detect_agent

This is a Python port of Vercel's @vercel/detect-agent npm package.

A lightweight utility for detecting if code is being executed by an AI agent or automated development environment.

Installation

uv add detect_agent

Usage

from detect_agent import determine_agent

result = determine_agent()

if result["is_agent"]:
    agent = result["agent"]
    print(f"Running in {agent['name']} environment")
    # Adapt behavior for AI agent context

Supported Agents

This package can detect the following AI agents and development environments:

• Custom agents via AI_AGENT environment variable
• Cursor (cursor editor and cursor-cli)
• Claude Code (Anthropic's Claude)
• Devin (Cognition Labs)
• Gemini CLI (Google)
• Codex (OpenAI)
• Antigravity (Google DeepMind)
• GitHub Copilot (via AI_AGENT=github-copilot|github-copilot-cli, COPILOT_MODEL, COPILOT_ALLOW_ALL, or COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN)
• Replit (online IDE)
• v0 (Vercel's AI assistant, via AI_AGENT=v0)

The AI_AGENT Standard

We're promoting AI_AGENT as a universal environment variable standard for AI development tools. This allows any tool or library to easily detect when it's running in an AI-driven environment.

For AI Tool Developers

Set the AI_AGENT environment variable to identify your tool:

export AI_AGENT="your-tool-name"
# or
AI_AGENT="your-tool-name" your-command

Recommended Naming Convention

• Use lowercase with hyphens for multi-word names
• Include version information if needed, separated by an @ symbol
• Examples: claude-code, cursor-cli, devin@1, custom-agent@2.0

Development

uv sync --extra dev
uv run pytest
# Lint and format check (CI)
uv run ruff check . && uv run ruff format --check .
# Fix and format
uv run ruff check . --fix && uv run ruff format .

Use Cases

Adaptive Behavior

import os

from detect_agent import determine_agent


def setup_environment():
    result = determine_agent()

    if result["is_agent"]:
        agent = result["agent"]
        # Running in AI environment - adjust behavior
        os.environ["LOG_LEVEL"] = "verbose"
        print(f"Detected AI agent: {agent['name']}")

Telemetry and Analytics

import time

from detect_agent import determine_agent


def track_usage(event: str):
    result = determine_agent()

    analytics.track(
        event,
        {
            "agent": result["agent"]["name"] if result["is_agent"] else "human",
            "timestamp": time.time(),
        },
    )

Feature Toggles

from detect_agent import determine_agent


def should_enable_feature(feature: str) -> bool:
    result = determine_agent()

    # Enable experimental features for AI agents
    if result["is_agent"] and feature == "experimental-ai-mode":
        return True

    return False

Contributing

Adding New Agent Support

To add support for a new AI agent:

1. Add detection logic to detect_agent/__init__.py
2. Add comprehensive test cases in tests/test_detect_agent.py
3. Update this README with the new agent information
4. Follow the existing priority order pattern

Links

• GitHub Repository
• Vercel upstream package