Babysitter

What Babysitter does

Babysitter lets you define a workflow in code and then enforces each step. Quality gates must pass before the process moves on, human approval can be required at breakpoints, and every decision is written to an immutable journal. The README's wording is that agents do exactly what the process permits, nothing more.

Since v6 it is harness-agnostic through an Adapters runtime, so the same processes run across 12 supported AI coding harnesses; the repository's install matrix lists which. Two install tracks exist: a host-side adapters CLI (@a5c-ai/adapters-cli) for running a harness from the shell, and in-session per-harness plugins. The main babysitter CLI comes from @a5c-ai/babysitter, and an SDK package is published separately. The repository carries hermes-plugin and codex-plugin topics.

Key features

• Workflows defined in code and enforced step by step
• Quality gates that must pass before a process advances
• Human approval breakpoints
• Immutable journal of every decision
• Adapters runtime that runs the same processes across 12 harnesses
• Host-side adapters CLI with adapters doctor and adapters run

When to use it

• Run a multi-step coding process with gates and approvals instead of a free-form prompt
• Reuse one workflow definition across several agent harnesses
• Keep an audit trail of agent decisions

Who it is for: Teams that run AI coding agents on complex multi-step work and need enforced process, approvals and an audit trail.

How it fits with Hermes Agent

The repository is tagged hermes-plugin and runs across supported harnesses; the harness install matrix in the repository shows the Hermes-specific coverage.

How to install Babysitter

These commands are copied from the project's README. Check the repository for the latest steps before you run them.

npm install -g @a5c-ai/babysitter
npm install -g @a5c-ai/adapters-cli

Requirements: Node.js 20.0.0+ (22.x LTS recommended; the adapters CLI needs 22.13.0+) and a supported AI coding harness; Git is optional

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