Process Manager for Autonomous AI Agents
📰 Hacker News (AI)
botctl is a process manager for autonomous AI agents, allowing users to manage persistent AI bots with a terminal dashboard, web UI, and declarative configuration
Action Steps
- Install botctl using the provided installation script
- Create a bot using the interactive creation process or with flags
- Launch the dashboard to monitor and control bots
- Control bots using the CLI or dashboard, including starting, stopping, messaging, and resuming
Who Needs to Know This
DevOps and software engineering teams can benefit from botctl as it provides a scalable and efficient way to manage AI agents, while data scientists and AI researchers can use it to deploy and monitor their models
Key Insight
💡 botctl provides a declarative configuration and autonomous execution for AI agents, making it easier to manage and deploy AI models
Share This
🤖 Manage autonomous AI agents with ease using botctl! #AI #DevOps
Key Takeaways
botctl is a process manager for autonomous AI agents, allowing users to manage persistent AI bots with a terminal dashboard, web UI, and declarative configuration
Full Article
Published Time: Mon, 06 Apr 2026 14:59:59 GMT
# botctl — Process Manager for Autonomous AI Agents
Copied
[$ botctl](https://botctl.dev/)
* [How It Works](https://botctl.dev/#architecture)
* [Quickstart](https://botctl.dev/#quickstart)
* [Docs](https://botctl.dev/docs)
* [GitHub](https://github.com/montanaflynn/botctl)
[ process manager for ai agents ]
Manage persistent AI bots with a terminal dashboard, web UI, and declarative configuration.
macOS / Linux Windows
$curl -fsSL https://botctl.dev/install.sh | sh
>irm https://botctl.dev/install.ps1 | iex
[GitHub](https://github.com/montanaflynn/botctl)[Quickstart](https://botctl.dev/#quickstart)
botctl
BOTCTL bots: 2/3 active cost: $4.51
NAME STATUS RUNS COST
<logs>weather-bot
[run #12] 2026-02-12 11:42:03
<bash> curl -s api.weather.gov/alerts
✓Fetched 3 active alerts
<write> workspace/alerts.json
No severe storms detected.
Sleeping for 300s...
msg> check the error logs
s stop m message q quit
$
How It Works
Declarative config
01
YAML frontmatter for settings, markdown body for the prompt.
---name: code-reviewer interval_seconds: 60 max_turns: 20--- Review open PRs and post comments...
Autonomous execution
02
Spawns Claude with your prompt, tools, and workspace. Runs, logs, and sleeps on a loop.
$ botctl start code-reviewer -d✓ Harness started (pid 48201) $ botctl logs code-reviewer -f[run #1] Reviewing PR #49...
Session memory
03
Every run saves its session. Resume where Claude left off, or send messages to redirect a running bot.
$ botctl start review --message"focus on PR 51"✓ Message queued, waking bot...
Hot reload
04
Edit `BOT.md` and the next run picks up changes. No restarts, no deploys, no downtime.
# change max_turns in BOT.md max_turns: 20→max_turns: 50# next run uses new value automatically
Extensible skills
05
Search, install, and share reusable skill modules from GitHub. Skills inject capabilities into any bot's prompt.
$ botctl skills search slack $ botctl skills add owner/repo --skill slack-notify $ botctl skills list
Web dashboard
06
Monitor and control bots from the browser. Same capabilities as the TUI — start, stop, message, and stream logs.
$ botctl --web-ui✓ Dashboard at http://localhost:4444 $ botctl --web-ui --port 8080
Quickstart
01
### Install
Download the latest binary with checksum verification. Supports macOS, Linux, and Windows on AMD64 and ARM64.
macOS / Linux Windows
$curl -fsSL https://botctl.dev/install.sh | sh
>irm https://botctl.dev/install.ps1 | iex
02
### Create a bot
Interactive creation via Claude. Generates a BOT.md config file with your bot's name, schedule, and system prompt.
shell
$botctl create my-bot# Opens interactive creation with Claude# Or with flags:$botctl create my-bot-d"Monitor weather APIs"-i 300-m 20
03
### Launch the dashboard
Open the TUI dashboard to monitor and control all your bots. Or use the web UI for browser-based access.
shell
# Terminal dashboard$botctl# Web dashboard$botctl--web-ui# port 4444$botctl--web-ui --port 8080
04
### Control your bots
Start, stop, message, and resume bots from the CLI or either dashboard. Bots run as background processes.
