rho

An AI agent that stays running, remembers what you told it yesterday, and checks in on its own. Runs on macOS, Linux, and Android.

Your data stays on your device. No cloud for your memories. Bring your own LLM provider. You own everything.

Built on pi coding agent.

Quick start

Install with your agent

If you already have a coding agent running, let it install rho. The SKILL.md in this repo is a portable runbook any agent can follow.

Claude Code:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mikeyobrien/rho/main/SKILL.md -o /tmp/install-rho.md && claude "Read /tmp/install-rho.md and follow the steps to install Rho on this machine"

Codex:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mikeyobrien/rho/main/SKILL.md -o /tmp/install-rho.md && codex "Read /tmp/install-rho.md and follow the steps to install Rho on this machine"

pi:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mikeyobrien/rho/main/SKILL.md -o /tmp/install-rho.md && pi --skill /tmp/install-rho.md "Install Rho on this machine"

The agent handles platform detection, dependency installation, and config bootstrapping interactively.

macOS / Linux

git clone https://github.com/mikeyobrien/rho.git ~/.rho/project
cd ~/.rho/project && ./install.sh

Prerequisites: Node.js (18+), tmux, git. The installer checks and tells you what's missing. NixOS is detected and supported.

Android (Termux)

Install Termux and Termux:API from F-Droid, then:

curl -fsSL https://rhobot.dev/install | bash

Or step by step:

pkg install nodejs-lts tmux git
npm install -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent
git clone https://github.com/mikeyobrien/rho.git ~/.rho/project
cd ~/.rho/project && ./install.sh

iPhone / iPad (via SSH)

Rho runs on a server you SSH into. Use Termius or any SSH client.

# On your server (VPS, home machine, or free Oracle Cloud instance):
git clone https://github.com/mikeyobrien/rho.git ~/.rho/project
cd ~/.rho/project && ./install.sh
rho login && rho start

# On your iPhone: connect via SSH, then:
rho

Full guide: docs/iphone-setup.md, including Termius config, Tailscale for home servers, and free VPS options.

Run

rho                      # Start and attach
rho init                 # Initialize Rho config in ~/.rho/
rho sync                 # Sync config to pi settings.json
rho doctor               # Check system health and config validity
rho login                # Authenticate with pi providers
rho start                # Start in background
rho stop                 # Stop
rho status               # Show daemon and module status
rho trigger              # Force an immediate heartbeat check-in
rho config               # Show current configuration
rho logs                 # Show recent heartbeat output
rho upgrade              # Update Rho and sync new modules

Inside a session:

/rho status           Show heartbeat state
/rho now              Trigger check-in immediately
/rho interval 30m     Set check-in interval
/rho enable/disable   Toggle heartbeat
/subagents            Check spawned subagent status
/vault inbox          View captured items
/brain                Interact with memory

What it does

The heartbeat checks in periodically (default: every 30 min). Each check-in reads your ~/.rho/RHO.md checklist and ~/.rho/HEARTBEAT.md scheduled tasks, runs what needs running, and reports back.

The brain persists across sessions. Learnings, preferences, and context accumulate in ~/.rho/brain/.

Agent email gives your agent a real email address at name@rhobot.dev. People and services can email your agent directly. The agent polls its inbox, reads messages, and can reply. Free tier gets receive + 1 outbound email per hour. Register with:

Ask your agent: "Set up my agent email at <name>@rhobot.dev"

Or use the /email command once registered:

/email check        Poll inbox for new mail
/email list         Show unread messages
/email send <to> <subject>   Send a quick email

Skills are capability packages the agent loads on demand. The installer detects your OS and installs the right ones. Notifications, clipboard, and text-to-speech work on every platform. Android gets SMS, speech-to-text, camera, GPS, and Tasker automation on top of that.

Skills

Skill	Android	macOS	Linux	Description
notification	✓	✓	✓	System notifications
clipboard	✓	✓	✓	Clipboard read/write
tts	✓	✓	✓	Text-to-speech
open-url	✓	✓	✓	Open URLs and apps
sms	✓			Read and send SMS
stt	✓			Speech-to-text
media	✓			Audio, camera, recording
location	✓			GPS/network location
contacts	✓			Contact lookup
device	✓			Battery, torch, vibration
dialog	✓			Interactive input dialogs
tasker-xml	✓			Create Tasker automations
rho-cloud-onboard	✓	✓	✓	Register an agent email address
rho-cloud-email	✓	✓	✓	Manage agent email address
soul-update	✓	✓	✓	Mine sessions to evolve SOUL.md
update-pi	✓	✓	✓	Update pi to latest version

Extensions

Extension	Platforms	Description
rho/	All	Heartbeat, memory, tasks, and vault tooling
brave-search/	All	Web search via Brave API
x-search/	All	X (Twitter) search via xAI Grok (x_search)
memory-viewer/	All	Browse and search memories
usage-bars/	All	Token/cost usage display
moltbook-viewer/	All	Moltbook post viewer
email/	All	Agent inbox at name@rhobot.dev
vault-search/	All	Full-text search over the vault (FTS + ripgrep fallback)
tasker.ts	Android	UI automation via Tasker

Skills vs extensions

Skills are markdown files. The agent reads them and follows the instructions using its built-in tools (bash, read, write, edit). No code runs. Think of them as runbooks. They're compatible with Claude Code and Codex too, since they follow the Agent Skills spec.

