Getting Started

Prerequisites

.NET SDK 10 — pinned in global.json
Docker — the agent spawns executor containers via the Docker API
A Xians account — get an API key from app.xians.ai
An Anthropic API key — used by Claude Code inside executor containers
A GitHub or Azure DevOps PAT — for repo access

1. Clone and Configure

git clone https://github.com/xianix-team/the-agent.git
cd the-agent
cp TheAgent/.env.example TheAgent/.env

Open TheAgent/.env and fill in the required values:

# Required
XIANS_SERVER_URL=https://app.xians.ai
XIANS_API_KEY=xns_...
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

# Platform tokens — include whichever you need
GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_...
# AZURE_DEVOPS_TOKEN=...

# Executor (optional overrides)
EXECUTOR_IMAGE=99xio/xianix-executor:latest
CONTAINER_MEMORY_MB=1024
CONTAINER_CPU_COUNT=1

Environment Variable Reference

Variable	Required	Description
`XIANS_SERVER_URL`	Yes	Xians platform URL
`XIANS_API_KEY`	Yes	API key from Xians Agent Studio
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	Yes	Anthropic API key for Claude Code
`GITHUB_TOKEN`	Conditional	GitHub PAT. Required for GitHub webhooks.
`AZURE_DEVOPS_TOKEN`	Conditional	Azure DevOps PAT. Required for ADO webhooks.
`EXECUTOR_IMAGE`	No	Docker image for the executor (default: `99xio/xianix-executor:latest`)
`CONTAINER_MEMORY_MB`	No	Memory limit per container in MB (default: `1024`)
`CONTAINER_CPU_COUNT`	No	CPU cores per container (default: `1`)

Multiple Environments

The agent supports environment-specific .env files via the APP_ENV variable:

APP_ENV=prod dotnet run --project TheAgent/TheAgent.csproj  # loads .env.prod

2. Run the Agent

dotnet run --project TheAgent/TheAgent.csproj

A healthy agent prints a banner and starts listening on its workflow queues:

╔══════════════════════════════╗
║     The Xianix Agent v1.0    ║
╚══════════════════════════════╝
✓ Worker listening on queue 'xianix:...:Processing Workflow'
✓ Worker listening on queue 'xianix:...:Integrator Workflow'
...

Running in Docker

docker run --rm \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  --env-file TheAgent/.env \
  99xio/xianix-agent:latest

The Docker socket mount is required — the agent creates executor containers via the Docker API.

3. Verify with a Test Webhook

With the agent running, simulate a GitHub PR event:

export WEBHOOK_URL=https://app.xians.ai/webhooks/<your-agent-id>
./TestScripts/simulate-pr-opened.sh

You should see { "status": "success" } for a matching event or { "status": "ignored" } for an unmatched one.

4. Run Tests

dotnet test TheAgent.Tests/TheAgent.Tests.csproj

Next Step

Now that the agent is running, learn How It Works to understand the webhook-to-container pipeline.