OpenHands automation

Runs the OpenHands automation server natively from a uv-managed virtual environment. It stores schedules and event triggers, tracks run lifecycle, and dispatches conversations to the agent server.

The automation server is not a sandbox. It records which agent server should run a dispatched conversation and hands that work to AUTOMATION_AGENT_SERVER_URL; setting that variable selects the agent server’s local mode, which uses a persistent local agent server instead of managed OpenHands Cloud sandboxes.

openhands_automation_agent_server_api_key must equal the agent server’s session API key because both services authenticate the same X-Session-API-Key value. openhands_automation_local_api_key is the key browsers present to this service.

The service stores state in SQLite via AUTOMATION_DB_URL by default, which local mode supports without a separate database role. Set openhands_automation_database_url to a PostgreSQL URL to use one instead. openhands_automation_kv_secret enables the automation key-value store and is required for automations that persist state between runs.

openhands_automation_base_url is the externally reachable origin the service appends /api/automation to when it builds callback URLs, so it must be the origin the browser and the dispatched agent server side both use.