Documentation Overview
Welcome to the Magent documentation. Magent is an Emacs Lisp AI coding agent with multi-agent architecture, permission-based tool access, and LLM integration via gptel.
Documentation Index
Getting Started
- COMMANDS.org — Slash commands, internal LLM workflows, and their management commands
- ONBOARDING.org — New developer onboarding guide with architecture overview, guided tour, and complexity hotspots
- TROUBLESHOOTING.org — Common issues and solutions
Architecture
- ARCHITECTURE.org — Product positioning, system boundaries, module layers, request flow, and capability model
- AGENT_WORKFLOW.org — Thread/turn/item state machine, loop flow, persistence (snapshot + journal), UI projection, and Codex alignment
- AGENT_JOBS.org — Durable child-agent job lifecycle, tool surface, persistence, UI, and boundaries
- UI_BACKENDS.org — Supported agent-shell + ACP flow and the unsupported legacy UI boundary
- DOCTOR.org — Safe Doctor probe API, trust boundary, redaction, sessions, and cancellation
Contribution
- CONTRIBUTING.org — Contribution guidelines, code style, testing, and PR process
- TROUBLESHOOTING.org — CI, live smoke, and melpazoid failure notes
Project Root Documentation
- ../README.org — Main project README with features, installation, and usage
- ../AGENTS.md — Development guide for agentic coding tools with build commands, architecture notes, and repository conventions
Quick Links
For New Contributors
- Start with ONBOARDING.org
- Read CONTRIBUTING.org for development workflow
- Read ../AGENTS.md for current architecture notes and development guidance
- Read AGENT_JOBS.org before changing child-agent lifecycle behavior
For Users
- ../README.org — Installation and configuration
- COMMANDS.org — Built-in slash commands and Magent-owned LLM workflows
- TROUBLESHOOTING.org — Common issues and solutions
- Run
M-x magent-run-doctorfor self-diagnostics - Use
M-x magent-agent-shell-dwimto open the supported agent-shell UI
For Developers
- CONTRIBUTING.org — Code style and PR process
- ../AGENTS.md — Build commands, testing, architecture notes, and development guidance
- ARCHITECTURE.org — Current architecture and system boundaries
- ONBOARDING.org — Guided code tour and complexity hotspots
- AGENT_JOBS.org — Current child-agent job architecture
- UI_BACKENDS.org — Current frontend support boundary
- DOCTOR.org — Doctor data boundary and extension contract
CI And Packaging
- ../README.org — Public workflow badges and development commands
- CONTRIBUTING.org — Local and CI verification sequence
- TROUBLESHOOTING.org — Known GitHub Actions failure signatures
- ../AGENTS.md — Agent-facing test, coverage, live smoke, and melpazoid notes
Documentation Standards
When adding new documentation:
- Place user-facing docs in project root (README.org)
- Place developer docs in
docs/ - Use Org for docs under
docs/; generated HTML is build output under_site/. - Update this index when adding new files
- Keep stable docs or active task notes updated before stopping work so another machine can resume from git