Noodle

Skills that run themselves. Write skills with a schedule: field describing when they should run. Noodle's scheduler agent reads those descriptions, writes orders, and the loop spawns agents in isolated worktrees to do the work.

How the Loop Works

1. Brief — Noodle gathers project state into .noodle/mise.json (backlog, active agents, history, capacity, registered skills)
2. Schedule — the scheduler agent reads mise, writes .noodle/orders-next.json
3. Dispatch — Noodle promotes orders and spawns agent sessions
4. Execute — each agent runs in its own worktree with the assigned skill
5. Merge — completed work merges back to main

Skills

A skill is a directory with a SKILL.md. The body is the agent's instructions. The frontmatter is metadata.

General skills (no schedule:) are invoked directly by agents. Examples: commit, debugging.

Scheduled skills (with schedule:) run autonomously. The scheduler reads the schedule: value as prose and uses judgment to decide when conditions are met.

---
name: quality
description: Post-cook quality gate.
schedule: "Follow-up stage after execute. Cross-provider review preferred."
---

Skills live in .agents/skills/ by default. Paths in skills.paths are searched in order; first match wins.

For the full guide on writing skills, orders, and schedule fields, see references/skill-authoring.md.

Configuration

Noodle reads .noodle.toml at project root. Scaffolded on first noodle start. Most projects only need:

mode = "supervised"  # auto | supervised | manual

[routing.defaults]
provider = "claude"
model = "claude-opus-4-6"

[skills]
paths = [".agents/skills"]

Full config reference: references/configuration.md

CLI

All commands accept --project-dir (default: current directory, env: NOODLE_PROJECT_DIR).

Core

Command	Description
noodle start	Start the noodle loop
noodle start --once	Run one scheduling cycle and exit
noodle status	Show runtime status (active agents, queue depth, loop state)
noodle reset	Clear all runtime state (refuses if loop is running)

Skills & Schemas

Command	Description
noodle skills	List resolved skills
noodle skills list	List all resolved skills
noodle schema <target>	Print schema docs for a target
noodle schema list	List available schema targets (mise, orders, status)

Worktrees

Command	Description
noodle worktree create <name>	Create a new linked worktree
noodle worktree create <name> --from <ref>	Create from a specific branch or commit
noodle worktree exec <name> <command...>	Run a command inside a worktree (CWD-safe)
noodle worktree merge <name>	Merge a worktree branch into integration branch
noodle worktree merge <name> --into <branch>	Merge into a specific target branch
noodle worktree list	List all worktrees with merge status
noodle worktree prune	Remove merged and patch-equivalent worktrees
noodle worktree cleanup <name>	Remove a worktree without merging
noodle worktree cleanup <name> --force	Remove even with unmerged commits
noodle worktree hook	Run worktree session hook (used internally)

Events

Command	Description
noodle event emit <type>	Emit an external event into the loop
noodle event emit <type> --payload <json>	Emit with a JSON payload
noodle event emit <type> --session <id>	Emit to a specific session's event log

Full CLI reference: https://poteto.github.io/noodle/reference/cli

Troubleshooting

1. "fatal config diagnostics prevent start" — Check .noodle.toml against noodle schema.
2. Missing adapter scripts — Create scripts or update paths in config.
3. Stale worktrees — noodle worktree list, then noodle worktree prune.

References

• references/skill-authoring.md — writing skills: pipeline, orders schema, schedule fields, stage composition, full examples
• references/configuration.md — full .noodle.toml config reference
• https://poteto.github.io/noodle/concepts/adapters — adapter setup, script contracts, provider examples
• https://poteto.github.io/noodle/concepts/scheduling — how the loop schedules and dispatches work
• https://poteto.github.io/noodle/concepts/skills — skill discovery, composition, scheduled vs general
• https://poteto.github.io/noodle/concepts/runtimes — process, sprites, and runtime routing