owls

name	owls
description	Complete guide to using and extending OWLS — CLI usage, setup, configuration, spawning additional agents, gateway platforms, skills, voice, tools, profiles, and a concise contributor reference. Load this skill when helping users configure OWLS, troubleshoot issues, spawn agent instances, or make code contributions.
version	2.0.0
author	OWLS + Teknium
license	MIT
metadata	{"owls":{"tags":["owls","setup","configuration","multi-agent","spawning","cli","gateway","development"],"homepage":"https://github.com/NousResearch/owls","related_skills":["claude-code","codex","opencode"]}}

OWLS

OWLS 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. OWLS works with any LLM provider (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, local models, and 15+ others) and runs on Linux, macOS, and WSL.

What makes OWLS different:

• Self-improving through skills — OWLS 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 OWLS 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 OWLS 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 OWLS 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://owls.nousresearch.com/docs/

Quick Start

# Install
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/owls/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

# Interactive chat (default)
owls

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

# Setup wizard
owls setup

# Change model/provider
owls model

# Check health
owls doctor

---

CLI Reference

Global Flags

owls [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

owls 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

owls setup [section]      Interactive wizard (model|terminal|gateway|tools|agent)
owls model                Interactive model/provider picker
owls config               View current config
owls config edit          Open config.yaml in $EDITOR
owls config set KEY VAL   Set a config value
owls config path          Print config.yaml path
owls config env-path      Print .env path
owls config check         Check for missing/outdated config
owls config migrate       Update config with new options
owls login [--provider P] OAuth login (nous, openai-codex)
owls logout               Clear stored auth
owls doctor [--fix]       Check dependencies and config
owls status [--all]       Show component status

Tools & Skills

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

owls skills list          List installed skills
owls skills search QUERY  Search the skills hub
owls skills install ID    Install a skill
owls skills inspect ID    Preview without installing
owls skills config        Enable/disable skills per platform
owls skills check         Check for updates
owls skills update        Update outdated skills
owls skills uninstall N   Remove a hub skill
owls skills publish PATH  Publish to registry
owls skills browse        Browse all available skills
owls skills tap add REPO  Add a GitHub repo as skill source

MCP Servers

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

Gateway (Messaging Platforms)

owls gateway run          Start gateway foreground
owls gateway install      Install as background service
owls gateway start/stop   Control the service
owls gateway restart      Restart the service
owls gateway status       Check status
owls 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://owls.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/messaging/

Sessions

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

Cron Jobs

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

Webhooks

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

Profiles

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

Credential Pools

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

Other

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

---

Slash Commands (In-Session)

Type these during an interactive chat session.

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
/background <prompt> Run prompt in background
/queue <prompt>      Queue for next turn
/resume [name]       Resume a named session

Configuration

/config              Show config (CLI)
/model [name]        Show or change model
/provider            Show provider info
/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
/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
/cron                Manage cron jobs (CLI)
/reload-mcp          Reload MCP servers
/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 OWLS to latest (gateway)
/platforms (/gateway) Show platform connection status (gateway)

Utility

/branch (/fork)      Branch the current session
/btw                 Ephemeral side question (doesn't interrupt main task)
/fast                Toggle priority/fast processing
/browser             Open CDP browser connection
/history             Show conversation history (CLI)
/save                Save conversation to file (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
/status              Session info (gateway)
/profile             Active profile info

Exit

/quit (/exit, /q)    Exit CLI

---

Key Paths & Config

~/.owls/config.yaml       Main configuration
~/.owls/.env              API keys and secrets
$OWLS_HOME/skills/        Installed skills
~/.owls/sessions/         Session transcripts
~/.owls/logs/             Gateway and error logs
~/.owls/auth.json         OAuth tokens and credential pools
~/.owls/owls/     Source code (if git-installed)

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

Config Sections

Edit with owls config edit or owls 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://owls.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/configuration

Providers

20+ providers supported. Set via owls model or owls setup.

