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Build Agent

Edit pageLast modified: 03 November 2024

A TeamCity build agent is a piece of software which listens for the commands from the TeamCity server and starts the actual build processes. There are two types of agents in TeamCity Cloud: JetBrains-hosted and self-hosted. The first ones are maintained and configured by JetBrains. They are started on-demand as soon as each new build requires to be run. The second ones are stored and configured by the customer. Both types of agents can be successfully combined in one TeamCity Cloud installation. Please see Subscription and Licensing on details between these agents in terms of the TeamCity Cloud subscription.

A TeamCity build agent contains two processes:

  • Agent launcher — a Java process that launches the agent process.

  • Agent — the main process for a build agent; runs as a child process for the agent launcher.

An agent typically checks out the source code, downloads artifacts of other builds and runs the build process. An agent can run a single build at a time. The number of agents basically limits the number of parallel builds and environments in which your build processes are run.
An agent can run builds of any compatible build configuration.

The TeamCity server monitors all the connected agents and assigns queued builds to the agents based on compatibility requirements, agent pools, build configuration restrictions configured for an agent and the selection algorithm described here.