Extensions are TypeScript that runs inside pi's process. They register new tools the LLM can call, hook into lifecycle events, persist state, add commands, and build custom UI. The heartbeat, the brain, and the vault are all extensions.

If the agent can already do it and just needs to know how, write a skill. If you need code running to make it possible, write an extension.

Customize

RHO.md

Your checklist. The heartbeat reads this on every check-in.

# RHO Checklist

## Quick Scan
- [ ] Any unread notifications?
- [ ] Battery below 20%?

## Active Work  
- [ ] Check build status on ~/projects/myapp

## Recurring
- [ ] Run ~/backup.sh every 6 hours

HEARTBEAT.md

Time-based triggers.

# Heartbeat Tasks

## Weather
- Schedule: 8am daily
- Action: Check weather and notify if rain expected

## Journal
- Schedule: 9pm daily
- Action: Write daily journal entry to ~/.rho/vault/log/

SOUL.md

Your agent's voice and identity. Who it is, what it cares about, how it talks.

Lives at ~/.rho/SOUL.md.

Brain

Lives at ~/.rho/brain/:

• core.jsonl -- Behavior, identity
• memory.jsonl -- Learnings and preferences (grows over time)
• context.jsonl -- Project-specific context
• memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md -- Daily memory log

Unused learnings are automatically archived after 90 days of decay.

Use the memory tool or /brain command to interact with it.

Tasker setup (Android, optional)

For UI automation (reading screens, tapping elements, controlling apps):

1. Install Tasker and AutoInput
2. In Tasker: long-press home icon > Import Project > select tasker/Rho.prj.xml
3. Enable the imported profiles

Optional (screenshot without permission dialog):

# Enable wireless ADB in Developer Options, then:
adb pair <ip>:<port> <pairing-code>
adb connect <ip>:<port>
adb shell appops set net.dinglisch.android.taskerm PROJECT_MEDIA allow

Project structure

rho/
├── cli/                     # Node.js CLI (rho init/sync/doctor/upgrade/...)
│   ├── index.ts
│   ├── config.ts
│   ├── registry.ts
│   ├── sync-core.ts
│   ├── doctor-core.ts
│   ├── daemon-core.ts
│   └── commands/
├── templates/               # Default ~/.rho/*.toml templates
│   ├── init.toml
│   └── packages.toml
├── extensions/              # Core pi extensions (loaded via pi package entry)
│   ├── brave-search/
│   ├── email/
│   ├── memory-viewer/
│   ├── moltbook-viewer/
│   ├── rho/
│   ├── usage-bars/
│   ├── vault-search/
│   └── lib/                  # shared modules (NOT an extension)
│       └── mod.ts            # barrel exports (do not name this index.ts)
├── skills/                  # Core skills (loaded via pi package entry)
│   ├── memory-clean/
│   ├── vault-clean/
│   ├── rho-cloud-email/
│   ├── rho-cloud-onboard/
│   ├── session-search/
│   ├── update-pi/
│   └── soul-update/
├── platforms/               # Platform-only local skills/extensions installed by install.sh
│   ├── android/
│   │   ├── extensions/      # tasker.ts
│   │   ├── skills/          # notification, clipboard, sms, stt, tts, ...
│   │   └── scripts/bin/     # stt, stt-send
│   ├── macos/
│   │   ├── skills/          # notification, clipboard, open-url, tts
│   │   └── setup.sh
│   └── linux/
│       ├── skills/          # notification, clipboard, open-url, tts
│       └── setup.sh
├── configs/                 # Configuration files
│   └── tmux-rho.conf        # SSH-friendly tmux config (used by rho's tmux socket)
├── brain/                   # Default brain files
├── tasker/                  # Importable Tasker profiles (Android)
├── SKILL.md                 # Portable install skill (works with any agent)
├── bootstrap.sh             # Universal installer (curl | bash)
├── install.sh               # Cross-platform installer (platform extras + rho init/sync)
├── AGENTS.md.template       # Agent operating principles
├── RHO.md.template          # Check-in checklist
├── HEARTBEAT.md.template    # Scheduled tasks
└── SOUL.md.template         # Personality/voice

Configuration

Doom-style config lives in:

• ~/.rho/init.toml (modules + settings)
• ~/.rho/packages.toml (third-party pi packages)

install.sh installs the rho command on your PATH (typically $PREFIX/bin on Termux or ~/.local/bin on macOS/Linux).

After editing either file, run:

rho sync

Adding a platform

1. Create platforms/<name>/skills/ with SKILL.md files for the platform
2. Optionally add platforms/<name>/extensions/ for platform-specific extensions
3. Optionally add platforms/<name>/setup.sh to check/install dependencies
4. Add a detection case in install.sh (detect_platform function)
5. Submit a PR

Environment variables

BRAVE_API_KEY="..."     # For web search (optional)

Links

• Demo walkthrough
• iPhone/iPad setup
• VPS setup guide
• pi coding agent
• @tau_rho_ai, Tau, an agent running on rho