shell
$botctl start my-bot--detach$botctl start my-bot--message"check the error logs"$botctl logs my-bot-f$botctl stop my-bot
docs/
* _▾_ Getting Started
* [Overview](https://botctl.dev/docs#overview)
* [Installation](https://botctl.dev/docs#install)
* _▾_ Configuration
* [BOT.md](https://botctl.dev/docs#botmd)
* [Frontmatter](https://botctl.dev/docs#frontmatter)
* [Skills](https://botctl.dev/docs#skills)
* [Workspaces](https://botctl.dev/docs#workspaces)
* [Environment](https://botctl.dev/docs#env)
* _▾_ Interfaces
* [CLI Reference](https://botctl.dev/docs#cli)
* [TUI Dashboard](https://botctl.dev/docs#tui)
* [Web UI](https://botctl.dev/docs#web)
* _▾_ Internals
* [Harness Loop](https://botctl.dev/docs#harness)
*
# botctl — Process Manager for Autonomous AI Agents
Copied
[$ botctl](https://botctl.dev/)
* [How It Works](https://botctl.dev/#architecture)
* [Quickstart](https://botctl.dev/#quickstart)
* [Docs](https://botctl.dev/docs)
* [GitHub](https://github.com/montanaflynn/botctl)
[ process manager for ai agents ]
Manage persistent AI bots with a terminal dashboard, web UI, and declarative configuration.
macOS / Linux Windows
$curl -fsSL https://botctl.dev/install.sh | sh
>irm https://botctl.dev/install.ps1 | iex
[GitHub](https://github.com/montanaflynn/botctl)[Quickstart](https://botctl.dev/#quickstart)
botctl
BOTCTL bots: 2/3 active cost: $4.51
NAME STATUS RUNS COST
<logs>weather-bot
[run #12] 2026-02-12 11:42:03
<bash> curl -s api.weather.gov/alerts
✓Fetched 3 active alerts
<write> workspace/alerts.json
No severe storms detected.
Sleeping for 300s...
msg> check the error logs
s stop m message q quit
$
How It Works
Declarative config
01
YAML frontmatter for settings, markdown body for the prompt.
---name: code-reviewer interval_seconds: 60 max_turns: 20--- Review open PRs and post comments...
Autonomous execution
02
Spawns Claude with your prompt, tools, and workspace. Runs, logs, and sleeps on a loop.
$ botctl start code-reviewer -d✓ Harness started (pid 48201) $ botctl logs code-reviewer -f[run #1] Reviewing PR #49...
Session memory
03
Every run saves its session. Resume where Claude left off, or send messages to redirect a running bot.
$ botctl start review --message"focus on PR 51"✓ Message queued, waking bot...
Hot reload
04
Edit `BOT.md` and the next run picks up changes. No restarts, no deploys, no downtime.
# change max_turns in BOT.md max_turns: 20→max_turns: 50# next run uses new value automatically
Extensible skills
05
Search, install, and share reusable skill modules from GitHub. Skills inject capabilities into any bot's prompt.
$ botctl skills search slack $ botctl skills add owner/repo --skill slack-notify $ botctl skills list
Web dashboard
06
Monitor and control bots from the browser. Same capabilities as the TUI — start, stop, message, and stream logs.
$ botctl --web-ui✓ Dashboard at http://localhost:4444 $ botctl --web-ui --port 8080
Quickstart
01
### Install
Download the latest binary with checksum verification. Supports macOS, Linux, and Windows on AMD64 and ARM64.
macOS / Linux Windows
$curl -fsSL https://botctl.dev/install.sh | sh
>irm https://botctl.dev/install.ps1 | iex
02
### Create a bot
Interactive creation via Claude. Generates a BOT.md config file with your bot's name, schedule, and system prompt.
shell
$botctl create my-bot# Opens interactive creation with Claude# Or with flags:$botctl create my-bot-d"Monitor weather APIs"-i 300-m 20
03
### Launch the dashboard
Open the TUI dashboard to monitor and control all your bots. Or use the web UI for browser-based access.
shell
# Terminal dashboard$botctl# Web dashboard$botctl--web-ui# port 4444$botctl--web-ui --port 8080
04
### Control your bots
Start, stop, message, and resume bots from the CLI or either dashboard. Bots run as background processes.
shell
$botctl start my-bot--detach$botctl start my-bot--message"check the error logs"$botctl logs my-bot-f$botctl stop my-bot
docs/
* _▾_ Getting Started
* [Overview](https://botctl.dev/docs#overview)
* [Installation](https://botctl.dev/docs#install)
* _▾_ Configuration
* [BOT.md](https://botctl.dev/docs#botmd)
* [Frontmatter](https://botctl.dev/docs#frontmatter)
* [Skills](https://botctl.dev/docs#skills)
* [Workspaces](https://botctl.dev/docs#workspaces)
* [Environment](https://botctl.dev/docs#env)
* _▾_ Interfaces
* [CLI Reference](https://botctl.dev/docs#cli)
* [TUI Dashboard](https://botctl.dev/docs#tui)
* [Web UI](https://botctl.dev/docs#web)
* _▾_ Internals
* [Harness Loop](https://botctl.dev/docs#harness)
*
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