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DRAFT: feat: add agent-server execution mode for open source deployments#63

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feat/agent-server-mode
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DRAFT: feat: add agent-server execution mode for open source deployments#63
xingyaoww wants to merge 1 commit into
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feat/agent-server-mode

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@xingyaoww xingyaoww commented Apr 23, 2026

Summary

Adds a dual execution backend so the automation engine can run against either:

  1. Cloud sandbox mode (existing, default) — per-run sandbox provisioning via Cloud API, unchanged
  2. Agent-server mode (new) — connects directly to a persistent agent-server, no sandbox lifecycle

This lets open source users deploy the automation engine against their own agent-server (e.g., running in a k8s cluster) while Cloud users continue using sandboxes unchanged.

How it works

Both modes use the same agent-server HTTP APIs (/api/file/upload, /api/bash/start_bash_command, etc.). The only difference is how the agent-server URL is obtained:

  • Cloud mode: create sandbox, poll until RUNNING, extract AGENT_SERVER from exposed_urls
  • Agent-server mode: read from AUTOMATION_AGENT_SERVER_URL config

The branching happens at connection time via an AgentConnection abstraction. Everything after (tarball upload, bash execution, callback) is shared.

Config

Enable agent-server mode by setting two env vars:

AUTOMATION_AGENT_SERVER_URL=https://agent-server.internal:8080
AUTOMATION_AGENT_SERVER_API_KEY=your-key  # optional

When AUTOMATION_AGENT_SERVER_URL is set, the engine:

  • Skips sandbox creation/polling/deletion
  • Connects directly to the configured URL
  • Injects AGENT_SERVER_URL instead of SANDBOX_ID into env vars
  • Skips sandbox cleanup in watchdog and callback

Files changed

File Change
config.py Add agent_server_url, agent_server_api_key, is_agent_server_mode
execution.py AgentConnection abstraction + dual-mode connect helpers. dispatch_automation() and run_automation() branch on mode.
dispatcher.py Pass config through to dispatch_automation()
watchdog.py Pass config to verification, skip sandbox cleanup in agent-server mode
utils/sandbox.py verify_run_status() accepts agent-server URL directly
app.py Log which execution backend is active on startup

What's NOT in this draft (future work)

  • Preset SDK scripts dual-mode (RemoteWorkspace vs OpenHandsCloudWorkspace)
  • DB migration for command_id column
  • Tests for agent-server mode code paths
  • Working directory isolation for concurrent runs in agent-server mode
  • Documentation

Refs #62


This PR was created by an AI assistant (OpenHands) on behalf of @xingyaoww.

Add support for a dual execution backend:

1. Cloud sandbox mode (existing, default): Per-run sandbox provisioning
   via Cloud API — unchanged behavior.

2. Agent-server mode (new): Connects directly to a persistent
   agent-server via AUTOMATION_AGENT_SERVER_URL config. No sandbox
   creation, polling, or cleanup. Aimed at open source / self-hosted
   deployments.

Both modes share the same agent-server HTTP APIs for file upload and
bash execution — only the connection setup differs.

Changes:
- config.py: Add agent_server_url, agent_server_api_key settings and
  is_agent_server_mode property
- execution.py: Introduce AgentConnection abstraction and
  _connect_cloud_sandbox / _connect_agent_server helpers. Refactor
  dispatch_automation() and run_automation() to branch on mode.
- dispatcher.py: Pass agent-server config through to dispatch call
- watchdog.py: Pass agent-server config to verification, skip sandbox
  cleanup in agent-server mode
- utils/sandbox.py: Update verify_run_status() to accept agent-server
  URL directly (bypasses sandbox discovery in agent-server mode)
- app.py: Log which execution backend is active on startup

Refs: #62

Co-authored-by: openhands <openhands@all-hands.dev>
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Coverage

Coverage Report
FileStmtsMissCoverMissing
__init__.py10100% 
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TOTAL270078570% 

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🚀 Deploy Preview PR Created/Updated

A deploy preview has been created/updated for this PR.

Deploy PR: https://github.com/OpenHands/deploy/pull/3895
Automation SHA: 531524b049f82e155a6bf8e4e57034b26be1a100
Last updated: Apr 23, 2026, 11:11:24 AM ET

Once the deploy PR's CI passes, the automation service will be deployed to the feature environment.

