botctl: A Process Manager for Autonomous AI Agents

botctl: Process Manager for Autonomous AI Agents

A new open-source tool called botctl provides a comprehensive process management system for running persistent AI agents from the terminal.

What is botctl?

botctl allows developers to manage autonomous AI bots — such as those powered by Claude — through a terminal dashboard, web UI, and declarative YAML configuration. Think of it as systemd or PM2, but specifically designed for AI agents.

Key Features

1. Declarative Configuration: Define bots using YAML frontmatter with settings and markdown body for the system prompt
2. Autonomous Execution: Spawns Claude (or compatible models) with your prompt, tools, and workspace. Runs, logs, and sleeps on a configurable loop
3. Session Memory: Every run saves its session, allowing agents to resume where they left off
4. Hot Reload: Edit the BOT.md config file and changes take effect on the next run — no restarts needed
5. Extensible Skills: Search, install, and share reusable skill modules from GitHub
6. Web Dashboard: Full browser-based monitoring with the same capabilities as the TUI

Installation

Available for macOS, Linux, and Windows (AMD64 and ARM64):

curl -fsSL https://botctl.dev/install.sh | sh

Source: botctl.dev — via Hacker News