From 060ab10340e1c12ea0d5368af0a5710b61cd4830 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kent Overstreet <kent.overstreet@linux.dev>
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2026 23:06:25 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] add --no-agents flag to disable background agents

Disables memory scoring, surface, and observe agents when set.
Useful for testing with external backends (e.g. OpenRouter) where
background agent traffic would be slow and unnecessary.

Co-Authored-By: Kent Overstreet <kent.overstreet@linux.dev>
---
 src/config.rs   |  3 +++
 src/mind/mod.rs | 13 ++++++++++---
 src/user/mod.rs |  4 ++++
 3 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/config.rs b/src/config.rs
index c2d409b..c76c4f8 100644
--- a/src/config.rs
+++ b/src/config.rs
@@ -445,6 +445,8 @@ pub struct SessionConfig {
     pub memory_file_count: usize,
     pub session_dir: PathBuf,
     pub app: AppConfig,
+    /// Disable background agents (surface, observe, scoring)
+    pub no_agents: bool,
 }
 
 /// A fully resolved model ready to construct an ApiClient.
@@ -514,6 +516,7 @@ impl AppConfig {
             config_file_count, memory_file_count,
             session_dir,
             app: self.clone(),
+            no_agents: cli.no_agents,
         })
     }
 
diff --git a/src/mind/mod.rs b/src/mind/mod.rs
index 8255bec..5c78a49 100644
--- a/src/mind/mod.rs
+++ b/src/mind/mod.rs
@@ -208,7 +208,9 @@ impl Session {
 
         self.update_status();
         self.check_compaction();
-        self.start_memory_scoring();
+        if !self.config.no_agents {
+            self.start_memory_scoring();
+        }
         self.drain_pending();
     }
 
@@ -803,15 +805,20 @@ pub async fn run(cli: crate::user::CliArgs) -> Result<()> {
 
     let (turn_tx, mut turn_rx) = mpsc::channel::<(Result<TurnResult>, StreamTarget)>(1);
 
+    let no_agents = config.no_agents;
     let mut session = Session::new(agent, config, ui_tx.clone(), turn_tx);
     session.update_status();
-    session.start_memory_scoring(); // also sends initial agent snapshots
+    if !no_agents {
+        session.start_memory_scoring(); // also sends initial agent snapshots
+    }
     session.send_context_info();
 
     // Start observation socket
     let socket_path = session.config.session_dir.join("agent.sock");
     let (observe_input_tx, mut observe_input_rx) = observe::input_channel();
-    observe::start(socket_path, ui_tx.subscribe(), observe_input_tx);
+    if !no_agents {
+        observe::start(socket_path, ui_tx.subscribe(), observe_input_tx);
+    }
 
     let mut reader = EventStream::new();
 
diff --git a/src/user/mod.rs b/src/user/mod.rs
index 7e4c3ef..97e6a22 100644
--- a/src/user/mod.rs
+++ b/src/user/mod.rs
@@ -693,6 +693,10 @@ pub struct CliArgs {
     #[arg(long)]
     pub dmn_max_turns: Option<u32>,
 
+    /// Disable background agents (surface, observe, scoring)
+    #[arg(long)]
+    pub no_agents: bool,
+
     #[command(subcommand)]
     pub command: Option<SubCmd>,
 }