AGENTS.md

This file provides guidance to coding agents when working with code in this repository.

Project Overview

Cog is a tool that packages machine learning models in production-ready containers.

It consists of:

• Cog CLI (cmd/cog/) - Command-line interface for building, running, and deploying models, written in Go
• Python SDK (python/cog/) - Python library for defining model predictors and training in Python
• Coglet (crates/) - Rust-based prediction server that runs inside containers, with Python bindings via PyO3

Documentation for the CLI and SDK is available by reading ./docs/llms.txt.

Development Commands

Development tasks are managed with mise. Run mise tasks to see all available tasks.

Quick Reference

Task	Description
mise run fmt	Check formatting (all languages)
mise run fmt:fix	Fix formatting (all languages)
mise run lint	Run linters (all languages)
mise run lint:fix	Fix lint issues (all languages)
mise run test:go	Run Go tests
mise run test:rust	Run Rust tests
mise run test:python	Run Python tests
mise run test:integration	Run integration tests
mise run build:cog	Build cog CLI binary
mise run build:coglet	Build coglet wheel (dev)
mise run build:sdk	Build SDK wheel
mise run install	Build and symlink cog to /usr/local/bin
mise run docs:llm	IMPORTANT: Regenerate docs/llms.txt after editing docs
mise run docs:cli	Generate CLI reference docs from Go source code
mise run version	Show current version from VERSION.txt
mise run version:bump <ver>	Bump version everywhere and commit

Task Naming Convention

Tasks follow a consistent naming pattern:

• Language-based tasks for fmt/lint/test/typecheck: task:go, task:rust, task:python
• Component-based tasks for build: build:cog, build:coglet, build:sdk
• Check vs Fix: fmt and lint default to check mode (non-destructive); use :fix suffix to auto-fix

All Tasks by Category

Format:

• mise run fmt / mise run fmt:check - Check all (alias)
• mise run fmt:fix - Fix all
• mise run fmt:go / mise run fmt:rust / mise run fmt:python - Per-language

Lint:

• mise run lint / mise run lint:check - Check all (alias)
• mise run lint:fix - Fix all
• mise run lint:go / mise run lint:rust / mise run lint:python - Per-language
• mise run lint:rust:deny - Check Rust licenses/advisories

Test:

• mise run test:go - Go unit tests
• mise run test:rust - Rust unit tests
• mise run test:python - Python unit tests (via tox)
• mise run test:coglet:python - Coglet Python binding tests
• mise run test:integration - Integration tests

Build:

• mise run build:cog - Build cog CLI (development)
• mise run build:cog:release - Build cog CLI (release)
• mise run build:coglet - Build coglet wheel (dev install)
• mise run build:coglet:wheel - Build coglet wheel (native platform)
• mise run build:coglet:wheel:linux-x64 - Build for Linux x86_64
• mise run build:coglet:wheel:linux-arm64 - Build for Linux ARM64
• mise run build:sdk - Build SDK wheel

Install:

• mise run install - Symlink cog CLI to /usr/local/bin (requires build:cog first)
• PREFIX=/custom/path mise run install - Symlink to custom location

Version:

• mise run version - Show current version from VERSION.txt
• mise run version:bump <ver> - Bump version everywhere and commit
• mise run version:check - Verify VERSION.txt matches Cargo.toml

Other:

• mise run typecheck - Type check all languages
• mise run generate - Run code generation
• mise run clean - Clean all build artifacts
• mise run docs - Build documentation
• mise run docs:serve - Serve docs locally

Code Style Guidelines

Go

• Imports: Organize in three groups separated by blank lines: (1) Standard library, (2) Third-party packages, (3) Internal packages (github.com/replicate/cog/pkg/...)
• Formatting: Use mise run fmt:go:fix
• Linting: Must pass golangci-lint with: errcheck, gocritic, gosec, govet, ineffassign, misspell, revive, staticcheck, unused
• Error Handling: Return errors as values; use pkg/errors.CodedError for user-facing errors with error codes
• Naming: CamelCase for exported, camelCase for unexported
• Testing: Use testify/require for assertions; prefer table-driven tests

Example import block:

import (
    "fmt"

    "github.com/spf13/cobra"

    "github.com/replicate/cog/pkg/config"
)

Python

• Imports: Automatically organized by ruff/isort (stdlib → third-party → local)
• Formatting: Use mise run fmt:python:fix
• Linting: Must pass ruff checks: E (pycodestyle), F (Pyflakes), I (isort), W (warnings), S (bandit), B (bugbear), ANN (annotations)
• Type Annotations: Required on all function signatures; use typing_extensions for compatibility; avoid Any where possible
• Error Handling: Raise exceptions with descriptive messages; avoid generic exception catching
• Naming: snake_case for functions/variables/modules, PascalCase for classes
• Testing: Use pytest with fixtures; async tests with pytest-asyncio
• Compatibility: Must support Python 3.10-3.13

