Run Mode

Run mode (bytemind run) executes a single task non-interactively and exits when done. There is no back-and-forth - you supply the full task in -prompt and the agent works to completion.

bytemind run -prompt "update the README installation section"

When to Use

Scenario	Example
CI pipeline automation	Generate changelogs, bump versions
Scripted documentation updates	Regenerate API docs after code changes
One-shot refactors	Rename a symbol across the whole codebase
Batch processing	Apply the same transformation to many files

Chat vs Run

Use chat mode when you need iterative feedback, approval at each step, or want to refine the task mid-way. Use run mode when the task is fully defined and you want to fire-and-forget.

CLI Options

bytemind run -prompt "<task>"                  # basic usage
bytemind run -prompt "<task>" -max-iterations 64  # raise iteration limit
bytemind run -prompt "<task>" -config ./my.json   # custom config

Flag	Description	Default
-prompt	Task description (required)	-
-max-iterations	Max tool-call rounds	32
-config	Path to config file	auto-detect

Approval in Run Mode

By default, run mode still uses approval_mode: interactive, which means it will block waiting for your input on high-risk operations. For fully automated pipelines, set full_access so approval-required operations are auto-approved:

{
  "approval_mode": "full_access"
}

Or via environment variable:

BYTEMIND_APPROVAL_MODE=full_access bytemind run -prompt "regenerate all API docs"

WARNING

away_policy is a deprecated compatibility field. Keep it only if older tooling still expects that key; it no longer changes runtime behavior.

Practical Examples

Update documentation

bytemind run -prompt "Regenerate the API reference in docs/api.md based on current source code"

Automated code cleanup in CI

BYTEMIND_APPROVAL_MODE=full_access \
  bytemind run -prompt "Remove all TODO comments from the src/ directory and log what was removed"

Version bump

bytemind run -prompt "Update the version in go.mod, README.md, and cmd/version.go to v1.2.0"

See Also

• Chat Mode - interactive, multi-turn mode
• Configuration - approval mode and compatibility fields
• CLI Commands - full flag reference