Configure Agent Installation

A build agent can be configured by adjusting in the <TeamCity Agent Home>/conf/buildAgent.properties file.

General Agent Configuration

This Java properties configuration file can store properties that will be published on the server as agent properties and can participate in the Agent Requirements expressions. All system and environment properties defined in the file will be passed to every build run on the agent.

Syntax reference:

Use property_name=value<newline> syntax.
Use # in the first position of the line for a comment.
Use / instead of \ as the path separator. If you need to include \, escape it with another \.
Whitespaces are processed as any other symbol.

Example agent configuration file:

## The address of the TeamCity server. The same as is used to open the TeamCity web interface in the browser.
## Must include the protocol specification (https:// is recommended).
serverUrl=http://localhost:8111/

## The unique name of the agent used to identify this agent on the TeamCity server
## Use blank name to let server generate it.
## By default, this name would be created from the build agent's host name
name=Default agent

## Container directory to create default checkout directories for the build configurations.
workDir=../work

## Container directory for the temporary directories.
## Please note that the directory may be cleaned between the builds.
tempDir=../temp
 
## Container directory for agent state files and caches.
## TeamCity agent assumes ownership of the directory and can delete the content inside.
systemDir=../system

 
######################################
#   Optional Agent Properties        #
######################################
## A token which is used to identify this agent on the TeamCity server for agent authorization purposes.
## It is automatically generated and saved back on the first agent connection to the server.
authorizationToken=1234567890abcdefghijklml

Make sure the file is writable for the build agent process itself. For example, that the file is updated to store its authorization token generated on the server-side.

If you install multiple TeamCity nodes behind a reverse proxy, serverUrl should be set to the proxy URL.

If the name property is not specified, the server will generate a build agent name automatically. By default, this name will be created from the build agent's host name.

The file can be edited while the agent is running: the agent detects the change and (upon finishing a running build, if any) restarts automatically loading the new settings.

Optional Properties

Build Agent Port

TeamCity agents work in a unidirectional mode: they initiate all connections to the server, not the other way around. Once connected, agents periodically poll the server for new commands, such as processing queued builds. Since no incoming connections are made by the server, configuring agent machines does not involve setting up any open ports.

In a few rare cases, agents run processes that share data with other build-related processes running on a same machine. This mostly applies to running older build steps and plugins. In these cases, agents use localhost port 9090 to share this data. You can redefine this port in the buildAgent.properties file:

ownPort=9090

Since this port is open only on localhost, it is not available for any external incoming connections.

Alternative Fetch URL

If you have a self-updating Git repository proxy that is significantly closer than the original Git repository for certain agents, you can allow these agents to download sources from this mirror. To do so, add the teamcity.git.fetchUrlMapping.<name>=<original URL> => <proxy URL> setting to the agent configuration file. See this section for more information: Git VCS Root | General Settings.

The Configure Command

To set up the buildAgent.properties file, you can run the <Agent_folder>/bin/agent.bat or <Agent_folder>/bin/agent.sh script with the configure command. This command allows you to set up core agent properties and save them to the target configuration file. If no configuration file path is specified, the changes will be saved to the default <Agent_folder>/conf/buildAgent.properties properties.

To view the list of available parameters, run this command with the --help flag.

./agent.sh configure --help
Java executable is found: '/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/amazon-corretto-11.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java'
Configuring TeamCity build agent...
TeamCity Agent configurator
Usage: 
	configure PROPERTIES_FILE
	configure -f PROPERTIES_FILE
	configure [PROPERTIES]
	configure --usage
	status
	status short
Where PROPERTIES format is --key=value or --key value
Supported properties:
	* --agent-config-file=PATH - path to build agent properties file (<Agent Root>/conf/buildAgent.properties by default)
	* All default properties that can be configured in buildAgent.properties file
	  Also there are aliases for some of them:
		auth-token = authorizationToken
		logs-dir = logsDir
		name = name
		server-url = serverUrl
		system-dir = systemDir
		temp-dir = tempDir
		work-dir = workDir

Sample command that writes the server URL and sets up the custom agent name:

./agent.sh configure --server-url http://localhost:8111/ --name AG2

Set up Agent Behind Proxy

It is possible to configure a forward proxy server for agent-to-server connections.

On the TeamCity agent side, specify the proxy to connect to the TeamCity server using the following properties in the buildAgent.properties file:

## The domain name or the IP address of the proxy host and the port
teamcity.http.proxyHost=123.45.678.9
teamcity.http.proxyPort=8080
 
## If the proxy requires authentication, specify the login and password
teamcity.http.proxyLogin=login
teamcity.http.proxyPassword=password

To access HTTPS endpoints (for example, GitHub-hosted repositories), configure the teamcity.https.* properties as well.

Last modified: 06 May 2025