@vercel/detect-agent

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

Installation

npm install @vercel/detect-agent

Usage

import { determineAgent } from '@vercel/detect-agent';

const { isAgent, agent } = await determineAgent();

if (isAgent) {
  console.log(`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)
• Replit (online IDE)

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`

Use Cases

Adaptive Behavior

import { determineAgent } from '@vercel/detect-agent';

async function setupEnvironment() {
  const { isAgent, agent } = await determineAgent();

  if (isAgent) {
    // Running in AI environment - adjust behavior
    process.env.LOG_LEVEL = 'verbose';
    console.log(`🤖 Detected AI agent: ${agent.name}`);
  }
}

Telemetry and Analytics

import { determineAgent } from '@vercel/detect-agent';

async function trackUsage(event: string) {
  const result = await determineAgent();

  analytics.track(event, {
    agent: result.isAgent ? result.agent.name : 'human',
    timestamp: Date.now(),
  });
}

Feature Toggles

import { determineAgent } from '@vercel/detect-agent';

async function shouldEnableFeature(feature: string) {
  const result = await determineAgent();

  // Enable experimental features for AI agents
  if (result.isAgent && feature === 'experimental-ai-mode') {
    return true;
  }

  return false;
}

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our contributing guidelines.

Adding New Agent Support

To add support for a new AI agent:

1. Add detection logic to src/index.ts
2. Add comprehensive test cases in test/unit/determine-agent.test.ts
3. Update this README with the new agent information
4. Follow the existing priority order pattern

Links

• GitHub Repository
• npm Package
• Vercel Documentation

@vercel/detect-agent

1.0.0

Major Changes

• Change return format to be an object to future proof (#13965)

0.2.0

Minor Changes

• Improve agent detection (#13762)

0.1.0

Minor Changes

• Initial release (#13745)