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2026-06-27
REST API, MCP server, triggers, parallel execution, imports, and the registry

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REST API, MCP server, triggers, parallel execution, imports, and the registry

Buttons grows from a local CLI into a distributable runtime: an HTTP API and an MCP server expose buttons to other processes and agents, triggers run them on a schedule or on file changes, and a package registry lets you install and publish buttons and drawers.

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New features

  • buttons serve — REST API — expose your buttons over HTTP. Presses run through the same engine as the CLI, with graceful shutdown, a press-timeout ceiling, and a concurrency cap. HTTP-source buttons are gated out of the REST press path by default. See the REST API guide.
  • buttons mcp — stdio MCP server — a Model Context Protocol server exposing meta-tools (buttons_list, buttons_press, buttons_inspect) so an agent discovers and runs your buttons as native tools instead of shelling out. Buttons opt in per-button with mcp_enabled. See the MCP guide.
  • buttons trigger — cron / watch / webhook — run a button or drawer automatically on a cron schedule, when a file or directory changes, or from an incoming webhook. Manage triggers with buttons trigger add, list, and rm. See the triggers concept.
  • buttons smash — parallel button execution — press many buttons concurrently with a bounded worker pool and one structured result set. See the smash CLI reference.
  • Parallel drawer steps — --mode parallel runs a drawer’s independent steps concurrently, respecting the data-flow graph between them.
  • buttons import — skill / code / url adapters — create buttons from existing sources: import code <file> wraps a script, import skill <dir> makes a button per script in an AgentSkills skill, and import url <url> builds a button from a fetched HTTP spec. See the import CLI reference.
  • Package registry — install and publish buttons and drawers as versioned packages. buttons install <name | tag:x> pulls from a configured source; buttons publish @desk/name pushes a local button or drawer. Content is fetched over an HTTP source with size caps and tarball-hash verification. See the registry concept.
  • Package schema — version, tags, provenance — button.json gains optional version, tags, requires, requires_batteries, and content-hash fields so a button is a versioned, pinnable, dependency-aware unit.
  • App-kind buttons — buttons create --app <git-url|path> clones or copies an application into apps/ alongside a button.json with a serve block, for buttons that run a long-lived server instead of a one-shot script.
  • Auto-maintained AGENTS.md button list — buttons create keeps a ## Buttons in this project list current in the repo-root AGENTS.md, and adds OpenClaw and Hermes as init --agent targets. See Agent instructions.

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Updates

  • Board press CTA — the TUI board restyles the press call-to-action as a bordered chip.