Install Rho

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Development work in your project

Example prompts

• “/install-rho”

Requirements

• Node.js

Workflow steps

9 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

1. 1Detect environment
2. 2Install system dependencies
3. 3Install pi coding agent
4. 4Install rho
5. 5Configure heartbeat interval (optional)
6. 6Verify installation
7. 7Authenticate
8. 8Start rho (optional)
9. 9Post-install orientation

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 073a3ee. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Ships 1 file in scripts/, which the agent can run.

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • npm
  • git
  • apt
  • node
  • brew
  • bash
  • dnf

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

  • github.com

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Install Rho loads about 1.6k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 35 tokens; SKILL.md has 692 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~35

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.6k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:51

  - You MUST NOT blindly run `sudo apt install` — detect the package manager first.

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:73

  | Debian/Ubuntu | `sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y nodejs npm tmux git` |

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:74

  | Arch | `sudo pacman -S nodejs npm tmux git` |

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:75

  | Fedora | `sudo dnf install nodejs npm tmux git` |

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from mikeyobrien/rho at commit 073a3ee, republished under its MIT licence (© mikeyobrien). 692 words, ~1,641 tokens.

name

install-rho

description

Install and configure Rho from scratch (Doom-style init.toml + sync). Only prereq: a coding agent that can run shell commands.

uname -a
printf "SHELL=%s\n" "$SHELL"
command -v node >/dev/null && node -v || echo "node: missing"
command -v npm  >/dev/null && npm -v  || echo "npm: missing"
command -v tmux >/dev/null && tmux -V || echo "tmux: missing"
command -v git  >/dev/null && git --version || echo "git: missing"
command -v pi   >/dev/null && pi --version || echo "pi: missing"
command -v rho  >/dev/null && rho --version || echo "rho: missing"

pkg update -y
pkg install -y nodejs-lts tmux git

brew install node tmux git

command -v pi >/dev/null || npm install -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent
pi --version

if [ -d ~/.rho/project/.git ]; then
  echo "Rho repo exists, pulling latest..."
  cd ~/.rho/project && git pull --ff-only
else
  git clone https://github.com/mikeyobrien/rho.git ~/.rho/project
fi

cd ~/.rho/project && bash install.sh

# Find the [settings.heartbeat] section and set the interval
sed -i 's/interval = "30m"/interval = "'"${HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL}"'"/' ~/.rho/init.toml
rho sync

rho doctor

rho

© mikeyobrien, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 651 other files (scripts) in the repository root of mikeyobrien/rho.

• SKILL.md
• .agents/planning/2026-02-08-doom-style-config/design/detailed-design.md
• .agents/planning/2026-02-08-doom-style-config/idea-honing.md
• .agents/planning/2026-02-08-doom-style-config/research/agent-config-patterns.md
• .agents/planning/2026-02-08-doom-style-config/research/agent-sops-format.md
• .agents/planning/2026-02-08-doom-style-config/research/doom-emacs-architecture.md
• .agents/planning/2026-02-08-doom-style-config/research/module-registry.md
• .agents/planning/2026-02-08-doom-style-config/research/pi-package-filtering.md
• .agents/planning/2026-02-08-doom-style-config/research/toml-libraries.md
• .agents/planning/2026-02-08-doom-style-config/rough-idea.md
• .agents/planning/2026-02-18-rho-web-multi-session/design/detailed-design.md
• .agents/planning/2026-02-18-rho-web-multi-session/idea-honing.md
• .agents/planning/2026-02-18-rho-web-multi-session/implementation/plan.md
• … and 639 more

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 073a3ee