diff --git a/agent.js b/agent.js
index 672463d..5dda00a 100644
--- a/agent.js
+++ b/agent.js
@@ -3,18 +3,19 @@ import { sendRequest } from './utils/gpt.js';
 import { History } from './utils/history.js';
 import { Coder } from './utils/coder.js';
 import { getQuery, containsQuery } from './utils/queries.js';
-import { containsCodeBlock } from './utils/skill_library.js';
+import { containsCodeBlock } from './utils/skill-library.js';
 import { Events } from './utils/events.js';
 
 
 export class Agent {
-    constructor(name, save_path, restart_memory=false) {
+    constructor(name, save_path, clear_memory=false, autostart=false) {
         this.name = name;
         this.bot = initBot(name);
         this.history = new History(this, save_path);
+        this.history.loadExamples();
         this.coder = new Coder(this);
 
-        if (!restart_memory) {
+        if (!clear_memory) {
             this.history.load();
         }
 
@@ -23,25 +24,21 @@ export class Agent {
         this.bot.on('login', () => {
             this.bot.chat('Hello world! I am ' + this.name);
             console.log(`${this.name} logged in.`);
+
+            this.bot.on('chat', (username, message) => {
+                    if (username === this.name) return;
+                    console.log('received message from', username, ':', message);
+        
+                    this.history.add(username, message);
+                    this.handleMessage();
+                });
+    
+            if (autostart)
+                this.respond('system', 'Agent process restarted. Notify the user and decide what to do.');
+            
         });
     }
 
-    async start() {
-        await this.history.loadExamples();
-
-        this.bot.on('chat', (username, message) => {
-            if (username === this.name) return;
-            console.log('received message from', username, ':', message);
-
-            this.history.add(username, message);
-            this.handleMessage();
-        });
-
-        if (this.history.default) {
-            this.executeCode(this.history.default);
-        }
-    }
-
     async executeCode(code, triesRemaining=5) {
         if (code == 'default')
             code = this.history.default;
diff --git a/controller/agent-process.js b/controller/agent-process.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..53fdf1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/controller/agent-process.js
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+import { spawn } from 'child_process';
+
+export class AgentProcess {
+    constructor(name) {
+        this.name = name;
+    }
+    start(clear_memory=false, autostart=false) {
+        let args = ['controller/init-agent.js', this.name];
+        if (clear_memory)
+            args.push('-c');
+        if (autostart)
+            args.push('-a');
+
+        const agentProcess = spawn('node', args, {
+            stdio: 'inherit',
+            stderr: 'inherit',
+        });
+        
+        let last_restart = Date.now();
+        agentProcess.on('exit', (code, signal) => {
+            console.log(`Agent process exited with code ${code} and signal ${signal}`);
+            
+            if (code !== 0) {
+                // agent must run for at least 30 seconds before restarting
+                if (Date.now() - last_restart < 30 * 1000) {
+                    console.error('Agent process exited too quickly. Killing entire process. Goodbye.');
+                    process.exit(1);
+                }
+                console.log('Restarting agent...');
+                this.start(false, true);
+                last_restart = Date.now();
+            }
+        });
+    
+        agentProcess.on('error', (err) => {
+            console.error('Failed to start agent process:', err);
+        });
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/controller/init-agent.js b/controller/init-agent.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e632064
--- /dev/null
+++ b/controller/init-agent.js
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+import { Agent } from '../agent.js';
+import yargs from 'yargs';
+
+const args = process.argv.slice(2);
+if (args.length < 1) {
+    console.log('Usage: node init_agent.js <agent_name> [-c] [-a]');
+    process.exit(1);
+}
+
+const argv = yargs(args)
+    .option('clear_memory', {
+        alias: 'c',
+        type: 'boolean',
+        description: 'restart memory from scratch'
+    })
+    .option('autostart', {
+        alias: 'a',
+        type: 'boolean',
+        description: 'automatically prompt the agent on startup'
+    }).argv
+
+const name = argv._[0];
+const clear_memory = !!argv.clear_memory;
+const autostart = !!argv.autostart;
+const save_path = './bots/'+name+'.json';
+
+new Agent(name, save_path, clear_memory, autostart);
diff --git a/main.js b/main.js
index 7d56f81..ea78372 100644
--- a/main.js
+++ b/main.js
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-import { Agent } from './agent.js';
+import { AgentProcess } from './controller/agent-process.js';
 
