OpenHands/.openhands/microagents/glossary.md

OpenHands Glossary

Agent

The core AI entity in OpenHands that can perform software development tasks by interacting with tools, browsing the web, and modifying code.

Agent Controller

A component that manages the agent's lifecycle, handles its state, and coordinates interactions between the agent and various tools.

Agent Delegation

The ability of an agent to hand off specific tasks to other specialized agents for better task completion.

Agent Hub

A central registry of different agent types and their capabilities, allowing for easy agent selection and instantiation.

Agent Skill

A specific capability or function that an agent can perform, such as file manipulation, web browsing, or code editing.

Agent State

The current context and status of an agent, including its memory, active tools, and ongoing tasks.

CodeAct Agent

A generalist agent in OpenHands designed to perform tasks by editing and executing code.

Browser

A system for web-based interactions and tasks.

Browser Gym

A testing and evaluation environment for browser-based agent interactions and tasks.

Web Browser Tool

A tool that enables agents to interact with web pages and perform web-based tasks.

Commands

Terminal and execution related functionality.

Bash Session

A persistent terminal session that maintains state and history for bash command execution. This uses tmux under the hood.

Configuration

System-wide settings and options.

Agent Configuration

Settings that define an agent's behavior, capabilities, and limitations, including available tools and runtime settings.

Configuration Options

Settings that control various aspects of OpenHands behavior, including runtime, security, and agent settings.

LLM Config

Configuration settings for language models used by agents, including model selection and parameters.

LLM Draft Config

Settings for draft mode operations with language models, typically used for faster, lower-quality responses.

Runtime Configuration

Settings that define how the runtime environment should be set up and operated.

Security Options

Configuration settings that control security features and restrictions.

Conversation

A sequence of interactions between a user and an agent, including messages, actions, and their results.

Conversation Info

Metadata about a conversation, including its status, participants, and timeline.

Conversation Manager

A component that handles the creation, storage, and retrieval of conversations.

Conversation Metadata

Additional information about conversations, such as tags, timestamps, and related resources.

Conversation Status

The current state of a conversation, including whether it's active, completed, or failed.

Conversation Store

A storage system for maintaining conversation history and related data.

Events

Event

Every Conversation comprises a series of Events. Each Event is either an Action or an Observation.

Event Stream

A continuous flow of events that represents the ongoing activities and interactions in the system.

Action

A specific operation or command that an agent executes through available tools, such as running a command or editing a file.

Observation

The response or result returned by a tool after an agent's action, providing feedback about the action's outcome.

Interface

Different ways to interact with OpenHands.

CLI Mode

A command-line interface mode for interacting with OpenHands agents without a graphical interface.

GUI Mode

A graphical user interface mode for interacting with OpenHands agents through a web interface.

Headless Mode

A mode of operation where OpenHands runs without a user interface, suitable for automation and scripting.

Agent Memory

The system that decides which parts of the Event Stream (i.e. the conversation history) should be passed into each LLM prompt.

Memory Store

A storage system for maintaining agent memory and context across sessions.

Condenser

A component that processes and summarizes conversation history to maintain context while staying within token limits.

Truncation

A very simple Condenser strategy. Reduces conversation history or content to stay within token limits.

Microagent

A specialized prompt that enhances OpenHands with domain-specific knowledge, repository-specific context, and task-specific workflows.

Microagent Registry

A central repository of available microagents and their configurations.

Public Microagent

A general-purpose microagent available to all OpenHands users, triggered by specific keywords. Located in microagents/.

Repository Microagent

A type of microagent that provides repository-specific context and guidelines, stored in the .openhands/microagents/ directory.

Prompt

Components for managing and processing prompts.

Prompt Caching

A system for caching and reusing common prompts to improve performance.

Prompt Manager

A component that handles the loading, processing, and management of prompts used by agents, including microagents.

Response Parsing

The process of interpreting and structuring responses from language models and tools.

Runtime

The execution environment where agents perform their tasks, which can be local, remote, or containerized.

Action Execution Server

A REST API that receives agent actions (e.g. bash commands, python code, browsing actions), executes them in the runtime environment, and returns the results.

Action Execution Client

A component that handles the execution of actions in the runtime environment, managing the communication between the agent and the runtime.

Docker Runtime

A containerized runtime environment that provides isolation and reproducibility for agent operations.

E2B Runtime

A specialized runtime environment built on E2B for secure and isolated code execution.

Local Runtime

A runtime environment that executes on the local machine, suitable for development and testing.

Modal Runtime

A runtime environment built on Modal for scalable and distributed agent operations.

Remote Runtime

A sandboxed environment that executes code and commands remotely, providing isolation and security for agent operations.

Runtime Builder

A component that builds a Docker image for the Action Execution Server based on a user-specified base image.

Security

Security-related components and features.

Security Analyzer

A component that checks agent actions for potential security risks.