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Run without a clone: bare sausage creates ./world if needed and runs it
- cli: the subcommand is optional; without one, sausage runs ./world and
  runs init first when ./world is not a world yet (test: cli/tests/cli.rs).
- flake: .#loop without a folder runs bare sausage.
- README: nix run git+https://gitea.surma.technology/surma/sausage(#loop),
  clone only for working on Sausage.
2026-10-16 20:56:59 +00:00

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# Sausage
You can see how the sausage is made.
Sausage is a world of small programs ("actors") that you grow by talking to
it. Each actor is a WASI program with stdin and stdout. Actors send each other
JSON messages, one per line, through a broker. The agent is an actor too: it
writes new actors in Rust, builds them, tests them, starts them, and can
change its own code.
## Start
You need [Nix](https://nixos.org/download) with flakes, and an API token for
an LLM (OpenAI Responses or Anthropic Messages API). No clone needed:
```sh
nix run git+https://gitea.surma.technology/surma/sausage
```
This creates a world in `./world` the first time (it builds the agent, which
takes a few minutes) and then starts it with a console. Later runs start the
existing world. The two steps also exist on their own:
```sh
nix run git+https://gitea.surma.technology/surma/sausage -- init # create ./world
nix run git+https://gitea.surma.technology/surma/sausage -- run # start it
```
`init` asks for the API shape (`openai-responses` or `anthropic-messages`),
the base URL, the model, and the token. It reads `SAUSAGE_API`,
`SAUSAGE_BASE_URL`, `SAUSAGE_MODEL`, and `SAUSAGE_API_TOKEN` first. The
values go to `world/actor/agent/data/config.json`. `init` and `run` take
another folder as an argument, for example `-- run my-world`.
To keep a world on the newest version, run it in a loop:
```sh
nix run git+https://gitea.surma.technology/surma/sausage#loop # ./world
nix run git+https://gitea.surma.technology/surma/sausage#loop -- my-world # an existing world
```
The loop runs the newest `sausage` from that URL (`nix run --refresh`).
When the host crashes or an actor sends `@broker {"type":"exit"}`, the loop
fetches the newest commit and starts it again. `/quit` ends the loop. Set
`SAUSAGE_FLAKE` to run another flake URL instead, for example your fork.
To work on Sausage itself, clone it
(`git clone https://gitea.surma.technology/surma/sausage`) and use `nix run`,
`nix run .#loop` and `nix develop` in the checkout.
In the console:
```text
write an actor "notes" that stores notes, and start it → text to the agent
@notes {"type":"add","text":"milk"} → a JSON message to an actor
@agent hello → text to an actor
/quit
```
## The world folder
The folder is the source of truth. Every actor lives in `world/actor/<id>/`:
```text
actor.wasm the current version
actor.json installed version, running, subscriptions
source/ the source of the current version
public/ files that the actor publishes
data/ the actor's state
stderr.log what the actor and the broker write about it
versions/<n>/ every installed version: actor.wasm, source/, meta.json
```
To add or replace an actor by hand, put an `actor.wasm` (and its `source/`,
with the tests in `source/tests/`) into its folder. Then restart the world or
send `@broker {"type":"scan"}`. The broker tests the file before it uses it.
If the tests fail, the old version keeps running, and `stderr.log` says why.
## More
- [PROTOCOL.md](PROTOCOL.md): messages, the filesystem, the broker, `cargo`.
Read this to write an actor in any language.
- [`sdk/`](sdk/): `sausage-actor`, the SDK for Rust actors.
- [`examples/notes`](examples/notes): a small actor with a test.
- [AGENTS.md](AGENTS.md): how to work on Sausage itself.