-let agent = new Agent('andy', './bots/andy.json', true);
-agent.start();
+new AgentProcess('andy').start(true, false);
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 401e918..39ea3ce 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
         "mineflayer-pathfinder": "^2.4.4",
         "mineflayer-pvp": "^1.3.2",
         "openai": "^4.4.0",
-        "patch-package": "^8.0.0"
+        "patch-package": "^8.0.0",
+        "yargs": "^17.7.2"
     }
 }
diff --git a/utils/coder.js b/utils/coder.js
index b80c026..f6040d1 100644
--- a/utils/coder.js
+++ b/utils/coder.js
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ export class Coder {
         this.executing = false;
         this.agent.bot.output = '';
         this.code_template = '';
+        this.timedout = false;
 
         readFile(this.fp+'template.js', 'utf8', (err, data) => {
             if (err) throw err;
@@ -47,10 +48,10 @@ export class Coder {
     }
 
 
-    // returns {success: bool, message: string, interrupted: bool}
+    // returns {success: bool, message: string, interrupted: bool, timedout: false}
     async execute() {
-        if (!this.queued_code) return {success: false, message: "No code to execute.", interrupted: false};
-        if (!this.code_template) return {success: false, message: "Code template not loaded.", interrupted: false};
+        if (!this.queued_code) return {success: false, message: "No code to execute.", interrupted: false, timedout: false};
+        if (!this.code_template) return {success: false, message: "Code template not loaded.", interrupted: false, timedout: false};
         let src = '';
 
         let code = this.queued_code;
@@ -80,9 +81,9 @@ export class Coder {
         
         if (write_result) {
             console.error('Error writing code execution file: ' + result);
-            return {success: false, message: result, interrupted: false};
+            return {success: false, message: result, interrupted: false, timedout: false};
         }
-
+        let TIMEOUT;
         try {
             console.log('executing code...\n');
             let execution_file = await import('.'+filename);
@@ -90,28 +91,33 @@ export class Coder {
             this.current_code = this.queued_code;
 
             this.executing = true;
-            await execution_file.main(this.agent.bot);
+            TIMEOUT = this._startTimeout(10);
+            await execution_file.main(this.agent.bot); // open fire
             this.executing = false;
+            clearTimeout(TIMEOUT);
 
             this.agent.bot.emit('finished_executing');
             let output = this.formatOutput(this.agent.bot);
             let interrupted = this.agent.bot.interrupt_code;
+            let timedout = this.timedout;
             this.clear();
-            return {success:true, message: output, interrupted};
+            return {success:true, message: output, interrupted, timedout};
         } catch (err) {
             this.executing = false;
+            clearTimeout(TIMEOUT);
+
             this.agent.bot.emit('finished_executing');
-            console.error("Code execution triggered catch:" + err);
+            console.error("Code execution triggered catch: " + err);
             let message = this.formatOutput(this.agent.bot);
             message += '!!Code threw exception!!  Error: ' + err;
             let interrupted = this.agent.bot.interrupt_code;
             await this.stop();
-            return {success: false, message, interrupted};
+            return {success: false, message, interrupted, timedout: false};
         }
     }
 
     formatOutput(bot) {
-        if (bot.interrupt_code) return '';
+        if (bot.interrupt_code && !this.timedout) return '';
         let output = bot.output;
         const MAX_OUT = 1000;
         if (output.length > MAX_OUT) {
@@ -125,6 +131,7 @@ export class Coder {
     }
 