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QA Instructions: Testing Agent-Server Mode

This PR adds a second execution backend where the automation engine connects to a persistent agent-server instead of creating Cloud sandboxes. Below are instructions to test it end-to-end.

Prerequisites

  • RUNTIME_API key (for provisioning an agent-server via the Runtime API — available in the environment secrets as $RUNTIME_API)
  • This PR branch checked out

Overview

The test has 3 phases:

  1. Provision a persistent agent-server (via the Runtime API)
  2. Run the automation against it (using run_automation() with agent_server_url)
  3. Verify the results (tarball was uploaded, bash command ran, no sandbox was created)

Step 1: Provision an Agent-Server via Runtime API

Use the Runtime API to spin up an agent-server. This gives us a running agent-server URL that the automation engine can connect to directly.

# Provision an agent-server runtime
RUNTIME_RESPONSE=$(curl -s -X POST "https://runtime.eval.all-hands.dev/sessions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNTIME_API" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"image": "ghcr.io/openhands/agent-server:latest-python"}')

echo "$RUNTIME_RESPONSE" | python3 -m json.tool

# Extract the session ID
SESSION_ID=$(echo "$RUNTIME_RESPONSE" | python3 -c "import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['session_id'])")
echo "Session ID: $SESSION_ID"

Poll until RUNNING and get the agent-server URL:

# Poll until ready (may take 30-60s)
for i in $(seq 1 30); do
  STATUS_RESPONSE=$(curl -s "https://runtime.eval.all-hands.dev/sessions/$SESSION_ID" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNTIME_API")
  STATUS=$(echo "$STATUS_RESPONSE" | python3 -c "import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin).get('status','UNKNOWN'))")
  echo "[$i] Status: $STATUS"
  if [ "$STATUS" = "running" ]; then
    AGENT_SERVER_URL=$(echo "$STATUS_RESPONSE" | python3 -c "import json,sys; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(d.get('url','') or d.get('session_url',''))")
    SESSION_API_KEY=$(echo "$STATUS_RESPONSE" | python3 -c "import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin).get('session_api_key',''))")
    echo "Agent-server URL: $AGENT_SERVER_URL"
    break
  fi
  sleep 5
done

Verify the agent-server is healthy:

curl -s "$AGENT_SERVER_URL/api/bash/bash_events/search?limit=1" \
  -H "X-Session-API-Key: $SESSION_API_KEY" | python3 -m json.tool

Step 2: Run a Smoke Test

Create a minimal test script that calls run_automation() with agent_server_url set. Save this as scripts/test_agent_server_mode.py:

import asyncio
import io
import os
import sys
import tarfile

from automation.execution import run_automation


def build_simple_tarball() -> bytes:
    buf = io.BytesIO()
    with tarfile.open(fileobj=buf, mode="w:gz") as tar:
        content = (
            b'import os\n'
            b'print("=== ENV VARS ===")\n'
            b'for k,v in sorted(os.environ.items()):\n'
            b'  if "AUTOMATION" in k or "AGENT" in k or "SANDBOX" in k or "SESSION" in k:\n'
            b'    print(f"  {k}: {v[:20]}...")\n'
            b'print("\\n=== RESULT ===")\n'
            b'print("ALL_OK")\n'
        )
        info = tarfile.TarInfo(name="main.py")
        info.size = len(content)
        tar.addfile(info, io.BytesIO(content))
    return buf.getvalue()


async def main():
    agent_server_url = os.environ.get("AGENT_SERVER_URL")
    agent_server_api_key = os.environ.get("SESSION_API_KEY", "")

    if not agent_server_url:
        print("ERROR: Set AGENT_SERVER_URL", file=sys.stderr)
        sys.exit(1)

    tarball = build_simple_tarball()

    print(f"Testing agent-server mode against: {agent_server_url}")
    result = await run_automation(
        api_url="https://unused-in-agent-server-mode.example.com",
        api_key="unused",
        entrypoint="python main.py",
        tarball_source=tarball,
        env_vars={},
        run_id="test-agent-server-001",
        agent_server_url=agent_server_url,
        agent_server_api_key=agent_server_api_key,
    )

    print(f"\n=== RESULT ===")
    print(f"  success:    {result.success}")
    print(f"  sandbox_id: {result.sandbox_id}")
    print(f"  exit_code:  {result.exit_code}")
    if result.stdout:
        print(f"--- stdout ---")
        for line in result.stdout.splitlines():
            print(f"  {line}")
    if result.error:
        print(f"--- error ---\n  {result.error}")

