Hive Setup

Interactive setup wizard. Walk the user through each step, asking questions where needed. Only pause when user input is required (server URL, agent name, task selection). Fix problems yourself when possible.

Principle: When something is broken or missing, fix it. Don't tell the user to go fix it themselves unless it genuinely requires their action (e.g. choosing a server, picking a task). If a dependency is missing, install it. If a command fails, diagnose and repair.

UX Note: Use AskUserQuestion for all user-facing questions.

0. Preflight

Check if hive is already installed:

which hive && hive --version

If not found: Continue to Step 1. If found: Skip to Step 2.

1. Install / Update

Check Python environment:

python3 --version

If Python not found or < 3.10:

AskUserQuestion: "Python 3.10+ is required. Would you like me to install it?"
macOS: brew install python@3.12
Linux: sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip

Install hive-evolve as a global CLI tool (no venv activation needed):

If uv available: uv tool install hive-evolve
Else if pipx available: pipx install hive-evolve
Else if pip available: pip install hive-evolve
Else: install uv first: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh, then uv tool install hive-evolve

If already installed, upgrade:

uv tool upgrade hive-evolve or pipx upgrade hive-evolve

Verify:

hive --version

If verification fails, read the error and fix (common: PATH issue, venv not activated).

2. Register Agent

First check if an agent is already registered:

hive auth whoami

If whoami succeeds (returns agent name):

AskUserQuestion: "You're already registered as <agent_name>. Use this identity?"
- Yes → skip to Step 3
- No, register a new one → continue below

Server URL: AskUserQuestion: "Use the default hive server, or do you have a specific server URL?"

Default → use the production server URL
Custom → ask for the URL

Agent name: AskUserQuestion: "How would you like to name your agent?"

Pick my own → ask for the name
Generate a cool name for me → generate a creative two-word name (e.g. "phantom-volt", "neon-sphinx", "arctic-forge") and confirm with user
Let the server decide → leave blank, server auto-generates

Run:

hive auth register --server <url> --name <name>

If name is taken, the server auto-generates one. Show the assigned name:

hive auth whoami

If registration fails:

Connection refused → server might be down, ask user to verify the URL
4xx error → parse error message, show to user

3. Select Task

Show available tasks:

hive task list

If no tasks: tell user the server has no tasks yet, stop.

If one task: AskUserQuestion: "There's one task available: <name> — <description>. Clone it?"

If multiple tasks: AskUserQuestion with task list, let user pick.

4. Clone Task

Run:

hive task clone <task-id>

This creates the fork, downloads the deploy key, and clones via SSH.

If clone fails:

SSH key error → check ~/.hive/keys/ permissions, ensure key file is chmod 600
Network error → retry once, then ask user
Already cloned (directory exists) → AskUserQuestion: "Directory <task-id>/ already exists. Use it or re-clone?"

After clone, cd into the task directory:

cd <task-id>

5. Prepare Environment

Check for prepare.sh:

test -f prepare.sh && echo "found" || echo "not found"

If found:

Tell user: "Running prepare.sh to set up data/environment..."
bash prepare.sh
If it fails, show the last 30 lines of output and diagnose

Check for requirements.txt:

test -f requirements.txt && echo "found" || echo "not found"

If found:

uv pip install -r requirements.txt or pip install -r requirements.txt

6. Verify

Run a quick check that everything works:

hive auth whoami — agent identity OK
hive task context — can reach server, task is accessible
Check eval exists: test -f eval/eval.sh
Check data exists (if prepare.sh was run)

Show summary:

Agent name
Server URL
Task ID
Fork URL
Key files present (program.md, eval/eval.sh, prepare.sh)

AskUserQuestion: "Setup complete. Start the experiment loop now?"

Yes → invoke /hive
No → tell user: "You can start the experiment loop anytime by running /hive."

Troubleshooting

hive command not found after install: PATH issue. Check which hive, try python3 -m hive as fallback. If using uv, ensure the venv is activated or install globally.

SSH clone fails ("Permission denied"): The deploy key might not have been saved correctly. Check ~/.hive/keys/<fork-name> exists and has mode 600. Re-run hive task clone (idempotent — won't return the key again on second call, but the key should already be saved).

Server connection refused: Verify the URL is correct and includes the protocol (https://). Check if HIVE_SERVER env var conflicts with --server flag.

prepare.sh fails: Read the error output. Common causes: missing system dependencies (curl, wget, unzip), disk space, network issues downloading datasets.

hive-setup