r` vs `\n` issues with prompt_toolkit
- **For scheduled tasks**, use the `cronjob` tool instead of spawning — handles delivery and retry

---

## Durable & Background Systems

Four systems run alongside the main conversation loop. Quick reference
here; full developer notes live in `AGENTS.md`, user-facing docs under
`website/docs/user-guide/features/`.

### Delegation (`delegate_task`)

Synchronous subagent spawn — the parent waits for the child's summary
before continuing its own loop. Isolated context + terminal session.

- **Single:** `delegate_task(goal, context, toolsets)`.
- **Batch:** `delegate_task(tasks=[{goal, ...}, ...])` runs children in
  parallel, capped by `delegation.max_concurrent_children` (default 3).
- **Roles:** `leaf` (default; cannot re-delegate) vs `orchestrator`
  (can spawn its own workers, bounded by `delegation.max_spawn_depth`).
- **Not durable.** If the parent is interrupted, the child is
  cancelled. For work that must outlive the turn, use `cronjob` or
  `terminal(background=True, notify_on_complete=True)`.

Config: `delegation.*` in `config.yaml`.

### Cron (scheduled jobs)

Durable scheduler — `cron/jobs.py` + `cron/scheduler.py`. Drive it via
the `cronjob` tool, the `sonic cron` CLI (`list`, `add`, `edit`,
`pause`, `resume`, `run`, `remove`), or the `/cron` slash command.

- **Schedules:** duration (`"30m"`, `"2h"`), "every" phrase
  (`"every monday 9am"`), 5-field cron (`"0 9 * * *"`), or ISO timestamp.
- **Per-job knobs:** `skills`, `model`/`provider` override, `script`
  (pre-run data collection; `no_agent=True` makes the script the whole
  job), `context_from` (chain job A's output into job B), `workdir`
  (run in a specific dir with its `AGENTS.md` / `CLAUDE.md` loaded),
  multi-platform delivery.
- **Invariants:** 3-minute hard interrupt per run, `.tick.lock` file
  prevents duplicate ticks across processes, cron sessions pass
  `skip_memory=True` by default, and cron deliveries are framed with a
  header/footer instead of being mirrored into the target gateway
  session (keeps role alternation intact).

User docs: https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/cron

### Curator (skill lifecycle)

Background maintenance for agent-created skills. Tracks usage, marks
idle skills stale, archives stale ones, keeps a pre-run tar.gz backup
so nothing is lost.

- **CLI:** `sonic curator <verb>` — `status`, `run`, `pause`, `resume`,
  `pin`, `unpin`, `archive`, `restore`, `prune`, `backup`, `rollback`.
- **Slash:** `/curator <subcommand>` mirrors the CLI.
- **Scope:** only touches skills with `created_by: "agent"` provenance.
  Bundled + hub-installed skills are off-limits. **Never deletes** —
  max destructive action is archive. Pinned skills are exempt from
  every auto-transition and every LLM review pass.
- **Telemetry:** sidecar at `~/.sonic/skills/.usage.json` holds
  per-skill `use_count`, `view_count`, `patch_count`,
  `last_activity_at`, `state`, `pinned`.

Config: `curator.*` (`enabled`, `interval_hours`, `min_idle_hours`,
`stale_after_days`, `archive_after_days`, `backup.*`).
User docs: https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/curator

### Kanban (multi-agent work queue)

Durable SQLite board for multi-profile / multi-worker collaboration.
Users drive it via `sonic kanban <verb>`; dispatcher-spawned workers
see a focused `kanban_*` toolset gated by `SONIC_KANBAN_TASK`, and
orchestrator profiles can opt into the broader `kanban` toolset. Normal
sessions still have zero `kanban_*` schema footprint unless configured.

- **CLI verbs (common):** `init`, `create`, `list` (alias `ls`),
  `show`, `assign`, `link`, `unlink`, `comment`, `complete`, `block`,
  `unblock`, `archive`, `tail`. Less common: `watch`, `stats`, `runs`,
  `log`, `dispatch`, `daemon`, `gc`.
- **Worker/orchestrator toolset:** `kanban_show`, `kanban_complete`,
  `kanban_block`, `kanban_heartbeat`, `kanban_comment`, `kanban_create`,
  `kanban_link`; profiles that explicitly enable the `kanban` toolset
  outside a dispatcher-spawned task also get `kanban_list` and
  `kanban_unblock` for board routing.
- **Dispatcher** runs inside the gateway by default
  (`kanban.dispatch_in_gateway: true`) — reclaims stale claims,
  promotes ready tasks, atomically claims, spawns assigned profiles.
  Auto-blocks a task after `failure_limit` consecutive spawn failures
  (default 2; configurable via `kanban.failure_limit` or per-task
  `max_retries`).
- **Isolation:** board is the hard boundary (workers get
  `SONIC_KANBAN_BOARD` pinned in env); tenant is a soft namespace
  within a board for workspace-path + memory-key isolation.

