AGENTS.md

1# LocalAI Agent Instructions
2 
3This file is the entry point for AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Codex, Aider, etc.) working on LocalAI. It is an index to detailed topic guides in the `.agents/` directory. Read the relevant file(s) for the task at hand — you don't need to load all of them.
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5Human contributors: see [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for the development workflow.
6 
7## Policy for AI-Assisted Contributions
8 
9LocalAI follows the Linux kernel project's [guidelines for AI coding assistants](https://docs.kernel.org/process/coding-assistants.html). Before submitting AI-assisted code, read [.agents/ai-coding-assistants.md](.agents/ai-coding-assistants.md). Key rules:
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11- **No `Signed-off-by` from AI.** Only the human submitter may sign off on the Developer Certificate of Origin.
12- **No `Co-Authored-By: <AI>` trailers.** The human contributor owns the change.
13- **Use an `Assisted-by:` trailer** to attribute AI involvement. Format: `Assisted-by: AGENT_NAME:MODEL_VERSION [TOOL1] [TOOL2]`.
14- **The human submitter is responsible** for reviewing, testing, and understanding every line of generated code.
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16## Topics
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18| File | When to read |
19|------|-------------|
20| [.agents/ai-coding-assistants.md](.agents/ai-coding-assistants.md) | Policy for AI-assisted contributions — licensing, DCO, attribution |
21| [.agents/building-and-testing.md](.agents/building-and-testing.md) | Building the project, running tests, Docker builds for specific platforms |
22| [.agents/ci-caching.md](.agents/ci-caching.md) | CI build cache layout (registry-backed BuildKit cache on quay.io/go-skynet/ci-cache, per-arch keys), `DEPS_REFRESH` weekly cache-buster for unpinned Python deps, prebuilt `base-grpc-*` images for llama.cpp variants, per-arch native + manifest-merge pattern, `setup-build-disk` `/mnt` relocation, path filter on master push, manual eviction |
23| [.agents/adding-backends.md](.agents/adding-backends.md) | Adding a new backend (Python, Go, or C++) — full step-by-step checklist, including importer integration (the `/import-model` dropdown is server-driven from `GET /backends/known`) |
24| [.agents/coding-style.md](.agents/coding-style.md) | Code style, editorconfig, logging, documentation conventions |
25| [.agents/llama-cpp-backend.md](.agents/llama-cpp-backend.md) | Working on the llama.cpp backend — architecture, updating, tool call parsing |
26| [.agents/vllm-backend.md](.agents/vllm-backend.md) | Working on the vLLM / vLLM-omni backends — native parsers, ChatDelta, CPU build, libnuma packaging, backend hooks |
27| [.agents/sglang-backend.md](.agents/sglang-backend.md) | Working on the SGLang backend — `engine_args` validation against ServerArgs, speculative-decoding (EAGLE/EAGLE3/DFLASH/MTP) recipes, parser handling |
28| [.agents/ds4-backend.md](.agents/ds4-backend.md) | Working on the ds4 backend - DSML state machine, thinking modes, KV cache, Metal+CUDA matrix |
29| [.agents/testing-mcp-apps.md](.agents/testing-mcp-apps.md) | Testing MCP Apps (interactive tool UIs) in the React UI |
30| [.agents/api-endpoints-and-auth.md](.agents/api-endpoints-and-auth.md) | Adding API endpoints, auth middleware, feature permissions, user access control |
31| [.agents/debugging-backends.md](.agents/debugging-backends.md) | Debugging runtime backend failures, dependency conflicts, rebuilding backends |
32| [.agents/adding-gallery-models.md](.agents/adding-gallery-models.md) | Adding GGUF models from HuggingFace to the model gallery |
33| [.agents/localai-assistant-mcp.md](.agents/localai-assistant-mcp.md) | LocalAI Assistant chat modality — adding admin tools to the in-process MCP server, editing skill prompts, keeping REST + MCP + skills in sync |
34| [.agents/backend-signing.md](.agents/backend-signing.md) | Backend OCI image signing (keyless cosign + sigstore-go) — producer-side CI setup, consumer-side gallery `verification:` block, strict mode (`LOCALAI_REQUIRE_BACKEND_INTEGRITY`), revocation via `not_before` |
35| [.agents/preparing-a-release.md](.agents/preparing-a-release.md) | Cutting a release: PR labels, `RELEASE_NOTES_vX.Y.Z.md`, the blog post under `website/content/blog/`, and the demo clips under `website/static/media/` |
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37## Quick Reference
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39- **Coverage gates**: Never lower a coverage baseline or widen a gate's tolerance to turn a red gate green — the coverage ratchet only moves up. If a change drops coverage, add tests to raise it (e.g. render-smoke specs). See [.agents/building-and-testing.md](.agents/building-and-testing.md).
