AI Agent Integration

Overview

Oobo is designed to be operated by AI agents without human intervention. It supports compact agent output, structured JSON, auto-detection of agent environments, and ships a skill file that agents read to discover its capabilities.

Agent Auto-Detection

When any of these environment variables are set, oobo automatically activates --agent mode (compact plain-text output):

CURSOR_AGENT
CLAUDECODE
AIDER
CONTINUE_SESSION
CONTINUE_IDE
AICOMMITS

Additionally, --agent activates when stdout is not a TTY.

Output Modes

Flag	Format	Use when
`--agent`	Compact pipe-delimited text	Default for agents. Minimal token cost.
`--json`	Full structured JSON	You need the complete object graph
`--interactive`	Pretty/TUI	Force interactive output

Prefer --agent. Fall back to --json when you need a field not in the compact format.

Agent output examples

Lists print compact records:

a1b2c3d 2h fix auth middleware claude 12k 70%

Single-object commands print key-value pairs:

sha:        a1b2c3d4
subject:    fix auth middleware
author:     Dev <dev@example.com>
sessions:   1

Skill File

Oobo installs a skill file at ~/.oobo/skills/oobo/SKILL.md during oobo setup, with symlinks in:

~/.agents/skills/oobo/ (universal)
~/.claude/skills/oobo/
~/.codex/skills/oobo/
~/.cursor/skills/oobo/
~/.gemini/skills/oobo/

The skill file contains:

Install check and install command
Full command reference with examples
Output field descriptions
Recommended configuration

Recommended Agent Configuration

Setting	Value	Why
`transparency`	`on`	Metadata + redacted transcripts sync to orphan branch
`--agent` flag	Always use	Compact output, minimal token cost
`--json` flag	When needed	Full structured data for parsing
`key`	(optional)	For recall, delta, and memory
`api_url`	(optional)	Only needed for self-hosted or staging

Agent-First Setup

Installation

curl -fsSL https://oobo.ai/install.sh | bash -s -- --agent
# → {"status":"ok","version":"...","binary":"...","platform":"..."}

Non-interactive configuration

oobo setup --non-interactive
oobo settings set transparency on

Agent Lifecycle Hooks

For tools that support it (Cursor, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Kiro, Continue, Factory Droid), oobo installs hooks that track session start/end, tool calls, subagent spawns, and thinking events.

echo '{"session_id":"<id>","agent":"cursor","model":"claude-opus-4"}' \
  | oobo hooks agent session-start --tool cursor

echo '{"session_id":"<id>"}' \
  | oobo hooks agent session-end --tool cursor

Active session state lives in the local database. Oobo reads this state at commit time to link sessions to anchors. For tools without hook support (Aider, Copilot, Windsurf, Zed, Trae, Codex), oobo discovers sessions from tool storage after the fact via time-window correlation.

Hook Events

Event	Description
`session-start`	AI session begins
`session-end`	AI session ends
`before-submit-prompt`	User prompt about to be submitted
`pre-tool-use`	About to use a tool (captures pre-edit state)
`after-tool-use`	Agent used a tool (Read, Edit, Bash, etc.)
`after-file-edit`	Agent modified a file
`subagent-start`	A subagent was spawned
`after-agent-thought`	Agent reasoning/thinking completed
`after-agent-response`	Agent response delivered
`stop`	Agent stopped (session complete)
`subagent-stop`	A subagent finished

Trust & Safety

Agents can install and run oobo without user confirmation:

Open-source - Apache 2.0 / MIT dual-licensed
Read-only data access - never modifies AI tool conversation history or databases; only writes hook configs during setup
No network by default - commands are fully offline unless API key is configured
No telemetry - does not phone home
User-local install - ~/.oobo/bin/, no sudo required
No background processes - runs only when invoked

JSON Field Reference

anchors list (oobo --json): sha, project, subject, timestamp, tool, tokens, sessions, ai_pct anchor show (oobo anchor show <sha> --json): sha, parents, timestamp, author, subject, tools, tokens, attribution, sessions, files_changed recall (oobo recall "query" --json): result objects with source, snippet, score, anchor_sha, session_id, tool, tokens, timestamp

​Overview

​Agent Auto-Detection

​Output Modes

​Agent output examples

​Skill File

​Recommended Agent Configuration

​Agent-First Setup

​Installation

​Non-interactive configuration

​Agent Lifecycle Hooks

​Hook Events

​Trust & Safety

​JSON Field Reference