Rust

• Formatting: Use mise run fmt:rust:fix
• Linting: Must pass mise run lint:rust (clippy)
• Dependencies: Audited with cargo-deny (see crates/deny.toml); run mise run lint:rust:deny
• Error Handling: Use thiserror for typed errors, anyhow for application errors
• Naming: snake_case for functions/variables, PascalCase for types
• Testing: Use cargo test; snapshot tests use insta
• Async: tokio runtime; async/await patterns

Working on the CLI and support tooling

The CLI code is in the cmd/cog/ and pkg/ directories. Support tooling is in the tools/ directory.

The main commands for working on the CLI are:

• go run ./cmd/cog - Runs the Cog CLI directly from source (requires wheel to be built first)
• mise run build:cog - Builds the Cog CLI binary
• mise run install - Symlinks the built binary to /usr/local/bin (run build:cog first), or to a custom path with PREFIX=/custom/path mise run install
• mise run test:go - Runs all Go unit tests
• go test ./pkg/... - Runs tests directly with go test

Working on the Python SDK

The Python SDK is developed in the python/cog/ directory. It uses uv for virtual environments and tox for testing across multiple Python versions.

The main commands for working on the SDK are:

• mise run build:sdk - Builds the Python wheel
• mise run test:python - Runs Python tests across all supported versions

Working on Coglet (Rust)

Coglet is the Rust-based prediction server that runs inside Cog containers, handling HTTP requests, worker process management, and prediction execution.

The code is in the crates/ directory:

• crates/coglet/ - Core Rust library (HTTP server, worker orchestration, IPC)
• crates/coglet-python/ - PyO3 bindings for Python predictor integration (requires Python 3.10+)

For detailed architecture documentation, see crates/README.md and crates/coglet/README.md.

The main commands for working on Coglet are:

• mise run build:coglet - Build and install coglet wheel for development (macOS, for local Rust/Python tests)
• mise run build:coglet:wheel:linux-x64 - Build Linux x86_64 wheel (required to test Rust changes in Docker containers via cog predict/cog train)
• mise run test:rust - Run Rust unit tests
• mise run lint:rust - Run clippy linter
• mise run fmt:rust:fix - Format code

Testing

Go code is tested using the built-in go test framework:

• go test ./pkg/... -run <name> - Runs specific Go tests by name
• mise run test:go - Runs all Go unit tests

Python code is tested using tox, which allows testing across multiple Python versions and configurations:

• mise run test:python - Runs all Python unit tests
• uv run tox -e py312-tests -- python/tests/server/test_http.py::test_openapi_specification_with_yield - Runs a specific Python test

The integration test suite in integration-tests/ tests the end-to-end functionality of the Cog CLI and Python SDK using Go's testscript framework:

• mise run test:integration - Runs the integration tests
• mise run test:integration string_predictor - Runs a specific integration test

The integration tests require a built Cog binary, which defaults to the first cog in PATH. Run tests against a specific binary with the COG_BINARY environment variable:

mise run build:cog
COG_BINARY=dist/go/*/cog mise run test:integration

Development Workflow

1. Run mise install to set up the development environment
2. Run mise run build:sdk after making changes to the ./python directory
3. Run mise run build:coglet:wheel:linux-x64 after making changes to the ./crates directory (needed for Docker testing)
4. Run mise run build:cog to build the CLI (wheels are picked up from dist/ at Docker build time, not embedded in the binary)
5. Run mise run fmt:fix to format code
6. Run mise run lint to check code quality
7. Run mise run docs:llm to regenerate docs/llms.txt after changing README.md or any docs/*.md file
8. Read the ./docs directory and make sure the documentation is up to date

IMPORTANT: Always run mise run lint (or the language-specific variant, e.g. mise run lint:go) before committing to catch linter errors early. CI will reject PRs that fail lint checks.

Architecture

CLI Architecture (Go)

The CLI follows a command pattern with subcommands. The main components are:

• pkg/cli/ - Command definitions (build, exec, predict, serve, etc.)
• pkg/docker/ - Docker client and container management
• pkg/dockerfile/ - Dockerfile generation and templating
• pkg/config/ - cog.yaml parsing and validation
• pkg/image/ - Image building and pushing logic

Python SDK Architecture

• python/cog/ - Core SDK
  • base_predictor.py - Base class for model predictors
  • types.py - Input/output type definitions
  • server/ - HTTP/queue server implementation
  • command/ - Runner implementations for predict/train

Coglet Architecture (Rust)

The prediction server that runs inside Cog containers. Uses a two-process architecture: a parent process (HTTP server + orchestrator) and a worker subprocess (Python predictor execution).

