Tools

Tools the Vayu desktop provides beyond its configs. The first set is for AI agents. Click a tool in the table to jump to its section.

AI tools

Vayu gives AI agents (Claude Code, Codex, Aider, or anything that can run a shell command or speak MCP) desktop tools of their own, so working with an agent doesn’t mean copying commands back and forth. Every tool keeps you in charge: an agent can ask, only you can approve.

Tool	What it does	How agents use it
anumati	Runs root commands an agent asks for, after you see each one and why, tick which to allow, and type your password once.	`anumati` (JSON on stdin), or the MCP tool `request_root_commands`

Each is its own repository (Vayu’s plugin rule), cloned by install.sh and installed root-owned, so an agent can’t change what it shows you or what it runs. vayu-verify checks them.

anumati

Root commands, approved once. When an agent needs something done as root (install a package, enable a service, edit a file under /etc), it sends the commands to anumati (अनुमति, “permission”) instead of asking you to paste them into a terminal. A window shows every command and why; you untick what you don’t want and type your password once; the agent gets the results as JSON. It was called vayu-elevate until 2026-10-21, and that name still works (a link).

The approval window over the desktop: Claude Code asks to run three commands to install Docker, each with its reason and a checkbox, and a password field with Deny and "Run 3 selected"

At a glance
Command	`anumati` (JSON on stdin, or `--cmd`/`--why` pairs)
MCP	`anumati --mcp`, tool `request_root_commands`
Runs as	root, `bash -c`, from `/`, no stdin, 30 min per command
Expires	after 10 minutes without an answer (counts as denied)
Logs	`/var/log/anumati.log` (root-only), `~/.local/state/anumati/requests.jsonl`
In Vayu	cloned to `~/.local/share/anumati`, installed root-owned by its `install.sh` (`install.sh` step “Installing anumati”)
Docs	the README: the request and result formats, MCP setup, the security model

Claude Code on this desktop is told to use it in the global ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md (the stowed claude/ package). Problems: the “AI tools” entries in Troubleshooting.