## Overview: Unified Storage Layer for Coding Agents

Coding agents excel at writing code, executing commands, and breaking down complex tasks, but they typically run in ephemeral compute environments—agent memory can be compressed, lost, or even wiped out, containers may be deleted, and the agent's sandbox might disappear once the task ends. Another key challenge is that coding agents often generate and modify a large number of small files, making distributed, persistent storage particularly important—a problem that TiDB, as an expert in distributed databases and cloud-native storage, is especially well-suited to solve.

```mermaid
---
title: Unified Storage Layer for Coding Agents
---
flowchart LR
  subgraph region["Cloud Region"]
    style region stroke-dasharray: 5 5
    subgraph temporary["Short-Lived Layer - Sandbox for Agent"]
      FS_CLIENT["Files"]
      DB_CLIENT["Data"]
    end
    subgraph persistent["TiDB Cloud Persistent Layer - Scalable, Always-On"]
      FS["Filesystem"]
      DB["Starter"]
    end
    FS_CLIENT -->|FUSE & POSIX| FS
    DB_CLIENT -->|SQL| DB
  end
```

<!-- markdownlint-disable MD032 -->
> [!IMPORTANT]
> Before starting the lab, please carefully read the following information.
> - This lab only supports the Chrome browser.
> - This lab will grant you temporary access to Amazon Bedrock to invoke the required models. Please strictly follow the usage guidelines outlined in the lab materials and avoid using this access in any other context. We reserve the right to pursue legal action against users for any misuse of Amazon Bedrock permissions that results in financial loss.
> - This lab uses [Hermes Agent](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/) as a representative AI agent; the methods and techniques introduced in the lab also apply to interactions with other agents.

### In this introductory hands-on lab, you will accomplish

- Installing, configuring, and familiarizing yourself with the TiDB Cloud command line tool - **`ti`**.
- Configuring the Hermes Agent and mounting a TiDB Cloud Filesystem instance as a regular POSIX filesystem inside its sandbox to achieve persistent working directories.
- In addition to the filesystem, providing Hermes Agent with a simple and reliable distributed database access capability.
- Designing and building a robust agent storage layer that "lets you exist forever," making it accessible and useful from any sandbox environment, anytime, anywhere.

> [!TIP]
> - The TiDB Cloud Filesystem and Starter services used in this lab are both within the free usage tier.
> - If a **Redeem** button appears in the left navigation bar, click it first to redeem this lab with your lab credits. Alternatively, you can enter the lab code provided by your instructor in the personal menu at the top right to redeem.
> - Click **Start** to launch the lab environment.
> - In about 1-2 minutes, once the environment is ready, click **Next** in the bottom toolbar to proceed to **Module 1**.
> - Then follow the steps in the lab guide to connect to the hands-on environment and begin your tasks.