repository.mdx

title	Repository Customization
description	You can customize how OpenHands interacts with your repository by creating a `.openhands` directory at the root level.

Skills (formerly Microagents)

Skills allow you to extend OpenHands prompts with information specific to your project and define how OpenHands should function. See Skills Overview for more information.

Setup Script

You can add a .openhands/setup.sh file, which will run every time OpenHands begins working with your repository. This is an ideal location for installing dependencies, setting environment variables, and performing other setup tasks.

For example:

#!/bin/bash
export MY_ENV_VAR="my value"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y lsof
cd frontend && npm install ; cd ..

Pre-commit Script

You can add a .openhands/pre-commit.sh file to create a custom git pre-commit hook that runs before each commit. This can be used to enforce code quality standards, run tests, or perform other checks before allowing commits.

For example:

#!/bin/bash
# Run linting checks
cd frontend && npm run lint
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo "Frontend linting failed. Please fix the issues before committing."
  exit 1
fi

# Run tests
cd backend && pytest tests/unit
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo "Backend tests failed. Please fix the issues before committing."
  exit 1
fi

exit 0

Stop Script

You can add a .openhands/stop.sh file, which will run every time the agent finishes a task (i.e., when the agent emits an AgentFinishAction / transitions to the FINISHED state).

• Runs inside the sandbox/runtime environment
• Runs from the repository root (best-effort via git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
• Times out after 10 minutes

For example:

#!/bin/bash

# Example: write a simple summary marker for downstream automation

echo "OpenHands finished at $(date -Iseconds)" >> .openhands/finish.log