Host Kit

rensei host kit lets you inspect the kits installed in the local daemon's kit registry. Kits bundle a toolchain, system prompt, and tool permissions into a versioned, shareable package that agents use as their execution environment.

Kit management is implemented in the open-source donmai runtime. The canonical command reference, kit manifest schema, install/enable/disable lifecycle, and cloud delivery details are documented at donmai.dev/docs/cli/kit. This page orients you to the Rensei context and the rensei host kit surface.

What is a Kit?

A kit is a versioned unit that defines:

Toolchain - language runtime, package manager, build tools pre-installed in the workarea
System prompt - base instructions injected into the agent's context
Tool permissions - which MCP tools and shell commands the agent may call
Environment - base environment variables (non-secret) for the agent's process

Kits are resolved per-session by the runner. The daemon's local kit registry caches kit manifests downloaded from the platform or a configured kit registry provider.

Commands

These commands are implemented in the donmai OSS layer. All flags, output format, and the kit manifest schema are documented at donmai.dev/docs/cli/kit.

List Kits

rensei host kit list

Lists all kits in the local registry with their ID, version, and status.

Sample output:

KIT ID                       VERSION  STATUS
rensei.sdlc-default          2.1.0    enabled
rensei.sdlc-bfsi             1.3.0    enabled
rensei.research              1.0.0    enabled
rensei.code-review           1.2.0    enabled

Show a Kit

rensei host kit show <kit-id>
rensei host kit show rensei.sdlc-default

Displays the full kit manifest: system prompt (truncated), tool permissions, toolchain spec, and version metadata.

Kit Install Trust Gate

Operator-initiated installs (rensei host kit install) run through the daemon's trust gate before anything is persisted. By default, only kits whose sigstore signature verifies and whose signer identity appears in your configured allowlist are allowed to install. Unsigned kits are rejected with an actionable error.

# Inspect a kit's signer before adding it to the allowlist
rensei host kit verify <kit-id>

# Install - blocked if the signer is not in trust.issuerSet
rensei host kit install <kit-id>

# One-time bypass for a single install (audit-logged)
rensei host kit install <kit-id> --allow-unsigned

See Kit Trust Gate for the full daemon.yaml configuration, allowlist setup, and bypass options.

Kit Delivery

The Rensei platform delivers kits via the cloud kit delivery mechanism (donmai v0.10.0+). The daemon fetches kit manifests from the platform on demand and caches them locally. You do not need to install kits manually for platform-delivered kits.

For custom kits authored in your org, see the kit manifest authoring guide at donmai.dev/docs/cli/kit.

Daemon Address

All rensei host kit subcommands talk to 127.0.0.1:7734. Override with RENSEI_DAEMON_URL:

RENSEI_DAEMON_URL=http://127.0.0.1:9000 rensei host kit list

Deprecated Top-level Alias

rensei kit is a hidden alias for rensei host kit. It works for one release:

# Deprecated
rensei kit list

# Current
rensei host kit list

Kit Trust Gate - Configuring the sigstore trust gate for kit installs
Daemon - Install and manage the daemon process
Host Provider - Execution providers installed on this machine
SDLC Default Template - The default SDLC workflow that uses the rensei.sdlc-default kit
donmai.dev - kit reference - Full kit command reference, manifest schema, install/enable/disable lifecycle

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