ir-agent-landscape

name	ir:agent-landscape
description	Scan the web for coding agents and agent orchestrators, track GitHub stars and trends, rank by popularity+momentum, and publish a report to the irrlicht site. Shows which agents irrlicht already supports. Use when user says 'agent landscape', 'scan agents', 'coding agent tracker', 'agent popularity', '/ir:agent-landscape', or wants to see the competitive landscape of coding agents.

Agent Landscape Tracker

Discover, track, and rank coding agents and agent orchestrators. Publish a styled HTML report to the irrlicht site at site/landscape/index.html and an in-depth comparison at site/landscape/compare/index.html.

Non-negotiable rules

Past runs of this skill invented data — fabricated star counts, wrong repo paths, copied descriptions instead of reading the actual README, and fake historical snapshots (e.g. "2026-01-01" entries for agents the skill only started tracking in April). Follow these rules to prevent a repeat:

1. Never invent a value. Every stars, language, license, description, funding_millions_usd, estimated_users, or historical snapshot must come from a concrete source you can quote (the gh CLI, a specific WebFetch URL, a specific search result). If you don't have a source, write null and move on.
2. Never copy an old value forward. If you can't re-verify a field on this run, set it to null instead of leaving whatever was in the file from last time.
3. Always use gh api for GitHub data, not WebFetch. gh api repos/OWNER/REPO returns canonical stars, language, license, description, archived flag, and follows renames. WebFetch on github.com returns JS-rendered pages that routinely give stale numbers.
4. Honor GitHub's repo-rename redirects. gh api returns a full_name field. If full_name != OWNER/REPO that you requested, the repo has been transferred. Update github_repo to the new canonical path in agent-data.json.
5. Never write a historical snapshot you didn't measure. stars_history may only contain entries this skill actually measured. Do not back-fill "~3 months ago" or "~1 month ago" rows from memory or estimate.
6. Plausibility check before writing. Before writing a new stars value, compare to the prior snapshot. If the delta is >30% in <30 days for a repo with >5k stars, investigate before trusting it — it's more likely a bad query than real growth. Common causes: cached HTML, wrong repo, joke repo inflating itself via README marketing.
7. Descriptions come from the repo's own description field, not from product marketing pages. If a description contains attribution (e.g. "Anthropic's X" or "Google's Y"), verify the GitHub owner matches the claim. badlogic/pi-mono is not Anthropic's. block/goose is not Block's anymore (it was transferred). cursor/cursor is not the editor source (it's the issue tracker).
8. Archived repos go in the "archived" list, not the ranked table. gh api returns archived: true — respect it.
9. Short-window growth is not 1-month or 3-month growth. Until the repo has a snapshot ≥30 days old, the growth column must read "Recent growth since (Nd ago)", not "1M" or "3M". The HTML generator already enforces this.

Data File

All state persists in references/agent-data.json (relative to this skill directory). Schema:

{
  "last_updated": "2026-04-24",
  "agents": [
    {
      "name": "Aider",
      "github_repo": "Aider-AI/aider",
      "category": "agent",
      "website": "https://aider.chat",
      "description": "AI pair-programming tool in your terminal.",
      "stars": 43874,
      "language": "Python",
      "license": "Apache-2.0",
      "interface": "CLI",
      "pricing": "Free (open source)",
      "stars_history": [
        {"date": "2026-04-24", "stars": 43874},
        {"date": "2026-04-12", "stars": 43202}
      ],
      "alternative_metrics": null,
      "irrlicht_support": "none",
      "first_seen": "2026-04-05"
    }
  ]
}

Field definitions:

• github_repo — canonical OWNER/REPO from gh api .full_name. Rewrite on repo rename.
• stars — current GitHub stars from gh api .stargazers_count. null if no public repo.
• language, license — straight from gh api (.language, .license.spdx_id). null if missing.
• description — from gh api .description. Lightly cleaned if too long, but never replaced with third-party marketing copy. For non-GitHub agents, use the project's own homepage.
• interface — curated string (CLI / IDE extension / Desktop app / Web / SDK / Enterprise SaaS / CLI (tmux) / etc.).
• pricing — curated string (Free (open source) / Freemium / Paid / Enterprise / Paid (usage-based)).
• stars_history — snapshots this skill actually measured. Newest first. Never back-fill.
• alternative_metrics — for non-GitHub agents. Object with any of funding_millions_usd, acquisition_price_millions_usd, estimated_users, source, measured_date. Set to null when github_repo is set.
• irrlicht_support — "live" (adapter exists in core/adapters/inbound/), "planned", or "none".
• category — "agent" or "orchestrator".
• first_seen — ISO date when this entry was first added. Never change it once set.

Top-level archived array (sibling to agents) holds entries moved out per rule 8. Same shape as an agents entry plus an archived_reason string (why it was archived, cited from the search that found it). The HTML generator only reads data["agents"], so anything here is automatically excluded from both the ranked table and the "No public repo" group — no generator change needed. If a run finds the entry is no longer archived (archived: false again), move it back into agents and drop archived_reason.

Snapshot strategy

Snapshots accumulate over successive runs. No back-filling.

On each run:

1. Append today's {date, stars} to stars_history for each GitHub agent.
2. Retain all prior real snapshots (no trimming until we have > 12 entries).
3. If today already has an entry, overwrite it (same-day re-run).
4. Dates are the run date, not a month/week anchor.

Growth is only computed on demand in the HTML generator using whichever snapshots exist. Until there is a snapshot ≥30 days old, growth is shown as "Recent growth since (Nd ago)" rather than "1M" / "3M".

NEW badge

An agent is "NEW" only if both:

• first_seen is strictly later than the earliest first_seen across all tracked agents (so the initial seed batch never gets tagged), and
• first_seen is within the last 90 days.

Deny list

references/deny-list.txt lists agent/orchestrator names to explicitly exclude. One name per line; # lines are comments. Entries with matching name field are skipped during discovery and removed from agent-data.json if present.

Irrlicht support mapping

The canonical source of truth is core/adapters/inbound/agents/ (registered in all.go's All()) + core/adapters/inbound/orchestrators/. As of this writing:

• live: Claude Code (anthropics/claude-code), OpenAI Codex (openai/codex), Pi (earendil-works/pi, renamed from badlogic/pi-mono in v0.74), Aider (Aider-AI/aider), OpenCode (anomalyco/opencode), Kiro (adapter targets Kiro CLI specifically, AdapterName "kiro-cli"; product repo kirodotdev/Kiro), Gemini CLI (google-gemini/gemini-cli), Antigravity (closed-source, no public repo), Gas Town (gastownhall/gastown).
• planned: Cursor, Claude Squad, Qwen Code, Crush, Continue, Goose, Kilo Code, Paperclip, Ruflo, Multiclaude, SWE-agent.
• Everything else: none.

Before each run, ls core/adapters/inbound/agents/ and ls core/adapters/inbound/orchestrators/ to confirm the list is still correct. If the set of live adapters has changed, update this section and apply the change to agent-data.json.

Workflow

0. Preflight

cd /Users/ingo/projects/irrlicht
gh auth status
ls core/adapters/inbound/agents
ls core/adapters/inbound/orchestrators

Abort if gh is not authenticated — every other step depends on it.

1. Load existing data

Read references/agent-data.json. Read references/deny-list.txt and prune any matching entries from the data. If agents is empty, read references/seed-agents.md for the initial list.

