Acyclic

Acyclic gives supported native coding-agent subagents independent, recursively forked distributed-filesystem workspaces. Recognized filesystem tools are routed into the child mount; process-level confinement is a separate, host-and-platform-qualified capability. It adds a familiar local-history interface through acyclic git; it never intercepts bare git and never changes the filesystem SDK's fork, lease, conflict, merge, or recovery semantics.

Install

The provenance-attested npm package installs a checksum-verified platform binary and the Codex plugin assets:

npm install -g @acyclic-labs/plugin
acyclic install codex

Rust users can install the standalone executable from crates.io:

cargo install --locked acyclic-plugin
acyclic --help

The Cargo installation provides the standalone CLI, service, hook runner, and MCP bridge. The npm package remains the distribution that also carries the Codex plugin, marketplace assets, and native qualification receipts for tagged release binaries. A source-built Cargo binary remains uncertified until that exact executable completes the native-mount qualification.

Native hooks invoke the installed Acyclic binary directly; the npm launcher is only for shell CLI entry. Acyclic does not add an MCP server or a second command implementation to shell-capable hosts. Codex plugins do not inject arbitrary executables into PATH, so install the npm package globally when humans or agent shell commands need the acyclic executable.

acyclic install <host> changes only per-user host configuration. Pass --project explicitly before Acyclic may create project configuration. No init command or repository marker exists.

Supported target names are codex, claude-code, cursor, copilot, opencode, vscode, claude-desktop, copilot-cloud, and pydantic-ai. acyclic install --detected installs detected local targets. Process confinement is certified only after that host/platform's escape suite passes; native-mount qualification alone does not make that claim. MCP-only and provisional targets say so at session start.

Use

Normal commands and filesystem tools are transparently redirected to a child mount. Acyclic itself has this public command surface:

acyclic git <git-style argv...>
acyclic agents
acyclic discard agents/<ref>
acyclic install <host> [--project]
acyclic install --detected
acyclic uninstall <host> [--purge]
acyclic doctor [--json]

acyclic doctor reports the packaged binary identity, plugin/cache version, marketplace and hook assets, service and durable recovery state, native mount backend, CLI availability, and an exact-binary-bound live platform-certification receipt. Its human and JSON forms are rendered from the same stable check result. Uninstall drains the service and keeps durable workspace/recovery state by default; --purge also removes that state explicitly.

Use acyclic git status, diff, commit, switch, merge, rebase, and the other documented local porcelain inside a managed workspace. Child refs are visible as agents/...; only a direct parent may merge or discard a child, and descendants publish upward one level at a time. Bare git continues to use the checkout's real .git repository and is intentionally absent in child mounts.

If a merge projects text conflict markers, edit the mounted files, declare each resolved path with acyclic git add <path>, and run acyclic git merge --continue; use acyclic git merge --abort to restore the exact pre-merge workspace. Non-text conflicts are reported with typed paths and kinds rather than being flattened into text and must likewise be declared.

The current release uses the fresh state-v5 per-user namespace. It neither migrates nor deletes prior plugin state. Remove an older state-v* directory manually only after confirming that no older Acyclic installation still needs it.