An all-solid-state battery with a lithium metal anode is a strong candidate for surpassing conventional lithium-ion battery capabilities. However, undesirable Li dendrite growth and low Coulombic efficiency impede their practical application. Here we report that a high-performance all-solid-state lithium metal battery with a sulfide electrolyte is enabled by a Ag–C composite anode with no excess Li. We show that the thin Ag–C layer can effectively regulate Li deposition, which leads to a genuinely long electrochemical cyclability. In our full-cell demonstrations, we employed a high-Ni layered oxide cathode with a high specific capacity (>210 mAh g−1) and high areal capacity (>6.8 mAh cm−2) and an argyrodite-type sulfide electrolyte. A warm isostatic pressing technique was also introduced to improve the contact between the electrode and the electrolyte. A prototype pouch cell (0.6 Ah) thus prepared exhibited a high energy density (>900 Wh l−1), stable Coulombic efficiency over 99.8% and long cycle life (1,000 times).