ollie/agents

Agents

Each .json file defines an agent configuration. Agent configs are installed to ~/.config/ollie/agents/ and selected at runtime via /agent <name>.

default

Base agent with no specializations. Provides the standard ollie toolset and prompt assembly. Also serves as the base for JIT-generated subagents — subagent_generate copies default.json and replaces the prompt with SYSTEM_PROMPT + the identity text.

coding

Coding-focused agent. Extends default with agent instructions covering code modification discipline, security practices, and exploratory reading habits. Also enables the execute_elevated_bash trusted tool for operations requiring elevated privileges, and configures an MCP server for elevated operations.

System prompt

The system prompt is assembled from the prompt array in the agent config. Each entry is a shell command whose stdout is appended to the prompt. Commands run in the session's working directory with access to $OLLIE (mount path) and $PWD.

{
  "prompt": [
    "$OLLIE/x/prime SYSTEM_PROMPT",
    "$OLLIE/x/prime tools-file",
    "$OLLIE/x/prime tools-reasoning"
  ]
}

$OLLIE/x/prime <name> reads a file from p/ (prompts directory) and writes it to stdout with environment variable substitution. The base system prompt is embedded in the binary and automatically prepended.

The fully assembled system prompt is visible at s/<id>/systemprompt.

Hooks

Hooks are lifecycle callbacks executed at specific points:

Hook	When	Use case
agentSpawn	Session creation	Start elevation adapter, initialize state
postTurn	After each turn	Task list display, logging
preCompact	Before context compaction	Save state
postCompact	After context compaction	Notify user
turnError	On turn error (rate limit, transient failure)	Fallback handling, model switching

Hook commands run with OLLIE_SESSION_ID set to the current session ID.

MCP Servers

Agent configs can specify MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers for external tool providers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "server-name": {
      "command": "server-binary",
      "args": [],
      "env": {"KEY": "value"}
    }
  }
}

Tools from MCP servers are registered alongside built-in tools and can be invoked by the agent.

Adding a new agent

Copy default.json, rename it, and adjust the prompt array to include the prompts you want. Add hooks, trusted tools, MCP servers, and generation parameters as needed.