agentrc

agentrc is an open specification and accompanying command-line tool designed for packaging a single AI agent as a portable, governed artifact. The core concept centers on the Agentfile, a declarative document that specifies an agent's identity, capabilities, policies, tools, and resources, utilizing both standard Dockerfile keywords and four agent-specific extensions: IDENTITY, CAPABILITY, SOP, and POLICY. The Agentfile enables authors to define the agent's purpose, operational boundaries, and required resources in a reviewable format. The agentrc build process compiles the Agentfile into an Open Container Initiative (OCI) artifact, embedding intent as ai.agentrc. labels. This allows the resulting artifact to be linted in continuous integration pipelines, and run unchanged on local systems, AWS Bedrock, or Kubernetes, among other platforms. The tool emphasizes portability and governance: policies are explicitly declared and can be reviewed, while enforcement is handled by the deployment platform using Cedar, with a deny-by-default approach to privileges. agentrc does not provide a runtime, cloud service, or framework; instead, it focuses on packaging and policy, leaving execution to compatible runners and platforms. The agentrc CLI, also known by its alias arc, is available as a single binary for macOS and Linux (amd64 and arm64), installable via shell script, Homebrew, Go, or by building from source. The CLI scaffolds new Agentfiles, validates them for schema and policy compliance, builds OCI artifacts, inspects agent requests, and translates artifacts into backend-specific deployment configurations. It supports dry-run previews of deployments and can push built artifacts to any OCI registry. Reference translators are included for local, AWS Bedrock, and Kubernetes backends, serving as proofs of concept. agentrc is published under the Apache-2.0 license. The project is maintained as a standards-style repository, with the specification as its primary focus and reference tooling provided for implementation. The current version is a working draft and not a finalized standard.