User docs: https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/kanban

---

## Windows-Specific Quirks

Sonic runs natively on Windows (PowerShell, cmd, Windows Terminal, git-bash
mintty, VS Code integrated terminal). Most of it just works, but a handful
of differences between Win32 and POSIX have bitten us — document new ones
here as you hit them so the next person (or the next session) doesn't
rediscover them from scratch.

### Input / Keybindings

**Alt+Enter doesn't insert a newline.** Windows Terminal intercepts Alt+Enter
at the terminal layer to toggle fullscreen — the keystroke never reaches
prompt_toolkit. Use **Ctrl+Enter** instead. Windows Terminal delivers
Ctrl+Enter as LF (`c-j`), distinct from plain Enter (`c-m` / CR), and the
CLI binds `c-j` to newline insertion on `win32` only (see
`_bind_prompt_submit_keys` + the Windows-only `c-j` binding in `cli.py`).
Side effect: the raw Ctrl+J keystroke also inserts a newline on Windows —
unavoidable, because Windows Terminal collapses Ctrl+Enter and Ctrl+J to
the same keycode at the Win32 console API layer. No conflicting binding
existed for Ctrl+J on Windows, so this is a harmless side effect.

mintty / git-bash behaves the same (fullscreen on Alt+Enter) unless you
disable Alt+Fn shortcuts in Options → Keys. Easier to just use Ctrl+Enter.

**Diagnosing keybindings.** Run `python scripts/keystroke_diagnostic.py`
(repo root) to see exactly how prompt_toolkit identifies each keystroke
in the current terminal. Answers questions like "does Shift+Enter come
through as a distinct key?" (almost never — most terminals collapse it
to plain Enter) or "what byte sequence is my terminal sending for
Ctrl+Enter?" This is how the Ctrl+Enter = c-j fact was established.

### Config / Files

**HTTP 400 "No models provided" on first run.** `config.yaml` was saved
with a UTF-8 BOM (common when Windows apps write it). Re-save as UTF-8
without BOM. `sonic config edit` writes without BOM; manual edits in
Notepad are the usual culprit.

### `execute_code` / Sandbox

**WinError 10106** ("The requested service provider could not be loaded
or initialized") from the sandbox child process — it can't create an
`AF_INET` socket, so the loopback-TCP RPC fallback fails before
`connect()`. Root cause is usually **not** a broken Winsock LSP; it's
Sonic's own env scrubber dropping `SYSTEMROOT` / `WINDIR` / `COMSPEC`
from the child env. Python's `socket` module needs `SYSTEMROOT` to locate
`mswsock.dll`. Fixed via the `_WINDOWS_ESSENTIAL_ENV_VARS` allowlist in
`tools/code_execution_tool.py`. If you still hit it, echo `os.environ`
inside an `execute_code` block to confirm `SYSTEMROOT` is set. Full
diagnostic recipe in `references/execute-code-sandbox-env-windows.md`.

### Testing / Contributing

**`scripts/run_tests.sh` doesn't work as-is on Windows** — it looks for
POSIX venv layouts (`.venv/bin/activate`). The Sonic-installed venv at
`venv/Scripts/` has no pip or pytest either (stripped for install size).
Workaround: install `pytest + pytest-xdist + pyyaml` into a system Python
3.11 user site, then invoke pytest directly with `PYTHONPATH` set:

```bash
"/c/Program Files/Python311/python" -m pip install --user pytest pytest-xdist pyyaml
export PYTHONPATH="$(pwd)"
"/c/Program Files/Python311/python" -m pytest tests/foo/test_bar.py -v --tb=short -n 0
```

Use `-n 0`, not `-n 4` — `pyproject.toml`'s default `addopts` already
includes `-n`, and the wrapper's CI-parity guarantees don't apply off POSIX.

**POSIX-only tests need skip guards.** Common markers already in the codebase:
- Symlinks — elevated privileges on Windows
- `0o600` file modes — POSIX mode bits not enforced on NTFS by default
- `signal.SIGALRM` — Unix-only (see `tests/conftest.py::_enforce_test_timeout`)
- Winsock / Windows-specific regressions — `@pytest.mark.skipif(sys.platform != "win32", ...)`

Use the existing skip-pattern style (`sys.platform == "win32"` or
`sys.platform.startswith("win")`) to stay consistent with the rest of the
suite.

### Path / Filesystem

**Line endings.** Git may warn `LF will be replaced by CRLF the next time
Git touches it`. Cosmetic — the repo's `.gitattributes` normalizes. Don't
let editors auto-convert committed POSIX-newline files to CRLF.

**Forward slashes work almost everywhere.** `C:/Users/...` is accepted by
every Sonic tool and most Windows APIs. Prefer forward slashes in code
and logs — avoids shell-escaping backslashes in bash.

---

## Troubleshooting

### Voice not working
1. Check `stt.enabled: true` in config.yaml
2. Verify provider: `pip install faster-whisper` or set API key
3. In gateway: `/restart`. In CLI: exit and relaunch.

