@tigrisdata/agent-shell

A virtual bash environment with a persistent filesystem backed by Tigris object storage, written in TypeScript and designed for AI agents.

AI agents produce artifacts — reports, data, configs, logs. These need to go somewhere durable, shareable, and globally accessible. @tigrisdata/agent-shell gives agents a familiar bash interface (cat, grep, sed, jq, awk, pipes, redirects) where every file operation is backed by a Tigris bucket.

Isolated — writes stay in-memory until you explicitly flush. No partial state leaks to storage.
Durable — flush persists files to Tigris, globally distributed.
Checkpointable — take snapshots of your storage at any point. Roll back if needed.
Forkable — create copy-on-write forks of a bucket for safe experimentation.
Shareable — generate presigned URLs for any stored file.

Built on just-bash for the shell engine and @tigrisdata/storage for the storage layer.

Quick Start

Programmatic Usage

npm install @tigrisdata/agent-shell

import { TigrisShell } from "@tigrisdata/agent-shell";

const shell = new TigrisShell({
  accessKeyId: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
  secretAccessKey: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,
  bucket: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_BUCKET, // optional — auto-mounts at /workspace
});

await shell.exec('echo "Hello world" > greeting.txt');
await shell.exec("cat greeting.txt"); // stdout: "Hello world\n"
await shell.exec("cat greeting.txt | tr a-z A-Z"); // stdout: "HELLO WORLD\n"

// Persist to Tigris when you're ready
await shell.flush();

Interactive Shell

Launch a shell directly — no install needed:

npx @tigrisdata/agent-shell

Authenticate with access keys:

$ configure --key tid_... --secret tsec_...
Mounted 2 bucket(s) at /. Run 'df' to list them.

/ $ ls
my-bucket  shared-data
/ $ cd my-bucket
/my-bucket $ echo "hello" > greeting.txt
/my-bucket $ cat greeting.txt
hello
/my-bucket $ flush
Flushed 2 mount(s)

Or login with your Tigris account:

$ login
Open this URL in your browser:
  https://auth.storage.tigrisdata.io/activate?user_code=XKCD-1234

Waiting for authorization... done!
Logged in as you@example.com

Mounted 2 bucket(s) at /. Run 'df' to list them.

You can also pass credentials as flags:

npx @tigrisdata/agent-shell --key tid_... --secret tsec_... --bucket my-bucket

Storage Model

The shell uses an in-memory write-back cache that provides isolation:

Agent writes file  →  cached in memory (isolated)
Agent reads file   →  cache hit or fetch from Tigris
Agent calls flush  →  all changes persisted atomically

This gives you:

Isolation — nothing touches storage until you say so
Atomic commits — if your agent fails midway, no partial state is written
Fast execution — most operations never hit the network

const shell = new TigrisShell({
  bucket: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_BUCKET,
  accessKeyId: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
  secretAccessKey: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,
});

try {
  await shell.exec('echo "processing..." > status.txt');
  await shell.exec("echo '{\"score\": 0.95}' > results.json");
  await shell.exec("cat results.json | jq .score"); // "0.95\n"

  // Only persist on success
  await shell.flush();
} catch (e) {
  // Nothing was written to Tigris — storage is clean
}

Shell Options

The second argument configures shell behavior:

const shell = new TigrisShell(
  {
    bucket: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_BUCKET,
    accessKeyId: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
    secretAccessKey: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,
  },
  {
    cwd: "/workspace", // Starting directory (default: /workspace)
    env: { DEBUG: "true" }, // Initial environment variables
  },
);

Built-in Tigris Commands

In addition to all standard bash commands from just-bash, the shell includes Tigris-specific commands:

presign

Generate presigned URLs for sharing or uploading.

presign /path/to/file.txt                    # GET URL, 1 hour expiry
presign /path/to/file.txt --expires 7200     # GET URL, 2 hour expiry
presign /path/to/file.txt --put              # PUT URL for uploads

snapshot

Checkpoint your dataset. Create or list point-in-time bucket snapshots.

snapshot my-bucket                           # Create a snapshot
snapshot my-bucket --name "checkpoint-1"     # Create a named snapshot
snapshot my-bucket --list                    # List all snapshots

fork

Branch your dataset. Create a copy-on-write fork for safe experimentation.

fork source-bucket my-fork                   # Fork a bucket
fork source-bucket my-fork --snapshot 1713200000   # Fork from a specific snapshot

forks

List forks of a bucket.

forks my-bucket

Multi-Bucket

Mount multiple buckets at different paths:

import { TigrisShell } from "@tigrisdata/agent-shell";

const shell = new TigrisShell({
  accessKeyId: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
  secretAccessKey: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,
  bucket: "agent-workspace", // auto-mounted at /workspace
});

shell.mount("shared-datasets", "/datasets");

await shell.exec("cat /datasets/training/labels.csv | head -10");
await shell.exec("cp /datasets/training/labels.csv ./local-copy.csv");
await shell.exec('echo "processed" > results.txt');

// Flush all mounts, or a specific one
await shell.flush(); // all
await shell.flush("/datasets"); // just /datasets

// List and unmount
shell.listMounts(); // [{ bucket: "agent-workspace", mountPoint: "/workspace" }, ...]
shell.unmount("/datasets");

Advanced: Compose with just-bash

For full control over the filesystem layout, install just-bash alongside agent-shell:

npm install @tigrisdata/agent-shell just-bash

import { Bash, MountableFs, InMemoryFs } from "just-bash";
import { TigrisAdapter } from "@tigrisdata/agent-shell/fs";
import { createTigrisCommands } from "@tigrisdata/agent-shell/commands";

const auth = {
  accessKeyId: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
  secretAccessKey: process.env.TIGRIS_STORAGE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,
};

const fs = new MountableFs({ base: new InMemoryFs() });
fs.mount("/workspace", new TigrisAdapter(auth, "agent-workspace"));
fs.mount("/datasets", new TigrisAdapter(auth, "shared-datasets"));

const bash = new Bash({
  fs,
  cwd: "/workspace",
  customCommands: [
    ...createTigrisCommands({ ...auth, bucket: "agent-workspace" }),
  ],
});

await bash.exec("cp /datasets/data.csv ./local.csv");

API Reference