roundabout

# roundabout

five agents, one machine, one youtube video. roundabout makes the builds take turns.

agents say roughly how big a build is. a tiny daemon, started on demand and gone once idle, lets it run when there's room. two heavy builds never overlap, nothing gets promised disk that isn't there, and small stuff keeps slipping through while the big one grinds. roundabout doesn't run anything itself, it just holds the door.

## use

the cli is `rabt`, short enough that agents don't mind typing it

```

rabt run --size m -- cargo build

rabt run --ram 6G --cores 8 --time 10m -- nix build .#thing

rabt status

rabt suggest -- cargo build --release

rabt expect --size l   # building soon, save me a seat

rabt watch 7        # exits when lease 7 is done or overdue

rabt kill 7

rabt extend 7 10m

rabt artifacts check | list | gc [--cap] | pin <path>

```

`run` exits with the build's code, 124 if `--deadline` killed it, 75 if `--max-wait` ran out.

a granted build gets `CARGO_BUILD_JOBS`, `MAKEFLAGS`, `CMAKE_BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL` and a `NIX_CONFIG` with `cores`/`max-jobs` to match its grant, so it actually uses the cores it got and no more.

the grant can be bigger than the ask. idle cores go to whoever's building, minus what other sessions have said they'll want via `rabt expect`. spare cores never hold up admission, oversubscribing cpu only slows things down, but each one is charged ram at the build's own ram per core since more jobs eat more memory. a session's build counts as an `expect` too, so agents that forget still leave a mark. `--exact` opts out.

## claude code

```

nix build .#plugin

claude plugin marketplace add ./result

claude plugin install roundabout@roundabout

```

or on nixos

```nix

imports = [ roundabout.nixosModules.default ];

programs.roundabout.enable = true;

programs.roundabout.settings.budget.ram = "16GiB";   # lands in /etc/roundabout/config.toml

```

that installs roundabout and a socket-activated systemd user unit for the daemon (`socketActivation = false` to let clients spawn it instead). `programs.roundabout.claude` has read-only `hooks`, `skill` and `plugin` for whatever writes your claude config, e.g. `settings.hooks = config.programs.roundabout.claude.hooks`.

the plugin brings a skill and hooks. unwrapped builds get bounced back with instructions, overdue builds get mentioned to the agent that started them, and agents over their artifact cap get told to tidy up before they stop. `rabt` needs to be on PATH for the agent too, so install `.#roundabout` alongside.

## config

`~/.config/roundabout/config.toml`, falling back to `/etc/roundabout/config.toml`, or `$ROUNDABOUT_CONFIG` over both. the daemon picks up edits on save, on linux anyway. a broken config gets complained about and ignored rather than taking every agent down with it. everything's optional, these are the defaults

```toml

[budget]

ram = "75%"            # of total, or "24GiB"

ram_reserve = "4GiB"   # MemAvailable never drops below this on our account

cores = "100%"

disk_reserve = "20GiB" # per fs, capped at a tenth of it

disk_paths = ["/nix/store"]

psi_max = 40.0         # memory psi avg10 above this holds heavies back

[heavy]                # any one of these makes a build heavy

ram = "4GiB"

cores = "50%"

disk = "5GiB"

[sizes.m]              # s m l xl built in, add your own

ram = "2GiB"

disk = "1GiB"

cores = 4

time = "5m"

[queue]

linger = "5s"

backfill_max_time = "2m"

# max_wait = "30m"

elastic = true         # hand idle cores to whoever's building

intent_ttl = "20m"     # how long a `rabt expect` or a build keeps its claim

[overrun]

ram = "warn"           # or "throttle", systemd-run MemoryHigh on linux

ram_slack = 1.25

time_grace = 1.5       # overdue at this multiple of --time

remind_every = "5m"

[enforce]

unwrapped = "deny"     # "wrap" guesses a size for them, "allow" looks away

default_size = "m"

[artifacts]

project_cap = "10GiB"

global_cap = "60GiB"

idle_after = "24h"

size_ttl = "10m"

over_cap = "warn"      # "block" refuses new builds until cleaned

stop = "nudge"         # "block" "warn" "off"

nix_gc = false

nix_min_free = "30GiB"

# extra_rules = [{ name = "zig-cache", marker = "build.zig" }]

[nix]

inject = true

cores_per_job = 4

[detect]

# extra = ["just build"]

```

## license

EUPL-1.2