# Next steps > You have a working agent under the daemon. Pick what's next based on what you want to do. ```mermaid flowchart TD A[Working agent + daemon] --> B{What now?} B --> N["Notify when things go wrong
→ notifications"] B --> M["Add more agents
→ agents concept"] B --> P["Persist output somewhere
→ plugins / sinks"] B --> S["Schedule by cron-style
→ agent spec"] B --> O["See into the daemon
→ observability"] B --> F["Migrate from Fish/cron
→ migration guide"] B --> D["Operate the daemon
→ daemon lifecycle"] B --> T["Something broke
→ troubleshooting"] ``` *** ## Make failures loud The example in [`first-agent.md`](/getting-started/first-agent.md) already wired a **desktop banner**. The rest of the built-in drivers (`slack`, `ntfy`, `pushover`, `imessage`) follow the same shape — a `[[notifiers]]` block, no plugin install, no subprocess fork: ```toml [[notifiers]] driver = "slack" webhook_url = "https://hooks.slack.com/services/..." events = ["given_up", "recovered"] ``` → **Read**: [`concepts/notifications.md`](/concepts/notifications.md) for every driver, the tiered-notify pattern (desktop on every fail, phone only on `given_up`), and rate-limit semantics. *** ## Make output go somewhere A *sink plugin* persists the agent's stdout. Two come pre-installed: * **`sink-file`** — write to a file (overwrite or append). * **`sink-roam`** — publish hierarchical content to Roam Research, idempotent via `marker_regex`. ```toml [[on_success]] plugin = "sink-file" config = { path = "/Users/me/reports/daily.md", mode = "overwrite" } ``` → **Read**: [`docs/plugins/sink-file.md`](/built-in-plugins/sink/sink-file.md), [`docs/plugins/sink-roam.md`](/built-in-plugins/sink/sink-roam.md), and the overview at [`concepts/plugins.md`](/concepts/plugins.md). *** ## Gate the run on something external A *preflight plugin* fails the run before spawning the agent. Built-ins: * **`preflight-warp`** — abort if Cloudflare WARP isn't connected. * **`preflight-cmd`** — generic: run any command, gate on exit code + stdout match. ```toml [[preflight]] plugin = "preflight-cmd" config = { command = "aws", args = ["sts", "get-caller-identity"], expect_exit = 0 } ``` → **Read**: [`docs/plugins/preflight-cmd.md`](/built-in-plugins/preflight/preflight-cmd.md), [`docs/plugins/preflight-warp.md`](/built-in-plugins/preflight/preflight-warp.md). *** ## Schedule like a grown-up The tutorial used `type = "interval"` for speed. Production agents usually want **cron-style** schedules with weekdays + hours + minute: ```toml [[schedules]] id = "daily" type = "cron" weekdays = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] # Mon-Fri (0 = Sun, 6 = Sat — matches launchd) hours = [8] minute = 30 ``` Plus retry policy: ```toml [defaults] max_retries = 3 retry_backoff_minutes = [5, 15, 30] stale_after_minutes = 120 # don't bother retrying a stale window ``` → **Read**: [`reference/agent-spec.md`](/reference/agent-spec.md) for the full manifest schema. [`concepts/agents.md`](/concepts/agents.md) for the patterns (digest / triage / generator / watchdog). *** ## See into the daemon Out of the box you get structured JSON logs, daily rotation, and a sharded log per agent — zero config. To export traces to Honeycomb / Grafana Tempo / Jaeger / Datadog, two lines of `config.toml`: ```toml [telemetry] otlp_endpoint = "https://api.honeycomb.io:443" ``` ```bash export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="x-honeycomb-team=YOUR_KEY" dotagent reload ``` → **Read**: [`guides/observability.md`](/guides/observability.md) for log schema, vendor recipes, jq queries. → **Or just tweak retention**: [`guides/config-reference.md`](/guides/config-reference.md). *** ## Add many agents `agents//` is one directory per agent. Add a second: ```bash mkdir -p ~/.config/dotagent/agents/hn-morning # … drop your agent.toml + entry script … dotagent doctor # validates every agent at once dotagent reload # daemon picks up the new one on next tick ``` For inspiration: * **`examples/disk-alert/`** — pure-shell agent with tiered notifications * **`examples/hello-{fish,python,go,rust}/`** — minimal "hello" variants per language * **The fish framework's gallery** — 9 production agents listed in [`concepts/agents.md#examples-gallery`](/concepts/agents.md#examples-gallery) → **Read**: [`concepts/agents.md`](/concepts/agents.md) — patterns, extending, connecting agents. *** ## Migrate from Fish / cron If you came from the `lib/agent.fish` framework, every concept maps 1-to-1: → **Read**: [`guides/migrating-from-fish.md`](/guides/migrating-from-fish.md). If you came from `cron` (no framework), the pattern is: 1. Move the script body into `agents//agent.sh`. 2. Write an `agent.toml` that recreates your cron line in the `[[schedules]]` block. 3. Remove the cron entry; let the daemon take over. There's no separate cron migration guide today — the Fish guide is the closest thing, and `cron` ↔ launchd weekday differences are flagged in [Troubleshooting](/guides/troubleshooting.md#symptom-cron-style-schedule-never-matches). *** ## Operate the daemon How to install/start/stop/reload across macOS launchd + Linux systemd, with diagnostics for "is this thing on?": → **Read**: [`guides/daemon-lifecycle.md`](/guides/daemon-lifecycle.md). *** ## Something broke A sintoma → diagnostic decision tree covering: * Daemon won't start * `doctor` errors * Agent never runs * Agent runs but fails * Notifier / sink not working * Logs / audit / plugin issues * Performance → **Read**: [`guides/troubleshooting.md`](/guides/troubleshooting.md). *** ## Read the source When the docs disagree with the code, **the code wins**. Worth bookmarking: | Question | Crate / module | | -------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | "What does the daemon actually do?" | [`crates/dotagent/src/commands/daemon.rs`](https://github.com/avelino/dotagent/blob/main/crates/dotagent/src/commands/daemon.rs) | | "How does the runner spawn agents?" | [`crates/dotagent-runner/src/lib.rs`](https://github.com/avelino/dotagent/blob/main/crates/dotagent-runner/src/lib.rs) | | "How are heartbeats serialized?" | [`crates/dotagent-core/src/heartbeat.rs`](https://github.com/avelino/dotagent/blob/main/crates/dotagent-core/src/heartbeat.rs) | | "How does scheduling math work?" (pure functions, no IO) | [`crates/dotagent-scheduler/src/lib.rs`](https://github.com/avelino/dotagent/blob/main/crates/dotagent-scheduler/src/lib.rs) | | "What audit events exist?" | [`crates/dotagent-core/src/audit.rs`](https://github.com/avelino/dotagent/blob/main/crates/dotagent-core/src/audit.rs) | | "What's in `agent.toml`?" | [`crates/dotagent-core/src/manifest.rs`](https://github.com/avelino/dotagent/blob/main/crates/dotagent-core/src/manifest.rs) | For contributor onboarding: [`CLAUDE.md`](https://github.com/avelino/dotagent/blob/main/CLAUDE.md) at the repo root. *** ## Read the FAQ Quick answers to the recurring questions ([`docs/faq.md`](/misc/faq.md)): * Windows? root? cron → dotagent? debug without the daemon? multiple users? sandbox? when is 1.0? why not just cron? *** That's the menu. Each section above is an entry point into a deeper guide — pick the one closest to what you actually need, and ignore the rest until later. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://dotagent.avelino.run/getting-started/next-steps.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.