See crates/README.md for detailed architecture documentation.

• crates/coglet/ - Core Rust library (HTTP server, worker orchestration, IPC bridge)
• crates/coglet-python/ - PyO3 bindings for Python predictor integration

Key Design Patterns

1. Local Wheel Resolution: The CLI discovers SDK and coglet wheels from dist/ at Docker build time (not embedded in the binary)
2. Docker SDK Integration: Uses Docker Go SDK for container operations
3. Type Safety: Dataclasses for Python type validation, strongly typed Go interfaces
4. Compatibility Matrix: Automated CUDA/PyTorch/TensorFlow compatibility management

For comprehensive architecture documentation, see architecture/.

Common Tasks

Adding a new CLI command

1. Create command file in pkg/cli/
2. Add command to pkg/cli/root.go
3. Implement business logic in appropriate pkg/ subdirectory
4. Add tests

Modifying Python SDK behavior

1. Edit files in python/cog/
2. Run mise run build:sdk to rebuild wheel
3. Test with mise run test:python
4. Integration test with mise run test:integration

Updating ML framework compatibility

1. See tools/compatgen/ for compatibility matrix generation
2. Update framework versions in relevant Dockerfile templates
3. Test with various framework combinations

Updating the docs

• Documentation is in the docs/ directory, written in Markdown and generated into HTML using mkdocs.
• IMPORTANT: After editing any file in docs/ or README.md, you MUST run mise run docs:llm to regenerate docs/llms.txt. This file is used by coding agents and should be kept in sync with the documentation.
• IMPORTANT: CLI reference docs (docs/cli.md) are auto-generated from Go source code. After modifying CLI commands in cmd/ or pkg/cli/, run mise run docs:cli to regenerate, and ensure mise run docs:cli:check passes before committing.

CI Tool Dependencies

Development tools are managed in one place: mise.toml. CI workflows use jdx/mise-action@v4 (with caching enabled) to install the same tool versions that developers use locally. This eliminates version drift between local dev and CI.

Exceptions:

Tool	CI method	Why
coglet wheel (maturin+zig)	PyO3/maturin-action	Builds inside a manylinux container with bundled maturin and zig
Rust target cache	Swatinem/rust-cache	Caches crates/target/ directory (separate from tool caching)
check-stubs Python	actions/setup-python	Needs shared-library Python (libpython3.x.so) for PyO3 auto-initialize

When updating a tool version, update mise.toml only. CI picks it up automatically.

Agent Skills

The .agents/skills/ directory contains shared skill definitions that provide specialized instructions and workflows for coding agents. Each skill is a subdirectory with a SKILL.md file that agents load on demand when the task matches.

Skills are invoked automatically by agents when a matching task is detected. See individual SKILL.md files for details on when and how each skill applies.

Important Files

• VERSION.txt - Canonical version (single source of truth)
• cog.yaml - User-facing model configuration
• pkg/config/config.go - Go code for parsing and validating cog.yaml
• pkg/config/data/config_schema_v1.0.json - JSON schema for cog.yaml
• python/cog/base_predictor.py - Predictor interface
• crates/Cargo.toml - Rust workspace configuration (version must match VERSION.txt)
• crates/README.md - Coglet architecture overview
• mise.toml - Task definitions for development workflow

Testing Philosophy

• Unit tests for individual components (Go and Python)
• Integration tests for end-to-end workflows
• Tests use real Docker operations (no mocking Docker API)
• Always run mise run build:sdk after making Python changes before testing Go code
• Python 3.10-3.13 compatibility is required

Go Test Conventions

All Go tests must use testify for assertions. Do not use raw if checks with t.Fatal/t.Errorf — use require and assert instead.

• require — for fatal assertions that should stop the test (setup failures, preconditions):

  require.NoError(t, err, "failed to create client")
  require.Equal(t, expected, actual)
  require.True(t, condition, "server should be ready")
  

• assert — for non-fatal checks where the test should continue (e.g. validating multiple fields in a loop):

  assert.Equal(t, http.StatusOK, resp.StatusCode)
  assert.Contains(t, output, "expected substring")
  assert.NoError(t, err, "prediction %d failed", i)
  

• Use require for errors in setup/teardown and assert for the actual test expectations
• Prefer specific assertions (Equal, Contains, NoError, Len, Less) over generic True/False — they produce better failure messages
• Prefer table-driven tests for testing multiple similar cases