     async stop() {
+        if (!this.executing) return;
         while (this.executing) {
             this.agent.bot.interrupt_code = true;
             this.agent.bot.collectBlock.cancelTask();
@@ -140,5 +147,26 @@ export class Coder {
         this.current_code = '';
         this.agent.bot.output = '';
         this.agent.bot.interrupt_code = false;
+        this.timedout = false;
+    }
+
+    _startTimeout(TIMEOUT_MINS=10) {
+        return setTimeout(async () => {
+            console.warn(`Code execution timed out after ${TIMEOUT_MINS} minutes. Attempting force stop.`);
+            this.timedout = true;
+            this.agent.bot.output += `\nAction performed for ${TIMEOUT_MINS} minutes and then timed out and stopped. You may want to continue or do something else.`;
+            this.stop(); // last attempt to stop
+            await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 5 * 1000)); // wait 5 seconds
+            if (this.executing) {
+                console.error(`Failed to stop. Killing process. Goodbye.`);
+                this.agent.bot.output += `\nForce stop failed! Process was killed and will be restarted. Goodbye world.`;
+                this.agent.bot.chat('Goodbye world.');
+                let output = this.formatOutput(this.agent.bot);
+                this.agent.history.add('system', output);
+                this.agent.history.save();
+                process.exit(1); // force exit program
+            }
+            console.log('Code execution stopped successfully.');
+        }, TIMEOUT_MINS*60*1000);
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/utils/history.js b/utils/history.js
index b155a83..f1d4d60 100644
--- a/utils/history.js
+++ b/utils/history.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { writeFileSync, readFileSync, mkdirSync } from 'fs';
 import { getQueryDocs } from './queries.js';
-import { getSkillDocs } from './skill_library.js';
+import { getSkillDocs } from './skill-library.js';
 import { sendRequest, embed, cosineSimilarity } from './gpt.js';
 
 
diff --git a/utils/skill_library.js b/utils/skill-library.js
similarity index 100%
rename from utils/skill_library.js
rename to utils/skill-library.js
diff --git a/utils/skills.js b/utils/skills.js
index c024b0d..2b119bc 100644
--- a/utils/skills.js
+++ b/utils/skills.js
@@ -57,13 +57,12 @@ export async function smeltItem(bot, itemName, num=1) {
 
     let furnaceBlock = undefined;
     furnaceBlock = getNearestBlock(bot, 'furnace', 6);
-    if (furnaceBlock === null){
+    if (!furnaceBlock){
         log(bot, `There is no furnace nearby.`)
         return false;
     }
     await bot.lookAt(furnaceBlock.position);
 
-
     console.log('smelting...');
     const furnace = await bot.openFurnace(furnaceBlock);
     // check if the furnace is already smelting something
@@ -227,6 +226,10 @@ export async function collectBlock(bot, blockType, num=1) {
      * @example
      * await skills.collectBlock(bot, "oak_log");
      **/
+    if (num < 1) {
+        log(bot, `Invalid number of blocks to collect: ${num}.`);
+        return false;
+    }
     let collected = 0;
     const blocks = getNearestBlocks(bot, blockType, 64, num);
     if (blocks.length === 0) {
@@ -255,7 +258,9 @@ export async function collectBlock(bot, blockType, num=1) {
                 log(bot, `Failed to collect ${blockType}: ${err}.`);
                 continue;
             }
-        }   
+        }
+        if (bot.interrupt_code)
+            break;  
     }
     log(bot, `Collected ${collected} ${blockType}.`);
     return true;
@@ -565,7 +570,6 @@ export async function followPlayer(bot, username) {
     log(bot, `You are now actively following player ${username}.`);
 
     while (!bot.interrupt_code) {
-        console.log('followPlayer waiting for interrupt...', bot.interrupt_code);
         await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 1000));
     }