Prime Agent is an open-source coding and research agent for general and long-running work. It is designed around two core abstractions:
- The Recursive Language Model (RLM) treats context as variables (prompt-as-a-variable) and tools like recursive subagents as function calls (programmatic tool /sub-agent calling) inside a persistent REPL.
- The Continual Harness stores supplemental prompts, memories, skill descriptions, and reusable subagent specifications as durable state that Prime Agent can refine through small, evidence-backed updates, local to the session by default.
Install
Install the latest stable version with the one-command installer:
curl -fsSL https://app.primeintellect.ai/prime-agent/install.sh | sh
On Windows, install from PowerShell:
irm https://app.primeintellect.ai/prime-agent/install.ps1 | iex
The Windows installer downloads the latest stable Windows x64 build and verifies its checksum before installation.
Why Prime Agent
Prime Agent combines a persistent Python control environment with durable harness state, so useful working context and reusable operating patterns can outlive a single chat window.
- Everything is programmatic: a persistent Python REPL is the built-in model tool; file operations, shell commands, tool use, subagents, and context management happen through code.
- Subagents are built in:
rlm.spawn(...) spawns real child agents for parallel or background work and returns their results programmatically.
- The harness can improve:
/refine reviews the current trajectory and can apply small, evidence-backed updates to supplemental harness state. It never rewrites the immutable base system prompt, and recorded snapshots support rollback.
- Skills can be executable: Python skills in your user configuration are imported into the kernel; repository skills provide Markdown instructions without automatic code execution.
- Sessions run in the background: daemon-backed agents keep running when the terminal disconnects and can be reattached later.
- Agents communicate directly: running agents can exchange messages and orchestrate one another without routing everything through the user.
- Long tasks keep moving: automatic compaction, persistent goals, heartbeats, schedules, autonomous mode, and retained subagents preserve progress across turns and terminal sessions.
Slack
Connect Slack from /mcp or run /mcp login slack inside Prime Agent to search
your workspace and use Slack tools. See the Slack connector guide
for OAuth setup and troubleshooting.
Google Drive and Google Sheets
Connect Google's official Drive and Sheets MCP servers with your own Google
OAuth client: add them to mcpServers with clientId, clientSecret,
callbackPort, and scopes, then run /mcp login <name>. See the
Google Drive and Google Sheets guide for the
Google Cloud setup and the tool mapping.
Clipboard over SSH and tmux
Prime Agent uses the local clipboard tool (such as pbcopy) when available. In tmux it asks the attached tmux client to forward a clipboard buffer if that client advertises the Ms capability. This works with tmux's default set-clipboard external, unlike application-origin OSC 52. Without tmux, remote copies request delivery using OSC 52. Terminal requests cannot confirm that your local clipboard changed, so Prime Agent reports them as unconfirmed.
Nested tmux servers and terminals may still block delivery. An outer tmux with set-clipboard external can reject the inner server's OSC 52. In that case, run tmux set -s set-clipboard on on the outer server, or use native terminal selection (Shift-drag in most terminals; Option-drag in iTerm2) followed by Cmd-C. macOS Terminal.app does not support OSC 52; iTerm2 requires its “Applications in terminal may access clipboard” setting.
Custom certificate authorities
HTTPS requests trust your operating system's trust store together with the bundled Mozilla roots. For servers behind a custom CA, point NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS at a PEM bundle of your CA certificates — the same variable the Node/TypeScript build honors:
export NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=/path/to/your-ca.pem
Each transport reads the variable once when its first client is initialized. The background daemon keeps the environment it started with, so run prime-agent shutdown after changing it.
Getting Started
Start Prime Agent from the repository or directory you want it to work in:
cd /path/to/project
prime-agent
On first launch, run /login to choose a subscription or API-key provider. Prime Agent works in the current directory and can run commands and modify files there. Use a disposable clone, clean worktree, or another checkpoint you can inspect and restore.
[!WARNING]
Prime Agent executes model-generated Python and project commands with your user permissions. Its worker and kernel processes improve lifecycle isolation and recovery; they are not a security sandbox. Review changes and use trusted repositories, instructions, and skills only. Run untrusted code or instructions in an external sandbox or restricted environment.
Useful commands:
prime-agent agents # Browse running, idle, and saved sessions
prime-agent attach <agent> # Reattach to a running session
prime-agent --resume [path|id] # Browse sessions or resume one directly
prime-agent status # Inspect background service state
prime-agent doctor [--fix] # Inspect or repair background services
prime-agent update [--force] # Update Prime Agent
prime-agent shutdown [--force] # Stop every agent, worker, and background service
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