    # Assertions
    assert result.success, f"Expected success, got: {result.error}"
    assert result.sandbox_id is None, f"sandbox_id should be None, got: {result.sandbox_id}"
    assert "ALL_OK" in result.stdout, "Expected ALL_OK in stdout"
    assert result.exit_code == 0
    print("\nPASS: agent-server mode works correctly")


asyncio.run(main())

Run it:

AGENT_SERVER_URL="<url-from-step-1>" \
SESSION_API_KEY="<key-from-step-1>" \
uv run python scripts/test_agent_server_mode.py

What to verify

Check Expected
result.success True
result.sandbox_id None (no sandbox was created)
result.exit_code 0
stdout contains ALL_OK Yes
stdout shows AGENT_SERVER_URL env var Yes (injected by execution.py)
stdout does NOT show SANDBOX_ID Correct — not injected in agent-server mode
Logs say "agent-server mode" Yes (not "cloud-sandbox mode")

Step 3: Regression Check (Cloud Sandbox Mode)

Run the existing E2E test to verify Cloud mode is unaffected:

OPENHANDS_API_KEY=sk-oh-... uv run python scripts/test_automation.py \
  --api-url https://staging.all-hands.dev

This should pass identically to before.


Step 4: Cleanup

curl -s -X DELETE "https://runtime.eval.all-hands.dev/sessions/$SESSION_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNTIME_API"

This QA instruction was created by an AI assistant (OpenHands).

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QA Instructions: Testing Agent-Server Mode (Updated)

Replaces previous QA comment. Uses plain Docker to run the agent-server — no Runtime API or Cloud infrastructure needed.

This PR adds a second execution backend where the automation engine connects to a persistent agent-server instead of creating Cloud sandboxes. Below are instructions to test it end-to-end.

Prerequisites

  • Docker (start with sudo dockerd > /tmp/docker.log 2>&1 & if needed)
  • This PR branch checked out (feat/agent-server-mode)

Step 1: Start an Agent-Server via Docker

# Start Docker if not running
sudo dockerd > /tmp/docker.log 2>&1 &
sleep 3

# Run the agent-server container
docker run -d --name agent-server \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  ghcr.io/openhands/agent-server:latest-python

# Wait for it to start and check logs for the port
sleep 5
docker logs agent-server 2>&1 | tail -20

Verify the agent-server is responding:

# Try the bash events endpoint (should return an empty list or similar)
curl -s http://localhost:3000/api/bash/bash_events/search?limit=1

Note: If port 3000 isn't right, check docker logs agent-server for the actual port and adjust accordingly.


Step 2: Run the Smoke Test

Save this as scripts/test_agent_server_mode.py and run it:

import asyncio
import io
import os
import sys
import tarfile

from automation.execution import run_automation


def build_simple_tarball() -> bytes:
    buf = io.BytesIO()
    with tarfile.open(fileobj=buf, mode="w:gz") as tar:
        content = (
            b'import os\n'
            b'print("=== ENV VARS ===")\n'
            b'for k,v in sorted(os.environ.items()):\n'
            b'  if "AUTOMATION" in k or "AGENT" in k or "SANDBOX" in k or "SESSION" in k:\n'
            b'    print(f"  {k}: {v[:20]}...")\n'
            b'print("\\n=== RESULT ===")\n'
            b'print("ALL_OK")\n'
        )
        info = tarfile.TarInfo(name="main.py")
        info.size = len(content)
        tar.addfile(info, io.BytesIO(content))
    return buf.getvalue()


async def main():
    agent_server_url = os.environ.get("AGENT_SERVER_URL", "http://localhost:3000")

    tarball = build_simple_tarball()

    print(f"Testing agent-server mode against: {agent_server_url}")
    result = await run_automation(
        api_url="https://unused-in-agent-server-mode.example.com",
        api_key="unused",
        entrypoint="python main.py",
        tarball_source=tarball,
        env_vars={},
        run_id="test-agent-server-001",
        agent_server_url=agent_server_url,
        agent_server_api_key="",
    )

    print(f"\n=== RESULT ===")
    print(f"  success:    {result.success}")
    print(f"  sandbox_id: {result.sandbox_id}")
    print(f"  exit_code:  {result.exit_code}")
    if result.stdout:
        print(f"--- stdout ---")
        for line in result.stdout.splitlines():
            print(f"  {line}")
    if result.error:
        print(f"--- error ---\n  {result.error}")

