Angel Host Control

Manipulate the local Angel Engine host (desktop app + daemon) through the bundled host CLI. This is the Skill-first injection path: no MCP server is required. MCP remains a future extension.

Find angelctl

Prefer the absolute path when provided:

1. $ANGELCTL_BIN — full path to the binary (injected by the host when host control is enabled).
2. $ANGELCTL_BIN_DIR/angelctl — directory containing the binary.
3. angelctl on PATH (host prepends the bin dir for agent processes).
4. Packaged app: Angel Engine.app/Contents/Resources/bin/angelctl (macOS).
5. Dev monorepo: packages/host-cli/dist/bin/angelctl after bun run host-cli:build.

# Prefer absolute path from the host env
command -v angelctl || test -x "$ANGELCTL_BIN" && echo "ok"
angelctl --help
# Global flags (--json, --url, --token) go before the command.
angelctl --json which

Connect to the daemon

Do not invent URLs or tokens. Resolution order (CLI built-in):

1. --url + --token flags
2. ANGEL_DAEMON_URL + ANGEL_DAEMON_TOKEN (injected into agent processes)
3. --info / ANGEL_DAEMON_INFO pointing at daemon.json
4. Well-known ~/.angel-engine/daemon.json (mode 0600, written by the daemon)
5. App Support …/Angel Engine/daemon.json (or Dev variant)

angelctl --json which          # prints URL; token always redacted
angelctl --json health

Safe read-only examples

angelctl --json health
angelctl --json chat ls
angelctl --json chat get <chatId>
angelctl --json run active <chatId>
angelctl --json project ls
angelctl --json agent ls
angelctl --json skill ls --runtime claude

Write examples (confirm with the user first)

angelctl chat create --runtime codex --title "Follow-up"
angelctl chat send <chatId> "Please continue from the last summary."
angelctl chat archive <chatId>
angelctl run stop <runId>

Use --json for machine-readable output; --quiet / -q for IDs only when supported.

Security boundaries

• Never print, log, or commit ANGEL_DAEMON_TOKEN, daemon.json, or Bearer headers.
• Prefer angelctl over hand-rolled curl so tokens stay out of shell history.
• Do not call process-kill / daemon-shutdown host routes from this skill.
• Do not mass-delete or archive chats without explicit user confirmation.
• Mobile-paired tokens are restricted; host control uses the primary desktop token context only.

When not to use

• User only wants code edits in the current workspace (use normal tools).
• You need structured tool schemas without shell — that is the future MCP path; it is not implemented here. Skill + CLI is sufficient for host control.

Source of truth

If this document drifts, trust angelctl --help and the live daemon API. MCP is intentionally not required for this path.