2. Refresh every GitHub agent via gh api

For every agent with github_repo, run:

gh api repos/<github_repo> --jq '{repo: .full_name, stars: .stargazers_count, language: .language, license: .license.spdx_id, description: .description, archived: .archived}'

Batch them in a single bash loop so you don't issue 40 separate tool calls. Example:

jq -r '.agents[] | select(.github_repo != null) | .github_repo' references/agent-data.json \
| while read -r repo; do
    gh api "repos/$repo" --jq '{queried: "'"$repo"'", repo: .full_name, stars: .stargazers_count, language: .language, license: .license.spdx_id, description: .description, archived: .archived}'
  done

For each result:

• If repo != queried, GitHub has renamed the repo — update github_repo to repo.
• If archived: true, move the agent out of the ranked tables into a separate "archived" list (or drop it if it's been replaced by another product — note the reason in a commit message).
• Update stars, language, license, description from the API response.
• Append today's {date, stars} to stars_history (overwriting if today already exists).
• Run the plausibility check from rule #6 above.

3. Search for new agents (optional; only when explicitly requested or quarterly)

Use WebSearch queries such as:

• "best AI coding agents <year>"
• "new coding assistant CLI terminal <year>"
• "agent orchestrator framework <year>"
• "claude code alternatives" / "gas town alternatives"

Skip anything that isn't a coding-specific agent or orchestrator (IDE themes, linters, general chatbots). Skip anything on the deny list.

For each new discovery:

• Resolve the canonical repo with gh api (see step 2) before writing anything.
• Set first_seen to today.
• Fill interface and pricing manually based on the project's own homepage.

4. Refresh non-GitHub agents (alternative_metrics)

For each agent with github_repo: null, re-check the following and update measured_date to today:

• Funding: "<name>" funding round <year> — look for the most recent round on TechCrunch / Bloomberg / Crunchbase.
• Acquisition: "<name>" acquisition <year> — if acquired, set acquisition_price_millions_usd and note in the description.
• User count: "<name>" monthly active users or "<name>" VS Code marketplace installs.

Only write numbers you have a source for. Set source to a short citation (outlet + date). If no data found, set source to a honest "no public data found" string.

Common pitfalls:

• Devin ≠ Cognition's total funding. Record under Devin since Devin is Cognition's product, but note "Cognition AI parent" in the source.
• Amp ≠ Sourcegraph Cody. Cody was rebranded to Amp; Amp is spinning out as a standalone company. Do not list both.
• Windsurf was acquired by Cognition (Dec 2025). Its funding field should be null; its acquisition_price_millions_usd should be set.

5. Save agent-data.json

Write the updated data. Sort agents by category (agent first), then by stars descending, then by name ascending. Set last_updated to today.

6. Generate HTML

Run the HTML generator:

python3 .claude/skills/ir:agent-landscape/assets/generate.py   # if checked in
# else: use the generator documented below

If the generator script is not checked in, the latest reference implementation lives in the commit that last touched site/landscape/. Use it as-is rather than re-writing it from scratch.

The generator must:

• Rank GitHub agents by log10(stars + 1) when no ≥30-day snapshot exists (no fake trend bonus).
• Add a trend component only when at least one snapshot is ≥30 days old.
• Show "Recent growth since <prior snapshot date> (Nd ago)" in the growth column header when no 30-day snapshot exists; switch to "1M / 3M growth" only when real snapshots at those horizons exist.
• Tag NEW per the rule above (later than earliest first_seen and within 90 days).
• Place non-GitHub agents in an unranked "No public repo" group below the ranked table.
• Include a footnote: "* License and pricing are sourced from the GitHub API and public web pages. Verify on the project's own website before relying on them."

7. Update landing-page nav

Ensure site/index.html has the Landscape nav link (nav bar + footer). Idempotent; skip if present.

8. Summary

Print:

• Count of tracked agents, how many github vs non-github.
• Any repos where gh api returned a renamed full_name (report the rename so the user can commit it).
• Any agents marked archived: true (report even if you've moved them out of the ranked list).
• Any plausibility-check failures (stars delta >30% in <30 days for a 5k+ repo) — do NOT silently write them; ask the user whether to trust the number.
• Top 5 by current stars per category.
• Diff summary: git diff --stat site/landscape/ and git diff --stat .claude/skills/ir:agent-landscape/references/agent-data.json.