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Agency: Open-source platform for debugging, profiling, and analyzing AI agents

UC Berkeley Sky Computing Lab released Agency, an open-source platform for running, debugging, profiling and controlling AI agents, which the project describes as "htop + gdb for AI agents." Agency links LLM requests, tool calls and system activity in one dashboard, adds a Critical Path Profiler to show where wall-clock time went, and compares completed runs side by side; it is model- and harness-agnostic, supporting Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and a native harness across OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon Bedrock and OpenAI-compatible endpoints including vLLM. The platform requires Linux x86-64, Python 3.12+, Git, uv, and Docker or Podman, with no GPU, ZFS or CRIU needed, and integration with existing Claude Code and Codex CLI sessions on Linux is labeled experimental.

read3 min views3 publishedOct 21, 2026
Agency: Open-source platform for debugging, profiling, and analyzing AI agents
Image: Michielbdejong (auto-discovered)

Live debugging and systems profiling for AI agents.

Agency is an open-source platform developed at UC Berkeley Sky Computing Lab for running, debugging, profiling, and controlling AI agents.

As agents tackle longer tasks, invoke tools, and work in parallel, understanding what they're actually doing gets harder. Model traces only tell part of the story. What is an agent waiting for? Where is time being spent? Why is one run slower than another?

Agency connects LLM requests, tool calls, and system activity in one place, giving you the visibility to investigate execution, find bottlenecks, and understand what changed.

We are model and harness agnostic! Run Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, or Agency's native harness with supported backends including OpenAI, Anthropic, Bedrock, and local models via vLLM. Get started

Think htop + gdb for AI agents.

Watch agents execute in real time. Inspect model requests, tool calls, outputs, failures, and waits across agents. , resume, or stop supported executions directly from the dashboard.

When execution finishes, the same view becomes a navigable history of everything that happened.

See where wall-clock time actually goes.

Trace model requests, tool calls, processes, and dependencies across agents. Identify the work determining completion time, distinguish parallel execution from waiting, and zoom into bottlenecks.

Use the Critical Path Profiler after execution to investigate what held the run back.

Dig into the measurements behind execution.

Explore LLM latency, token usage, tool durations, errors, retries, CPU, memory, I/O, and optional GPU metrics. Follow linked records from high-level activity down to individual events and processes.

No invented numbers. Missing measurements stay missing.

Compare completed runs side by side.

Examine execution trajectories, model and tool activity, latency, resource usage, failures, and outcomes. Find where execution paths diverged and which measurements changed.

Agency compares recorded evidence, without guessing at causes.

Agency provides a sandboxed execution environment, Python API, supported agent harnesses, and integrated telemetry. Your application keeps control of its workflow and orchestration.

Layer Supported options
Agent harnesses Native, Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Grok, Kimi
Model backends OpenAI Chat Completions / Responses, Anthropic, Amazon Bedrock, OpenAI-compatible endpoints (including vLLM)
Environment Linux sandboxes using Docker or Podman, with configurable resources and mounts

Compatibility depends on model capabilities, configuration, and external CLI versions. External harness CLIs must be installed separately.

Experimental: Integration with existing Claude Code and Codex CLI sessions on Linux is experimental. Profiling, interception, and execution controls may be limited. Python-orchestrated workflows currently provide the most complete experience.

See configuration and requirements.

  • Linux x86-64 and Python 3.12+
  • Git and uv
  • Docker or Podman
  • API key for your configured model provider
git clone https://github.com/agency-project/agency.git
cd agency
uv sync --locked --python 3.12

export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key"
export OPENAI_MODEL="gpt-6-luna"

uv run python examples/quickstart.py

This runs a native agent in an isolated sandbox. The configured model must support reasoning_effort="none". Model API usage may incur charges.

First startup requires network access for the sandbox image and dependencies. No GPU, ZFS, or CRIU required.

AGENCY_PROFILE=1 AGENCY_PROFILE_SCOPE=workload \
  uv run python examples/quickstart.py --webui

Open localhost:7860 for live execution and localhost:7860/profiler for profiling.

The dashboard binds to 0.0.0.0 by default; don't expose it to untrusted networks without appropriate access controls.

For Python integration, see examples/quickstart.py. You can configure the harness and model independently, define tasks with typed inputs and outputs, and collect execution records for later analysis.

Agency is open source. Contributions, bug reports, and feedback are welcome.

See CONTRIBUTING.md to get started.

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