What's inside Directionally Local

You only need one install: npm install -g directionallylocal. It sets up everything below for you. This page is for people who want to know how it works, or who want to use one part on its own.

#Autopilot: the coding agent

Autopilot is the agent that does the work in each task. It reads the repository, plans, edits code, runs tests and opens the pull request. It's an open-source terminal coding agent and SDK under the MIT license.

It works with your key for 25+ providers or a local model through Ollama or LM Studio, and dl lets you pick any of them during setup.

npm i -g autopilot-ai

#Hotcell: the sandboxes

Hotcell gives each task its own isolated sandbox: a Docker container, a Firecracker microVM on Linux, or an Apple Virtualization microVM on macOS. A gateway hands each sandbox a short-lived, spend-capped token, so your real API key never enters it. Open source under Apache-2.0.

npm i -g hotcell

#Serverless Objects: durable state

Serverless Objects runs Cloudflare Workers and Durable Objects apps on machines you control. dl preview uses it to run a task's Workers branch on your own server. It's pre-alpha. You can also install it on its own.

npm i -g serverless-objects

#How they fit together

When you run dl run "…", dl starts a Hotcell sandbox on your computer or server, runs Autopilot inside it, and keeps your provider key outside the sandbox. When the task is done, you get a pull request. See Run tasks for the commands.