Agent Mode
When logged in on your own machine, agents like Cursor and Claude Code can run
CLI commands like npx convex env list that use your logged-in credentials run
commands against your personal dev environment as if you ran the commands
yourself. This works well when you're collaborating with an agent; just like
when the agent runs git commit -am "Fix.", the commit will use your local git
credentials.
But when cloud-based coding agents like Jules, Devin, Codex, or Cursor background agents run Convex CLI commands, they can't log in. And if you do log in for them, the agent will use your default dev deployment to develop, conflicting with your own changes!
Instead, set CONVEX_AGENT_MODE=anonymous in this environment, causing the
agent to use anonymous development to
run a separate Convex backend on the VM where the agent is working.
Convex Agent Mode is currently a beta feature. If you have feedback or feature requests, let us know on Discord!
You can set this variable in .env.local or set it in the agent's environment.
CONVEX_AGENT_MODE=anonymous npx convex dev
In the future CONVEX_AGENT_MODE may support other behaviors like allowing
agents to provision their own short-lived cloud deployments.