Introducing mono-agent: A Local-First n8n Alternative in a Single Go Binary

1. Human-in-Loop as a Platform Primitive (v0.8.0, July 2026)

Durable DB-backed queue, edit-before-approve, optional timeout with auto-reject

Most workflow tools treat human approval as an afterthought—a notification webhook or a Slack message. mono-agent makes it a first-class platform primitive: the core.human_in_loop node, introduced in v0.8.0 (July 2026, commit 84a2fc4 dated 2026-07-02), is a durable, DB-backed queue where workflows pause execution and wait for a human to review and approve (or reject) before continuing.

The node supports two modes: readonly fields (display context the user can't change as an array of field names) and editable fields (the user can modify values before approving, also as an array). It also supports optional timeout_minutes with automatic rejection: if a human doesn't respond within the configured duration, the workflow continues with a rejection status instead of hanging indefinitely. Approvals are handled via CLI (monoagentcli hil list / hil approve <id>) or the GUI review panel (documented in README:142-148).

What makes this a platform primitive rather than a one-off feature is that human-in-loop is a node type like any other—it can be wired into any workflow, composed with conditional branches (on_error: error_branch routes approval rejections to a fallback path), and logged in the same execution history as every other node. The approval itself is a real pause in the workflow's state machine, not a fire-and-forget webhook that hopes someone is listening.

{
  "nodes": [
    {
      "id": "send-invoice",
      "type": "service.stripe",
      "action": "create_invoice",
      "config": { "customer_id": "{{customer.id}}", "amount": "{{invoice.total}}" }
    },
    {
      "id": "approval-gate",
      "type": "core.human_in_loop",
      "config": {
        "readonly_fields": ["customer", "amount"],
        "editable_fields": ["send_date"],
        "timeout_minutes": 60
      },
      "on_error": "error_branch"
    },
    {
      "id": "send-email",
      "type": "service.gmail",
      "action": "send_email",
      "depends_on": ["approval-gate"]
    }
  ]
}

2. Encrypted Secrets Vault (v0.20.0, July 13, 2026)

17 commits in one day: AES-256-GCM, OS keychain, auto-migration, @secret:<name> resolution

v0.20.0 (July 13, 2026) shipped a complete encrypted secrets vault in a single day: 17 commits between 17:12 and 19:37 local time (+02:00 timezone, ending at 17:37:37 UTC). The vault uses AES-256-GCM for encryption (commit 67cb605), stores the key-encryption-key (KEK) in OS keychain via go-keyring (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, Linux Secret Service per commit a207b63), and wraps data-encryption-keys (DEKs) with the KEK (commit 9415688).

The CRUD surface landed in commit ab2509a: vault_secrets.Add / DecryptEntry / List / Delete, with a CLI (monoagentcli secret add/list/rm/update per commit 224e173) and stdin support for --value (commit c0b6125). Integration was immediate: commit 9c7ace0 auto-migrated plaintext connections.data on every CLI/GUI startup, commit 151f43c added the Vault page in the GUI, and commit 7c91a65 enabled @secret:<name> resolution in workflow node configs, with commit 377efd9 caching KEK/DEK in memory instead of re-fetching per call.

The design spec is documented at docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-13-secrets-vault-design.md (referenced in SECURITY.md:52). As of v0.32.0's security hardening (August-September 2026), the file-based keyring fallback (MONOAGENT_ALLOW_FILE_KEYRING=1) wraps the KEK with AES-256-GCM under an argon2id-derived key from an operator passphrase read via stdin only, never CLI flag or env var (SECURITY.md:61-96).

“17 commits on 2026-07-13 (17:12 to 19:37 local time, ending 17:37:37 UTC): AES-256-GCM core, OS keyring, CRUD, CLI, auto-migrate plaintext connections, Vault GUI, @secret:<name> workflow resolution. A complete encrypted vault in one day.”

- mono-agent git log v0.19.0..v0.20.0

3. Trust & Hygiene Hardening, REST API, and Linux/arm64 (v0.32.0-v0.37.0)

MIT license, CI, governance, REST HTTP API in 3 releases (1h 37m), Linux/arm64 support

v0.32.0 (September 1, 2026) was a trust and hygiene release: commit b8e6da0 (Aug 29, 00:25:52) titled 'Harden local-first platform: license, CI, agent tooling, opt-in social build' added LICENSE (MIT, 21 lines per CHANGELOG.md:75-76), SECURITY.md (416 lines total), CONTRIBUTING.md, and CHANGELOG.md itself (follows Keep a Changelog format per CHANGELOG.md:5). CI infrastructure landed with .github/workflows/ci.yml: build, vet, race-enabled tests in default + social build modes, with release pipeline gated on tests passing (CHANGELOG.md:229).

