Lifecycle & status
The dashboard shows one status per agent, and the available controls change with it. An agent is running only when its machine is up, the agent is connected to Alfe, and its runtime is healthy.
Status
Section titled “Status”Each status tells you what the agent is doing and whether you need to act:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| pending | The agent exists and is waiting to be provisioned. |
| provisioning | Alfe is creating the machine, issuing credentials, and preparing the agent. |
| starting | The machine is up and the agent is booting and connecting. |
| running | The agent is online, connected, and ready for requests. |
| stopping | The agent is shutting down. |
| stopped | The machine is powered off. The agent keeps its identity and can start again. |
| rebooting | The machine is restarting. The agent keeps its identity and credentials. |
| failing | Recoverable: the agent lost its connection, or its runtime isn’t staying up. |
| failed | The agent couldn’t recover and needs to be recreated. |
| billing_suspended | The agent is paused because of a payment or balance issue. |
| waitlisted | No capacity is available for this size right now. Alfe keeps retrying. |
| deleted | The agent has been removed. |
A self-hosted agent shows active once it’s set up, because you manage its process yourself.
If an agent briefly drops its connection, the dashboard shows Reconnecting… and offers no recovery actions. Short interruptions usually clear on their own.
Actions
Section titled “Actions”Open Maintenance on the agent’s Overview tab for routine controls. Use a process restart before you change the machine itself:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Restart Alfe | Restarts the agent daemon, which clears stuck in-process state. |
| Restart Runtime | Restarts only the runtime process. |
| Reboot server | Reboots the machine. The agent goes offline briefly and reconnects. |
| Stop server | Powers the machine off. The agent keeps its identity. |
| Start Agent | Starts a stopped or billing-suspended agent. |
| Recreate server | Destroys the machine and rebuilds it from the current configuration. |
| Repair runtime | Shown on a failing agent. Reinstalls the runtime version Alfe has pinned, then restarts it. |
Restart Alfe and Restart Runtime also work on self-hosted agents while the daemon is connected.
Billing and removal
Section titled “Billing and removal”Two situations end or pause an agent without a machine fault:
- Billing. A managed agent is suspended, not deleted, after a declined charge or a lapsed balance. Update your card or top up, then select Start Agent if it doesn’t resume on its own. See Usage & top-ups.
- Removal. Removing an agent is permanent. For a managed agent, the hosting subscription is cancelled and its compute is deprovisioned. All installed integrations are removed too. The dashboard asks you to type the agent’s name.
Next steps
Section titled “Next steps”- Choose a size or upgrade the machine.
- Switch the runtime without losing the agent’s memory.
- See Core concepts for how billing fits together.