rowboat/README.md

RowboatX - Claude Code for Everyday Automations

RowboatX is a local-first CLI for creating background AI agents with full shell access.

Example agents you can create:

• Research every person before your meetings (Exa search MCP + Google Calendar MCP)
• Daily podcast summarizing your saved articles (ElevenLabs MCP + ffmpeg)
• Auto-triage Slack DMs and draft responses while you sleep (Slack MCP)

Quick start

npx @rowboatlabs/rowboatx@latest

Demo

Examples

Add and Manage MCP servers

$ rowboatx

• Add MCP: 'Add this MCP server config: <config> '
• Explore tools: 'What tools are there in <server-name> '

Create background agents

$ rowboatx

• 'Create agent to do X.'
• '... Attach the correct tools from <mcp-server-name> to the agent'
• '... Allow the agent to run shell commands including ffmpeg'

Schedule and monitor agents

$ rowboatx

• 'Make agent <background-agent-name> run every day at 10 AM'
• 'What agents do I have scheduled to run and at what times'
• 'When was <background-agent-name> last run'
• 'Are any agents waiting for my input or confirmation'

Run background agents manually

rowboatx --agent=<agent-name> --input="xyz" --no-interactive=true

rowboatx --agent=<agent-name> --run_id=<run_id> # resume from a previous run

Models support

You can configure your models using:

rowboatx model-config

Alternatively, you can directly edit ~/.rowboat/config/models.json

{
  "providers": {
    "openai": {
      "flavor": "openai"
    },
    "lm-studio": {
      "flavor": "openai-compatible",
      "baseURL": "http://localhost:2000/...",
      "apiKey": "...",
      "headers": {
        "foo": "bar"
      }
    },
    "anthropic": {
      "flavor": "anthropic"
    },
    "google": {
      "flavor": "google"
    },
    "ollama": {
      "flavor": "ollama"
    }
  },
  "defaults": {
    "provider": "lm-studio",
    "model": "gpt-5"
  }
}

Contributing

We want help with:

• Agent templates - Pre-built agents others can use (podcast generator, meeting prep, etc.)
• MCP server integrations - Add support for new tools
• Platform support - Windows improvements, Linux edge cases

git clone git@github.com:rowboatlabs/rowboat.git
cd rowboat
npm install
npm run build
npm link
rowboatx

Ping us on Discord if you want to discuss before building.

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Prefer a Web UI: Rowboat Studio

Cursor for Multi-agent Workflows

⚡ Build AI agents instantly with natural language | 🔌 Connect tools with one-click integrations | 📂 Power with knowledge by adding documents for RAG | 🔄 Automate workflows by setting up triggers and actions | 🚀 Deploy anywhere via API or SDK

Quick start

1. Set your OpenAI key

   export OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key  
   

2. Clone the repository and start Rowboat (requires Docker)

   ./start.sh
   

3. Access the app at http://localhost:3000.

Create a multi-agent assistant with MCP tools by chatting with Rowboat

See Docs for more details.

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Made with ❤️ by the Rowboat team

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