AgentVM app 1.1.2

[abra-code]

A newer Xcode without a new image, a look at the recipes before a tools update, and Build Again... for an image whose base changed. Released with agent-vm 0.7.59.

AgentVM.app is a Mac app for creating and managing AgentVM images and boxes: the virtual machines, running macOS or Linux, that AI coding agents run in, isolated from your Mac. It is a companion to the agent-vm and avm command line tools. Agents themselves run in Terminal (avm) or in Cadabra.

Highlights

• A newer Xcode in place. Update... gives the Xcode recipe a newer .xip, and the image moves from Xcode 27 to 27.1 without being made again.
• See the recipes before a tools update. With Tools ticked, Update... has a second step that lists the recipes the update runs, in their order, with what each one installs.
• Build Again... for an image made from another image that has since been built again or got other tools.
• A new icon.
• agent-vm 0.7.59: the app requires it and offers to install it.

Update...: the recipes

Update... in an image's pane updates macOS, the tools the image's recipes installed, and the guest daemon. When Tools is ticked, the button at the bottom is now Continue, and it leads to a second step, Recipes:

• The recipes the image keeps, in the order the tools update runs them, each with its description, under a line that says when the tools were last updated.
• A recipe built with a file says which, for example "Built with Xcode_27.xip", and has a button to give it a newer one.
• Back returns to the first step; Update starts the update.

Every recipe the image keeps is updated: leaving one out is not offered yet.

A newer Xcode without a new image

Until now, the way to move an image to a newer Xcode was New Image from that image with the Xcode recipe ticked again. That made a second image, and it listed the Xcode recipe twice.

Now:

1. In the image's pane, click Update..., tick Tools and click Continue.
2. On the Xcode recipe's line, click Choose xcode... and pick the newer .xip.
3. Click Update.

The Xcode recipe runs again with the new file, in its place among the update's steps, and the image records it. The command shown in the window gains --input xcode=<path>, the same command you can run in Terminal.

• About 10 GB free is needed, as for a build; the step says so once a file is chosen.
• Clear beside the button forgets the file, and so does unticking Tools.
• Update stays off when the chosen file can no longer be read, or when another file the recipe was built with is gone; the window says which.

Build Again...

An image made from another one (New Image with a start image) keeps what it was made with. When that base image is built again, or its recipes install something else (a newer Xcode, say), the image is now marked Needs maintenance, and its pane says why, for example "Its base image macos-27-tools has other tools than when it was made from it."

Build Again..., shown in the pane only then, asks first and then makes the image again: a fresh copy of the base, with the recipes this image added run on it again. The progress window and the image's card follow the job.

• The image stays as it is, and can be used, until the new one is ready. A failure or Stop leaves it as it was.
• Boxes made from it keep what they have until they are recreated, and images made from it are not built again with it; the question names both.
• A system or tools update of the base does not ask for this: the image can take those updates itself with Update....

New Image

• A recipe the start image already ran runs again when it is ticked, and takes the place of the start's one instead of being listed twice. The note beside it says "replaces the one has" while it is ticked.

From agent-vm 0.7.54 to 0.7.59

What the newer agent-vm brings that you will see:

• A box that fails to start says why, quoting the error, instead of only "see supervisor.log" (0.7.55).
• Each recipe is listed once: a recipe ticked again for an image made from another takes the base's entry's place, in the order a rebuild runs them (0.7.56).
• agent-vm image update <image> --tools --input xcode=<path> gives a recipe a newer file in Terminal, as Update... does (0.7.57).
• A rebuild takes the base as it is now. A recipe the base changed (another version, a newer file) is no longer run in its old version over the base's (0.7.58).
• An image whose base changed says it needs a rebuild, in image list, image info and status, with the command (0.7.59).

Good to know

• A recipe built with two files, and an image keeping more than twelve recipes: the second file, and the recipes past the twelfth, are given in Terminal. The window says so and shows the command.
• An image made before agent-vm 0.7.56 may list a recipe twice. Update... shows both; a newer file goes to the one listed later, as agent-vm gives it there, and the earlier one says so.

Requirements and installing

• A Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 27 or later. The app does not open anywhere else.
• agent-vm 0.7.59 or later. The app offers to install or update it.

Open AgentVM_1.1.2.zip and move AgentVM.app to the Applications folder, replacing version 1.1.1.

License

Apache License 2.0, as agent-vm.

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This discussion was created from the release AgentVM app 1.1.2.