Workarea

rensei host workarea gives you a CLI window into the local workarea pool - the set of pre-cloned, toolchain-installed repository snapshots the daemon keeps ready for fast agent dispatch.

Workarea management is implemented in the open-source donmai runtime. The canonical command reference, pool architecture, pool member lifecycle, and restore workflow are documented at donmai.dev/docs/cli/workarea. This page orients you to the Rensei context and the rensei host workarea surface.

What is a Workarea?

When the daemon claims a session, it picks a ready pool member (a warm workarea), hands it to the spawned agent, and marks it acquired. After the session ends the workarea is either:

Archived - the agent's file system snapshot is preserved as a workarea for inspection, restore, or diff.
Recycled - returned to the pool in a warmed state if the post-session state is clean.

Archived workareas are what rensei host workarea list shows.

Commands

These commands are implemented in the donmai OSS layer. All flags, output format, and exact behavior are documented at donmai.dev/docs/cli/workarea.

List Workareas

rensei host workarea list
rensei host workarea list --status warm
rensei host workarea list --status in-use
rensei host workarea list --status archive
rensei host workarea list --project my-project-slug

--status filters by pool member state. --project limits results to workareas for a specific project.

Inspect a Workarea

rensei host workarea inspect <session-id>

Shows the workarea's metadata: session ID, repository, toolchain key, disk usage, timestamps, and current status.

Restore a Workarea

rensei host workarea restore <session-id> --to /path/on/disk

Copies the archived workarea snapshot to a local directory so you can inspect, replay, or debug the agent's file system state at session end.

Diff Two Workareas

rensei host workarea diff <session-id-a> <session-id-b>

Shows a unified diff between two session workareas - useful for comparing an agent's output across runs.

Daemon Address

All rensei host workarea subcommands talk to the local daemon HTTP API on 127.0.0.1:7734. If you run the daemon on a non-default port, set RENSEI_DAEMON_URL:

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

Deprecated Top-level Alias

The top-level rensei workarea command is a hidden alias that maps to rensei host workarea. It works for one release but is hidden from --help. Update any scripts:

# Old (still works, deprecated)
rensei workarea list

# New
rensei host workarea list

Daemon - Install and manage the daemon process
Host Capacity - Pool disk limits and eviction
donmai.dev - workarea reference - Full command reference, pool architecture, restore workflow

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