40- **Logging**: Use `github.com/mudler/xlog` (same API as slog)
41- **Go style**: Prefer `any` over `interface{}`
42- **Comments**: Explain *why*, not *what*
43- **Docs (docs-with-code rule)**: When you change user-facing behavior (API endpoints, CLI flags, config keys, or features), update the corresponding page under `docs/content/` in the SAME change, not as a follow-up. A user-facing change without a matching docs update is incomplete. See also the documentation conventions in [.agents/coding-style.md](.agents/coding-style.md).
44- **New API endpoints**: LocalAI advertises its capability surface in several independent places — swagger `@Tags`, `/api/instructions` registry, auth `RouteFeatureRegistry`, React UI `capabilities.js`, docs. Read [.agents/api-endpoints-and-auth.md](.agents/api-endpoints-and-auth.md) and follow its checklist — missing any surface means clients, admins, and the UI won't know the endpoint exists.
45- **Admin endpoints → MCP tool**: every admin endpoint that an admin would manage conversationally (install/list/edit/toggle/upgrade) MUST also be exposed as an MCP tool in `pkg/mcp/localaitools/`. The LocalAI Assistant chat modality and the standalone `local-ai mcp-server` consume that package; drift between REST and MCP is a real risk. Read [.agents/localai-assistant-mcp.md](.agents/localai-assistant-mcp.md) — the `TestToolHTTPRouteMappingComplete` test fails until you wire the new tool and update the route map.
46- **Releases ship with a post and clips**: a release is not done at the tag. It needs labelled PRs, `RELEASE_NOTES_vX.Y.Z.md`, a blog post under `website/content/blog/`, and a short demo clip in `website/static/media/` for each notable feature. See [.agents/preparing-a-release.md](.agents/preparing-a-release.md).
47- **Build**: Inspect `Makefile` and `.github/workflows/` — ask the user before running long builds
48- **Backend OS coverage**: a new backend must target every OS it can build for, not just Linux. `.github/backend-matrix.yml` has two matrices — `include:` (Linux) and `includeDarwin:` (macOS / Apple Silicon). Most C/C++/GGML and many Python backends build on Darwin too — wire the `includeDarwin` entry + `backend/index.yaml` `metal:` entries, or say in the PR why an OS is unsupported. See the darwin checklist in [.agents/adding-backends.md](.agents/adding-backends.md).
49- **Gallery variant ranking**: a gallery entry can declare `variants` (alternative builds of the same weights), and LocalAI ranks the ones a host can run by engine preference first, size second. A new backend that should be preferred on some hardware must be listed in `engineNamePreferenceRules` in `pkg/system/capabilities.go`; the sibling `backendBuildTagPreferenceRules` speaks build tags rather than engine names, and using the wrong table matches nothing without erroring. See [.agents/adding-backends.md](.agents/adding-backends.md).
50- **UI**: The active UI is the React app in `core/http/react-ui/`. The older Alpine.js/HTML UI in `core/http/static/` is pending deprecation — all new UI work goes in the React UI
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