🤖 Agentists Quick Start

Welcome to the Agentists Quick Start repository - your opinionated guide to getting started with agentic engineering. 🚀

⚡ Quick Start

Launch a ready-to-use workspace in seconds using DevPod:

Motivation

• Share your set up across CodeSpaces and/or your HomeLab
  This includes:
• Favored VS Code extensions
• Shared secrets (e.g. Claude API Key e.g. ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) from an external provider such as Github Codespaces Secrets or 1password

Install DevPod in a Code space

• Clone this repo
• Create a codespace from it
• Install DevPod

  curl -L -o devpod "https://github.com/loft-sh/devpod/releases/latest/download/devpod-linux-amd64" && sudo install -c -m 0755 devpod /usr/local/bin && rm -f devpod

Basic Development Environment:

devpod up https://github.com/jedarden/agentists-quickstart@workspace/basic

Security-Focused Environment:

devpod up https://github.com/jedarden/agentists-quickstart@workspace/security

🧠 What is Agentic Engineering?

Agentic engineering is the practice of building, deploying, and managing AI agents that can autonomously perform tasks, make decisions, and interact with various systems. This repository provides best practices and ready-to-use configurations to accelerate your journey into this emerging field.

📋 Prerequisites

For DevPod.sh (Recommended):

• DevPod CLI
• Docker Desktop or Docker Engine

For Manual Setup:

• Docker or Podman installed
• VS Code with Dev Containers extension
• Git
• Basic understanding of containerization

🛠️ Alternative Setup Methods

Manual VS Code Setup

1. Clone a specific branch

   # For basic development
   git clone -b workspace/basic https://github.com/jedarden/agentists-quickstart
   
   # For security-focused development
   git clone -b workspace/security https://github.com/jedarden/agentists-quickstart
   

2. Open in VS Code

   • Open the cloned folder in VS Code
   • Install the Dev Containers extension if needed
   • Click "Reopen in Container" when prompted

3. Start Building

   • All tools and dependencies are pre-installed
   • Begin developing your agentic applications

🎯 Core Principles

1. 🌐 Remote-First Development

All coding is performed remotely in isolated environments. No running on local.

• Use containerized development environments (DevPods)
• Ensures consistency across team members
• Eliminates "works on my machine" issues
• Provides clean separation between development and personal environments

2. 🏗️ Agent-Centric Architecture

Design systems with autonomous agents as first-class citizens.

• Build modular, composable agent components
• Implement clear agent boundaries and responsibilities
• Use standardized communication protocols between agents
• Design for scalability from single agent to multi-agent swarms

3. 📈 Continuous Learning and Adaptation

Agents should evolve and improve through interaction and feedback.

• Implement feedback loops for agent performance
• Use versioning for agent behaviors and models
• Track agent decisions and outcomes for analysis
• Enable A/B testing of agent strategies

📁 Repository Structure

This repository uses a branch-based approach for different DevPod configurations:

Main Branches:

• main - Documentation and project overview
• devpods-documentation - Comprehensive DevPods documentation

Workspace Branches:

• workspace/basic - General-purpose development environment with Docker-in-Docker
• workspace/security - Security research environment with Node.js tools

Each DevPod branch contains:

├── .devcontainer/
│   └── devcontainer.json    # DevContainer configuration
├── README.md                # Branch-specific documentation
└── .gitignore              # Standard gitignore

🐳 DevPods

DevPods are our implementation of containerized development environments. Each DevPod is available as a separate branch that can be instantly launched using DevPod.sh.

Available DevPods:

Benefits:

• 🚀 Instant workspace setup
• 🔒 Isolated environments
• 📦 Pre-configured tools
• 🤝 Consistent across teams

✅ Best Practices

1. Always develop in containers - Never install development dependencies on your local machine
2. Document your agents - Clear documentation of agent capabilities and limitations
3. Test agent interactions - Implement comprehensive testing for multi-agent scenarios
4. Monitor agent behavior - Use logging and observability tools
5. Version everything - Agent code, configurations, and training data

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please ensure:

1. All code is developed within a DevPod
2. Follow the established patterns and principles
3. Include documentation for new features
4. Test thoroughly before submitting

🗺️ Future Roadmap

• Agent templates and scaffolding tools
• Multi-agent orchestration examples
• Performance monitoring dashboards
• Agent communication protocols
• Security best practices guide

📄 License

[License information to be added]

💬 Support

For questions and support:

• Open an issue in this repository
• Check existing documentation
• Join our community in GitHub Discussions

Remember: The future of software development is agentic. Start building with the right foundation! 🏆