Buckley

Buckley is a tool-first AI agent harness for serious repository work.

It combines resumable sessions, Arbiter-governed model and tool selection, Claude-style repository instructions, and multiple operator surfaces: terminal, browser, one-shot, ACP, and LSP.

Agent Skill

Agents working with Buckley should use the using-buckley skill.

Why Buckley

• One shared runtime powers TUI chat, buckley -p, headless sessions, ACP editor flows, and browser control.
• Arbiter governs planning/execution/review model routing, reasoning effort, tool pools, timeouts, approvals, and escalation.
• Runtime prompt assembly automatically pulls in AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .claude/instructions.md, project context, and active skills.
• Tool use is first-class. Buckley ships with 38 built-in tool entry points plus skills, plugins, telemetry, approvals, and SQLite-backed persistence.
• Sessions survive crashes. Plans, approvals, telemetry, and artifacts stay resumable.

Quick Start

go install m31labs.dev/buckley/cmd/buckley@latest
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="your-key"
buckley

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Ollama are also supported. OpenRouter is the default path when available.

Interfaces

Core Workflow

buckley plan "add auth" "support email/password login"
buckley execute <plan-id>
buckley review
buckley review-pr 123

The planner, builder, review, and runtime layers share the same governance stack, persistence, and tool registry.

What 1.1.0 Adds

• Fully integrated Arbiter runtime across one-shot, TUI, ACP, and headless execution paths.
• Shared runtime prompt assembly for repo instructions, project context, working directory, and skills.
• Governed tool exposure with role/task-aware pool filtering before tool calls are shown to the model.
• Anthropic tool calling and tool-result round-tripping, so Claude-class models can participate in the same tool loop.
• Better model resolution for routed raw IDs such as unqualified Claude model names.

Commands People Actually Use

buckley commit
buckley pr
buckley review
buckley review-pr 123
buckley hunt
buckley dream
buckley experiment run "compare-routing" -m z-ai/glm-5.2 -m moonshotai/kimi-k2.7-code -p "Implement feature X"

buckley review examines one immutable snapshot of the selected local scope. Untracked files are excluded by default; repeat --include-untracked path/to/new.go to explicitly allowlist worktree files that may be sent to the model, after inspecting them for secrets. Native Codex verification receives a self-contained copy of only the captured commit plus patch; its JSONL command events must prove successful, classifiable build and test runs that cover the changed source paths. API-model inspection tools are rooted to an independently materialized copy of that snapshot and can run only deterministic build/test/check plans in an OS-enforced, read-only-source sandbox. buckley review-pr adds the remote PR diff, CI state, submitted reviews, and unresolved inline feedback; run it from a checkout whose HEAD is the PR head so verification is pinned to the same revision. API approvals require actual successful verification tool calls—not prose claiming PASS—and build/test evidence must use one applicable toolchain and cover every changed source package. Branch and PR approvals require passing verification, complete evidence, an explicit disposition for every supplied feedback ID, and an independent approval-critic pass. buckley review -project is an advisory architecture assessment and cannot issue an approval verdict. buckley commit and buckley pr use transparent tool-first workflows rather than opaque text-only prompting.

Configuration

Configuration is layered:

~/.buckley/config.yaml
./.buckley/config.yaml
environment variables

Minimal setup:

providers:
  openrouter:
    api_key: ${OPENROUTER_API_KEY}

Buckley supports separate planning, execution, and review models:

models:
  planning: z-ai/glm-5.2
  execution: z-ai/glm-5.2
  review: moonshotai/kimi-k2.7-code
  reasoning: xhigh

Skills And Instructions

Buckley ships with 8 bundled skills, including planning, code review, systematic debugging, refactoring, test-driven development, API design, git workflow, and creative writing.

Skills layer on top of repository instructions. If a repo already uses AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md, Buckley consumes them automatically and applies the same guidance across terminal, headless, and editor sessions.

Development

./scripts/test.sh
go build ./cmd/buckley

Primary repo docs live under docs/.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.