Mycel

Production-ready agent runtime for building, running, and governing collaborative AI teams

🇬🇧 English | 🇨🇳 中文

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Mycel is an enterprise-grade agent runtime that treats AI agents as long-running co-workers. Built on a middleware-first architecture, it provides the infrastructure layer missing from existing agent frameworks: sandbox isolation, multi-agent communication, and production governance.

Why Mycel?

Existing agent frameworks focus on building agents. Mycel focuses on running them in production:

• Middleware Pipeline: Unified tool injection, validation, security, and observability
• Sandbox Isolation: Run agents in Docker/E2B/cloud with automatic state management
• Multi-Agent Communication: Agents discover, message, and collaborate with each other — and with humans
• Production Governance: Built-in security controls, audit logging, and cost tracking

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• Node.js 18+
• An OpenAI-compatible API key

1. Get the source

git clone https://github.com/OpenDCAI/Mycel.git
cd Mycel

2. Install dependencies

# Backend (Python)
uv sync

# Frontend
cd frontend/app && npm install && cd ../..

Sandbox providers require extra dependencies — install only what you need:

uv sync --extra sandbox     # AgentBay
uv sync --extra e2b         # E2B
uv sync --extra daytona     # Daytona

Docker sandbox works out of the box (just needs Docker installed). See Sandbox docs for provider setup.

3. Start the services

# Terminal 1: Backend
uv run python -m backend.web.main
# → http://localhost:8001

# Terminal 2: Frontend
cd frontend/app && npm run dev
# → http://localhost:5173

4. Open and configure

1. Open http://localhost:5173 in your browser
2. Register an account
3. Go to Settings → configure your LLM provider (API key, model)
4. Start chatting with your first agent

Features

Web Interface

Full-featured web platform for managing and interacting with agents:

• Real-time chat with multiple agents
• Multi-agent communication — agents message each other autonomously
• Sandbox resource dashboard
• Token usage and cost tracking
• File upload and workspace sync
• Thread history and search

Multi-Agent Communication

Agents are first-class social entities. They can discover each other, send messages, and collaborate autonomously:

Member (template)
  └→ Entity (social identity — agents and humans both get one)
       └→ Thread (agent brain / conversation)

• chat_send: Agent A messages Agent B; B responds autonomously
• directory: Agents browse and discover other entities
• Real-time delivery: SSE-based chat with typing indicators and read receipts

Humans also have entities — agents can initiate conversations with humans, not just the other way around.

Middleware Pipeline

Every tool interaction flows through a 10-layer middleware stack:

User Request
    ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1. Steering (Queue injection)       │
│ 2. Prompt Caching                   │
│ 3. File System (read/write/edit)    │
│ 4. Search (grep/find)               │
│ 5. Web (search/fetch)               │
│ 6. Command (shell execution)        │
│ 7. Skills (dynamic loading)         │
│ 8. Todo (task tracking)             │
│ 9. Task (sub-agents)                │
│10. Monitor (observability)          │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘
    ↓
Tool Execution → Result + Metrics

Sandbox Isolation

Agents run in isolated environments with managed lifecycles:

Lifecycle: idle → active → paused → destroyed

Provider	Use Case	Cost
Local	Development	Free
Docker	Testing	Free
Daytona	Production (cloud or self-hosted)	Free (self-host)
E2B	Production	$0.15/hr
AgentBay	China Region	¥1/hr

Extensibility: MCP & Skills

Agents can be extended with external tools and specialized expertise:

• MCP (Model Context Protocol) — Connect external services (GitHub, databases, APIs) via the MCP standard. Configure per-member in the Web UI or via .mcp.json.
• Skills — Load domain expertise on demand. Skills inject specialized prompts and tool configurations into agent sessions. Managed through the Web UI member settings.

Security & Governance

• Command blacklist (rm -rf, sudo)
• Path restrictions (workspace-only)
• Extension whitelist
• Audit logging

Architecture

Middleware Stack: 10-layer pipeline for unified tool management

Sandbox Lifecycle: idle → active → paused → destroyed

Entity Model: Member (template) → Entity (social identity) → Thread (agent brain)

Documentation

• CLI Reference — Terminal interface, commands, LLM provider setup
• Configuration — Config files, virtual models, tool settings
• Multi-Agent Chat — Entity-Chat system, agent communication
• Sandbox — Providers, lifecycle, session management
• Deployment — Production deployment guide
• Concepts — Core abstractions (Thread, Member, Task, Resource)

Contact Us

• WeChat Group (微信交流群)
• GitHub Issues

Contributing

git clone https://github.com/OpenDCAI/Mycel.git
cd Mycel
uv sync
uv run pytest

See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

License

MIT License