astrid-daemon

The background kernel process for the Astrid OS.

In the OS model, this is the kernel running as a daemon. It boots the kernel, loads capsules via auto-discovery, binds a Unix domain socket, and serves IPC requests from frontends (CLI, Discord, web, etc.). All state — sessions, capabilities, audit logs, VFS — lives here.

How it runs

The daemon is typically spawned automatically by the CLI (astrid chat or astrid start). It can also be started directly for headless or multi-frontend deployments.

Spawned by CLI (typical)

# Ephemeral — auto-shuts down on idle after last client disconnects
astrid

# Persistent — stays running after CLI disconnects
astrid start

Started directly

# Persistent mode (default)
astrid-daemon --workspace /path/to/project

# Ephemeral mode
astrid-daemon --ephemeral --workspace /path/to/project

# With verbose logging
astrid-daemon --verbose

Flags

Lifecycle

1. Resolves ~/.astrid/ home directory, initializes logging to ~/.astrid/log/.
2. Boots the kernel: event bus, KV store, capability store, audit log, VFS, MCP servers.
3. Binds Unix socket at ~/.astrid/run/system.sock, generates session token at ~/.astrid/run/system.token.
4. Loads all capsules from ~/.astrid/home/{principal}/.local/capsules/ and .astrid/capsules/ (workspace).
5. Verifies astrid-capsule-cli proxy is loaded (required for socket accept loop).
6. Writes readiness sentinel at ~/.astrid/run/system.ready — CLI polls for this.
7. Waits for SIGTERM/SIGINT, then shuts down gracefully (drains capsules, cleans up socket/token/readiness files).

Management API

Frontends send KernelRequest messages over the socket to manage the daemon:

Development

cargo build -p astrid-daemon
cargo test -p astrid-daemon

License

Dual MIT/Apache-2.0. See LICENSE-MIT and LICENSE-APACHE.