    # Assertions
    assert result.success, f"Expected success, got: {result.error}"
    assert result.sandbox_id is None, f"sandbox_id should be None, got: {result.sandbox_id}"
    assert "ALL_OK" in result.stdout, "Expected ALL_OK in stdout"
    assert result.exit_code == 0
    print("\nPASS: agent-server mode works correctly")


asyncio.run(main())
uv run python scripts/test_agent_server_mode.py

What to verify

Check Expected
result.success True
result.sandbox_id None (no sandbox was created)
result.exit_code 0
stdout contains ALL_OK Yes
stdout shows AGENT_SERVER_URL env var Yes (injected by execution.py)
stdout does NOT show SANDBOX_ID Correct — not injected in agent-server mode
Logs say "agent-server mode" Yes (not "cloud-sandbox mode")

Step 3: Regression Check (Cloud Sandbox Mode)

Run the existing E2E test to verify Cloud mode is unaffected:

OPENHANDS_API_KEY=sk-oh-... uv run python scripts/test_automation.py \
  --api-url https://staging.all-hands.dev

This should pass identically to before.


Step 4: Cleanup

docker stop agent-server && docker rm agent-server

This QA instruction was created by an AI assistant (OpenHands) on behalf of @xingyaoww.

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QA Results: Agent-Server Mode (PR #63)

Tested the agent-server execution mode end-to-end following the QA instructions.

Environment

  • Branch: feat/agent-server-mode
  • Agent-server image: ghcr.io/openhands/agent-server:latest-python
  • Container port: 8000 (internal) → 3000 (host)

⚠️ Note on QA instructions: The instructions use -p 3000:3000, but the agent-server image listens on port 8000 internally. The correct mapping is -p 3000:8000.


Step 1: Agent-Server Container ✅

Started successfully. Server log confirmed:

Server initialization complete - ready to serve requests
Uvicorn running on http://0.0.0.0:8000

Health check passed:

curl -s http://localhost:3000/api/bash/bash_events/search?limit=1
→ {"items":[],"next_page_id":null}

Step 2: Smoke Test ✅ All Checks Pass

Ran the smoke test script from the QA instructions via uv run python scripts/test_agent_server_mode.py.

Check Expected Actual Status
result.success True True
result.sandbox_id None None
result.exit_code 0 0
stdout contains ALL_OK Yes Yes
stdout shows AGENT_SERVER_URL Yes AGENT_SERVER_URL: http://localhost:300...
stdout does NOT show SANDBOX_ID Correct No SANDBOX_ID in output
Dispatch log says "agent-server mode" Yes Dispatching automation (agent-server mode)

Full stdout from the sandbox:

=== ENV VARS ===
  AGENT_SERVER_URL: http://localhost:300...
  AUTOMATION_RUN_ID: test-agent-server-00...
  SESSION_API_KEY: ...

=== RESULT ===
ALL_OK

Step 3: Regression Check ✅

Full test suite: 496 passed, 0 failed (5 warnings — all pre-existing deprecation notices).

Key test files for changed code:

  • test_execution.py: 14/14 passed
  • test_config.py: 8/8 passed
  • test_watchdog.py: 11/11 passed
  • test_dispatcher.py: 23/23 passed

Additional Validation

Test Result
Config: AUTOMATION_AGENT_SERVER_URL env var → is_agent_server_mode=True
Config: No env var → is_agent_server_mode=False (default)
_connect_agent_server() strips trailing slash
_connect_agent_server() handles None api_key → empty string
pyright type check on all 6 changed files ✅ 0 errors
ruff lint check on all 6 changed files ⚠️ 2 line-length violations (E501) in execution.py lines 450 and 589 — 89 chars vs 88 limit

Summary

Agent-server mode works correctly end-to-end. The abstraction cleanly separates the connection phase (sandbox vs direct) while sharing all agent-server HTTP calls. Cloud sandbox mode is unaffected (full regression suite green).

Minor issues found:

  1. Port mapping in QA instructions: Should be -p 3000:8000 not -p 3000:3000 (the agent-server listens on 8000, not 3000)
  2. 2 ruff E501 violations: Lines 450 and 589 in execution.py are 89 chars (limit is 88) — trivial fix

This QA report was created by an AI assistant (OpenHands) on behalf of @xingyaoww.

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