⇩ Markdown

Term -- Agent
Term -- Agent

Agent: A persistent worker identity in Gas Town. An agent is not a session — it is the "pet" in the pets vs cattle metaphor. Agents have persistent identities stored as Agent Beads in Beads, and their work, mail, and state all live in Beads too.

Backlinks

Annotated version of 'Welcome to Gas Town'

In Gas Town, an Term -- Agent is not a session. Sessions are ephemeral; they are the “cattle” in the Kubernetes pets vs cattle metaphor. Claude Code sessions are the cattle that Gas Town throws at persistent work. That work all lives in Beads, along with the persistent identities of the workers, and the Town Mail, the event system, and even the ephemeral orchestration, as we will see.

see in context
Glossary

Term Description Kind

Term -- Agent A persistent worker identity — the "pet" in pets vs cattle concept

see in context
Roles

Role Description

The Mayor Your concierge and chief-of-staff; the main Term -- Agent you talk to

see in context
Term -- Session

Session: An ephemeral Claude Code session that Gas Town throws at persistent work. Sessions are the "cattle" in the pets vs cattle metaphor — disposable and interchangeable. The persistent identity and state belong to the Term -- Agent, not the session.

see in context
Term -- Swarm

ephemeral Term -- Agent Session taking on persistent work (like Molecules)

see in context
Term -- guzzoline

Guzzoline: A word to represent “molecularized work” — work in the form that Term -- Agents can pick and complete a step at a time. It’s work that you can compose together, Molecules bonding with other molecules, and you can set up the dependencies for an entire gigantic project in advance, and have Gas Town swarm it for an entire weekend, unattended, if you’re brave enough.

see in context
pets vs cattle

In Gas Town, Term -- Agent are pets (persistent identities in Beads) while sessions are cattle (ephemeral Claude Code sessions thrown at persistent work).

see in context
spaced repetition prompts - blog section 10 - Nondeterministic Idempotence

What three things make molecular workflows durable in Gas Town? ? All three are Beads backed by Git: (1) the Term -- Agent, (2) the hook, (3) the molecule itself.

see in context

What does "idempotent" mean in NDI? ? The workflow eventually finishes with the intended outcome, "guaranteed," as long as you keep throwing Term -- Agents at it.

see in context
spaced repetition prompts - blog section 14 - Convoys

What is a Swarm? ? Ephemeral Term -- Agent Sessions taking on persistent work.

see in context
spaced repetition prompts - blog section 16 - Planning in Gas Town

How can you turn an external plan (e.g. from Spec Kit or BMAD) into Gas Town work? ? Ask an Term -- Agent to convert it into Beads epics. For large plans, swarm it and produce epics in a convoy.

see in context
spaced repetition prompts - blog section 2 - Gas Town Was No Secret

What structural principle about agent management did Steve foresee early on? ? Multiple levels of Term -- Agent supervising other Term -- Agent — a hierarchy of oversight.

see in context
spaced repetition prompts - blog section 4 - Gas Town 101

In Gas Town, which is more enduring... an Term -- Agent or a session? ? The agent. An agent is the persistent identity (the "pet"); a session is the ephemeral Claude Code process thrown at work (the "cattle"). Sessions come and go, but the agent endures.

see in context

If a Claude Code session crashes mid-task, what survives — the agent or the session? ? The Term -- Agent. Its identity, state, and work live in Beads. The session is disposable cattle — just spin up another one.

see in context

How does an Term -- Agent endure an environment crash? ? The Term -- Agent's identity, state, and work live in Beads, which is git-backed.

see in context
spaced repetition prompts - blog section 6 - Gastown Universal Propulsion Principle

In Gas Town, which is more enduring... an Term -- Agent or a session? ? The agent. An agent is the persistent identity (the "pet"); a session is the ephemeral Claude Code process thrown at work (the "cattle"). Sessions come and go, but the agent endures.
...
pets vs cattle

see in context

If a Claude Code session crashes mid-task, what survives — the agent or the session? ? The Term -- Agent. Its identity, state, and work live in Beads. The session is disposable cattle — just spin up another one.

see in context

How does an Term -- Agent endure an environment crash? ? The Term -- Agent's identity, state, and work live in Beads, which is git-backed.

see in context
spaced repetition prompts - blog section 7 - The GUPP Nudge

When an Term -- Agent boots up, what are the two things it must read? ? Its Inbox and Hook.

see in context

Term -- AgentTerm -- Agent

Term -- Agent
Term -- Agent