Provider	Auth	Key env var
OpenRouter	API key	OPENROUTER_API_KEY
Anthropic	API key	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
Nous Portal	OAuth	owls auth
OpenAI Codex	OAuth	owls 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
AI Gateway (Vercel)	API key	AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY
OpenCode Zen	API key	OPENCODE_ZEN_API_KEY
OpenCode Go	API key	OPENCODE_GO_API_KEY
Qwen OAuth	OAuth	owls login --provider 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://owls.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/providers

Toolsets

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

Toolset	What it provides
web	Web search and content extraction
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
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
search	Web search only (subset of web)
todo	In-session task planning and tracking
rl	Reinforcement learning tools (off by default)
moa	Mixture of Agents (off by default)
homeassistant	Smart home control (off by default)

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

---

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:

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 OWLS Instances

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

When to Use This vs delegate_task

	delegate_task	Spawning owls 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="owls chat -q 'Research GRPO papers and write summary to ~/research/grpo.md'", timeout=300)

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

Interactive PTY Mode (via tmux)

OWLS 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 'owls'", 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 'owls -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 'owls -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 'owls --continue'", timeout=10)

# Resume specific session
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'owls --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 owls 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

---

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. owls 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. owls doctor — check config and dependencies
2. owls login — re-authenticate OAuth providers
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 owls 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. owls skills list — verify installed
2. owls skills config — check platform enablement
3. Load explicitly: /skill name or owls -s name

Gateway issues

Check logs first:

grep -i "failed to send\|error" ~/.owls/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 owls-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 HTTP 400 "No models provided": Config file encoding issue (BOM). Ensure config.yaml is saved as UTF-8 without BOM.

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:

owls config set auxiliary.vision.provider <your_provider>
owls config set auxiliary.vision.model <model_name>

---

Where to Find Things

Looking for...	Location
Config options	owls config edit or Configuration docs
Available tools	owls tools list or Tools reference
Slash commands	/help in session or Slash commands reference
Skills catalog	owls skills browse or Skills catalog
Provider setup	owls model or Providers guide
Platform setup	owls gateway setup or Messaging docs
MCP servers	owls mcp list or MCP guide
Profiles	owls profile list or Profiles docs
Cron jobs	owls cron list or Cron docs
Memory	owls memory status or Memory docs
Env variables	owls config env-path or Env vars reference
CLI commands	owls --help or CLI reference
Gateway logs	~/.owls/logs/gateway.log
Session files	~/.owls/sessions/ or owls sessions browse
Source code	~/.owls/owls/

---

Contributor Quick Reference

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

Project Layout

owls/
├── run_agent.py          # AIAgent — core conversation loop
├── model_tools.py        # Tool discovery and dispatch
├── toolsets.py           # Toolset definitions
├── cli.py                # Interactive CLI (OWLSCLI)
├── owls_state.py       # SQLite session store
├── agent/                # Prompt builder, context compression, memory, model routing, credential pooling, skill dispatch
├── owls_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: ~/.owls/config.yaml (settings), ~/.owls/.env (API keys).

Adding a Tool (3 files)

1. Create tools/your_tool.py:

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=lambda args, **kw: example_tool(
        param=args.get("param", ""), task_id=kw.get("task_id")),
    check_fn=check_requirements,
    requires_env=["EXAMPLE_API_KEY"],
)

2. Add to toolsets.py → _OWLS_CORE_TOOLS list.

Auto-discovery: any tools/*.py file with a top-level registry.register() call is imported automatically — no manual list needed.

All handlers must return JSON strings. Use get_owls_home() for paths, never hardcode ~/.owls.

Adding a Slash Command

1. Add CommandDef to COMMAND_REGISTRY in owls_cli/commands.py
2. Add handler in cli.py → process_command()
3. (Optional) Add gateway handler in gateway/run.py

All consumers (help text, autocomplete, Telegram menu, Slack mapping) derive from the central registry automatically.

Agent Loop (High Level)

run_conversation():
  1. Build system prompt
  2. Loop while iterations < max:
     a. Call LLM (OpenAI-format messages + tool schemas)
     b. If tool_calls → dispatch each via handle_function_call() → append results → continue
     c. If text response → return
  3. Context compression triggers automatically near token limit

Testing

python -m pytest tests/ -o 'addopts=' -q   # Full suite
python -m pytest tests/tools/ -q            # Specific area

• Tests auto-redirect OWLS_HOME to temp dirs — never touch real ~/.owls/
• Run full suite before pushing any change
• Use -o 'addopts=' to clear any baked-in pytest flags

Commit Conventions

type: concise subject line

Optional body.

Types: fix:, feat:, refactor:, docs:, chore:

Key Rules

• Never break prompt caching — don't change context, tools, or system prompt mid-conversation
• Message role alternation — never two assistant or two user messages in a row
• Use get_owls_home() from owls_constants for all paths (profile-safe)
• Config values go in config.yaml, secrets go in .env
• New tools need a check_fn so they only appear when requirements are met