TCPAGENT.EXE is a foreground resident automation process. It uses the mTCP packet-driver stack and maintains an outbound connection to QEMU's host at 10.0.2.2:5558. The host relay keeps the existing Pi tool endpoint on 5555.

Build in FreeDOS

Obtain the GPLv3 mTCP source tree (tested with the jhpyle/mTCP 2022 fork).
Copy this directory to MTCP\APPS\TCPAGENT inside that tree.
Set WATCOM for Open Watcom and run BUILD.BAT.
Run INSTALL.BAT; it installs the executable and adds startup lines after the existing packet-driver setup in C:\FDAUTO.BAT.

The build uses mTCP's compact memory model and Open Watcom C++16. The agent is therefore distributed under GPLv3 when linked with mTCP.

Protocol

Legacy text commands remain for Pi tool compatibility: PING, READ, WRITE, LIST, and EXEC. Fast staging uses binary framing:

PUT <hex DOS path> <byte length>\n<raw bytes> -> OK\r\n
GET <hex DOS path>\n -> DATA <length>\r\n<raw bytes>
HASH <hex DOS path>\n -> STAT <length> <FNV1A32>\r\n

Use python tools/dos_stage.py --binary LOCAL=C:\\DOS\\PATH for verified staging. Verification reads only the length and FNV-1a hash, avoiding a slow full-file return transfer.

Use .qemu/reset.ps1 to restart QEMU. It waits for an established TCP agent and a successful PONG rather than sleeping for a fixed boot duration.