RAT: Language-Agnostic Framework for Automated Software Environment Configuration
A new framework called RAT (RunAnyThing) aims to automate the configuration of executable environments for arbitrary software repositories, addressing a key bottleneck in autonomous code agents. Developed by researchers and detailed in arXiv preprint 2604.23190, RAT is language-agnostic and features a multi-stage pipeline including semantic initialization, planning, specialized tools, and a robust sandbox. The authors also introduce RATBench, a benchmark designed to evaluate automated configuration on real-world repositories with diverse characteristics. This work tackles the challenge of manual environment setup, which remains labor-intensive and limits the applicability of existing approaches that rely on predefined artifacts or specific programming languages.
Key facts
- RAT is a language-agnostic framework for automated environment configuration.
- It targets arbitrary repositories, not just those with predefined artifacts.
- The framework includes a multi-stage pipeline: semantic initialization, planning, specialized toolset, and sandbox.
- RATBench is a new benchmark for evaluating automated configuration on real-world repositories.
- The work is published as arXiv preprint 2604.23190.
- Automated environment configuration is a foundational challenge for autonomous code agents.
- Existing approaches are often limited to specific languages or predefined artifacts.
- Manual configuration remains a labor-intensive bottleneck in repository-level software engineering.
Entities
Institutions
- arXiv