The CLI resolves container images, agentengine create starter templates, and its own release binary from public locations: images from public GHCR and starter templates from a public examples repository, both fetched with no registry login and no platform session.
This page covers the default source, the override variables, and the diagnostics. For the custom source and source.yaml itself, see custom-artifact-source.md.
The default source
Public is the built-in default. With no override set, agentengine create, agentengine dev up, and agentengine self-update all resolve public coordinates.
Override variables
The CLI reads one override variable pair: AGENTENGINE_IMAGE_SOURCE and AGENTENGINE_IMAGE_SOURCE_FILE. The legacy AP_SOURCE / AP_SOURCE_FILE names are no longer read — setting either one fails the command rather than silently resolving a different source.
The accepted values are public and custom. The retired internal value is still accepted as a silent alias for public. The default source is public.
Migrating
AP_SOURCE and AP_SOURCE_FILE are removed; rename them.
# beforeexport AP_SOURCE=customexport AP_SOURCE_FILE=/etc/agentic/source.yaml
# afterexport AGENTENGINE_IMAGE_SOURCE=customexport AGENTENGINE_IMAGE_SOURCE_FILE=/etc/agentic/source.yamlA machine that still sets only AP_SOURCE fails with an error naming AGENTENGINE_IMAGE_SOURCE, rather than silently falling back to public. This is the documented breakage of the migration.
The default source is public. With no variable set, that is what resolves.
base: public in a source.yaml uses the public defaults, so a custom source that omits a registry or release block inherits them for that block. agentengine create ’s template repo always follows base:, since source.yaml has no templates field. Pin registry.prefix to be unaffected. A registry block pins only the images; the templates repository and the release host keep following base:.
agentengine create
agentengine create fetches the starter template with git, from the public examples repository for the default public source, or from the repository a custom source.yaml names. It needs git on the PATH and no platform session.
agentengine dev up
First-party images come from public GHCR (ghcr.io/mongodb/agent-engine-client-libraries) with no registry login.
Diagnostics
agentengine version --full prints the custom source's release and registry when AGENTENGINE_IMAGE_SOURCE=custom. With the default public source it adds no source lines.