ReferenceCLI commands
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ak watch start
Start watching a repository for new issues
Poll a GitHub repository for new issues matching the configured filters, then invoke the specified agent skill for each matched issue and post a reply comment. Runs once by default; use --daemon for continuous background polling.
Who it's for: Power devs building automated GitHub triage workflows; non-technical users via the matching dashboard surface.
When to use it: When you want AgentKit to automatically respond to new GitHub issues in a repository. Use --daemon for persistent background operation; omit it for a single-pass CI trigger.
What changes on disk: Reads and writes ~/.agentkit/watch/<repo-slug>/state.json to track responded issues and rate-limit counters.
Usage
ak watch start <owner/repo> [flags]Examples
ak watch start owner/repo # single pass, all new issues
ak watch start owner/repo --label bug # filter to label 'bug'
ak watch start owner/repo --daemon # run continuously in background
ak watch start owner/repo --max-per-hour 10 # rate-limit responses
ak watch start owner/repo --json # emit tick summary as JSONFlags
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--agent string | Agent skill to run for each matched issue (default "engineer/scout") |
--author strings | Filter to issues by these GitHub logins (repeatable) |
--daemon | Run as a background daemon (continuous polling) |
-h, --help | help for start |
--json | Emit machine-readable JSON (implies --no-interactive) |
--keyword strings | Filter to issues containing any of these keywords (repeatable) |
--kits-dir string | Override kits directory (default: ./kits or $AGENTKIT_KITS_DIR) |
--label strings | Filter to issues with any of these labels (repeatable) |
--max-per-hour int | Maximum responses per rolling hour (safety ceiling) (default 10) |
--no-interactive | Disable interactive prompts (CI-safe) |
--poll-interval int | Seconds between polls in daemon mode (default 60) |
-q, --quiet | Suppress non-error output on stderr |
-V, --verbose | Extra diagnostic output on stderr (loses to --quiet) |
-y, --yes | Assume yes for all prompts |
Output modes
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
pretty | default on TTY (colors, ASCII markers) |
plain | auto when stdout piped or --no-interactive |
json | --json (single-object envelope, NDJSON-safe) |
Exit codes
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
0 | success |
1 | runtime error |
2 | invalid flags |
3 | user-cancel (SIGINT, prompt-cancel) |
Related commands
ak watch— Watch a GitHub repository and auto-respond to issues