### Tool not available
1. `sonic tools` — check if toolset is enabled for your platform
2. Some tools need env vars (check `.env`)
3. `/reset` after enabling tools

### Model/provider issues
1. `sonic doctor` — check config and dependencies
2. `sonic auth` — re-authenticate OAuth providers (or `sonic auth add <provider>`)
3. Check `.env` has the right API key
4. **Copilot 403**: `gh auth login` tokens do NOT work for Copilot API. You must use the Copilot-specific OAuth device code flow via `sonic model` → GitHub Copilot.

### Changes not taking effect
- **Tools/skills:** `/reset` starts a new session with updated toolset
- **Config changes:** In gateway: `/restart`. In CLI: exit and relaunch.
- **Code changes:** Restart the CLI or gateway process

### Skills not showing
1. `sonic skills list` — verify installed
2. `sonic skills config` — check platform enablement
3. Load explicitly: `/skill name` or `sonic -s name`

### Gateway issues
Check logs first:
```bash
grep -i "failed to send\|error" ~/.sonic/logs/gateway.log | tail -20
```

Common gateway problems:
- **Gateway dies on SSH logout**: Enable linger: `sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER`
- **Gateway dies on WSL2 close**: WSL2 requires `systemd=true` in `/etc/wsl.conf` for systemd services to work. Without it, gateway falls back to `nohup` (dies when session closes).
- **Gateway crash loop**: Reset the failed state: `systemctl --user reset-failed sonic-gateway`

### Platform-specific issues
- **Discord bot silent**: Must enable **Message Content Intent** in Bot → Privileged Gateway Intents.
- **Slack bot only works in DMs**: Must subscribe to `message.channels` event. Without it, the bot ignores public channels.
- **Windows-specific issues** (`Alt+Enter` newline, WinError 10106, UTF-8 BOM config, test suite, line endings): see the dedicated **Windows-Specific Quirks** section above.

### Auxiliary models not working
If `auxiliary` tasks (vision, compression, session_search) fail silently, the `auto` provider can't find a backend. Either set `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` or `GOOGLE_API_KEY`, or explicitly configure each auxiliary task's provider:
```bash
sonic config set auxiliary.vision.provider <your_provider>
sonic config set auxiliary.vision.model <model_name>
```

---

## Where to Find Things

| Looking for... | Location |
|----------------|----------|
| Config options | `sonic config edit` or [Configuration docs](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/configuration) |
| Available tools | `sonic tools list` or [Tools reference](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/tools-reference) |
| Slash commands | `/help` in session or [Slash commands reference](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/slash-commands) |
| Skills catalog | `sonic skills browse` or [Skills catalog](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/skills-catalog) |
| Provider setup | `sonic model` or [Providers guide](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/providers) |
| Platform setup | `sonic gateway setup` or [Messaging docs](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/messaging/) |
| MCP servers | `sonic mcp list` or [MCP guide](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/mcp) |
| Profiles | `sonic profile list` or [Profiles docs](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/profiles) |
| Cron jobs | `sonic cron list` or [Cron docs](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/cron) |
| Memory | `sonic memory status` or [Memory docs](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/memory) |
| Env variables | `sonic config env-path` or [Env vars reference](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/environment-variables) |
| CLI commands | `sonic --help` or [CLI reference](https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/cli-commands) |
| Gateway logs | `~/.sonic/logs/gateway.log` |
| Session files | `sonic sessions browse` (reads state.db) |
| Source code | `~/.sonic/sonic-agent/` |

---

## Contributor Quick Reference

For occasional contributors and PR authors. Full developer docs: https://lightning-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/developer-guide/

### Project Layout

```
sonic-agent/
├── run_agent.py          # AIAgent — core conversation loop
├── model_tools.py        # Tool discovery and dispatch
├── toolsets.py           # Toolset definitions
├── cli.py                # Interactive CLI (SonicCLI)
├── sonic_state.py       # SQLite session store
├── agent/                # Prompt builder, context compression, memory, model routing, credential pooling, skill dispatch
├── sonic_cli/           # CLI subcommands, config, setup, commands
│   ├── commands.py       # Slash command registry (CommandDef)
│   ├── config.py         # DEFAULT_CONFIG, env var definitions
│   └── main.py           # CLI entry point and argparse
├── tools/                # One file per tool
│   └── registry.py       # Central tool registry
├── gateway/              # Messaging gateway
│   └── platforms/        # Platform adapters (telegram, discord, etc.)
├── cron/                 # Job scheduler
├── tests/                # ~3000 pytest tests
└── website/              # Docusaurus docs site
```

Config: `~/.sonic/config.yaml` (settings), `~/.sonic/.env` (API keys) — both under `$SONIC_HOME` when it is set.

### Adding a Tool (3 files)

**1. Create `tools/your_tool.py`:**
```python
import json, os
from tools.registry import registry

def check_requirements() -> bool:
    return bool(os.getenv("EXAMPLE_API_KEY"))

def example_tool(param: str, task_id: str = None) -> str:
    return json.dumps({"success": True, "data": "..."})

registry.register(
    name="example_tool",
    toolset="example",
    schema={"name": "example_tool", "description": "...", "parameters": {...}},
    handler

…(truncated)