The release included four review waves (commits b8e6da0, b4dcfd3, 45546a3, e939192) and remediation commit 772b3bc (Sept 1, 12:10) addressing findings MA-01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 09, 11, 13, 14. Key fixes: social bots moved behind opt-in social build tag (CHANGELOG.md:67, 143-144), MCP server for AI agents (stdio JSON-RPC 2.0 at cmd/monoagentcli/mcp.go, 11 tools: workflow_list/get/validate/run/status, node_list/schema, hil_list/approve/reject, docs per CHANGELOG.md:82-83), CLI agent-experience tooling (workflow run --json / --dry-run / --no-wait, workflow validate, node schema per CHANGELOG.md:83-91), sandbox resource caps (HTTP bodies 64 MB, core.code 30s timeout, system.execute_command 10 MB per channel per CHANGELOG.md:94-100), and assistant tools explicit opt-in (chat --tools monoagent, off by default, vault tools return metadata only per CHANGELOG.md:129-136, SECURITY.md:37-38).

v0.33.0-v0.35.0 (all September 1, 2026, 1h 37m span from 14:55:16 to 16:32:41) completed the REST HTTP API for external agents: v0.33.0 (commit ac61a77) foundation, v0.35.0 (commit 54af9b5) closed gaps with real e2e test + OpenAPI validation + reference API docs (issue #20). The HTTP API is launched with monoagentcli httpapi. v0.37.0 (September 4, 12:05:11) shipped Linux/arm64 binary (commit 08fb4c5) and webkit2gtk-4.1 compatibility for the Wails GUI (commit 54e2fb8).

# CLI agent-experience tooling (v0.32.0+)
monoagentcli workflow run my-workflow --json --dry-run  # preview execution plan
monoagentcli workflow run my-workflow --no-wait          # fire-and-forget, exit 0 immediately
monoagentcli workflow validate my-workflow.json          # validate before run
monoagentcli node schema service.stripe                  # inspect node schema (75 of 110 types)

# MCP server for AI agents (stdio JSON-RPC 2.0, 11 tools)
monoagentcli mcp  # workflow_list/get/validate/run/status, node_list/schema, hil_list/approve/reject, docs

# REST HTTP API (v0.33.0-v0.35.0, launched with dedicated command)
monoagentcli httpapi  # starts HTTP API server for external agents

4. What mono-agent Actually Is Today

90+ node types, zero CGO, three interfaces, cross-platform, and 121 releases in 6 months

As of v0.37.0 (September 4, 2026), mono-agent is a single static Go binary (zero CGO, no Docker, no Node.js runtime) with 90+ built-in node types (150 with -tags social opt-in build): services like GitHub, Google (Sheets/Gmail/Drive), Stripe, Salesforce, HubSpot, Jira, Linear, Notion, Airtable; databases, HTTP, data transforms; and comms like Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Telegram, Discord (source: README:24).

The workflow engine is a DAG executor with Kahn topological sort cycle detection, template expressions {{variable.path}} with dot notation, per-node on_error semantics (stop, continue, skip, error_branch), honest run statuses (partial failures surface as SUCCESS_WITH_ERRORS, never green), and webhook/cron/manual triggers. Hybrid storage: JSON workflow files + SQLite, with full execution history (source: README:24, 132-138).

Three interfaces: visual canvas editor (Wails desktop GUI), 70+-command CLI with JSON output everywhere, and built-in MCP server for AI agent safe operation (source: README:26). Browser automation via bundled Chrome extension bridge to drive logged-in sessions (social platform nodes opt-in via -tags social per README:28-29). All data stays on machine; crash reports default to local files under ~/.monoagent/crashes/, filing to GitHub requires MONOAGENT_CRASH_REPORT=1 and monomind CLI on PATH (CHANGELOG.md:148-150).

Release cadence: first commit March 3, 2026 (2026-03-03T00:26:17+01:00); first release (v0.1.0 annotated tag) April 2, 2026 (2026-04-02T16:13:53+02:00); v0.37.0 September 4, 2026—121 tagged versions across 6 months. Notable bursts: v0.33.0-v0.35.0 (3 releases in 1h 37m), v0.20.0 (17-commit vault in 1 day), v0.31.0-v0.37.0 (7 major releases in 10 days) (source: git tag -l, git log).