6 ms·

If you're looking for a coding agent that would fit nicely into resource-constrained environments (such as laptops, or tiny VPS servers, or tiny single-board co

If you're looking for a coding agent that would fit nicely into resource-constrained environments (such as laptops, or tiny VPS servers, or tiny single-board computers, etc), and would also work great with local models - you might also like hax (https://usehax.dev/ https://usehax.dev/). 0.7 MB dynamically linked native C binary, few MBs of RAM usage when running, auto-discovers config from running local llama-server, and uses minimalist system prompt and tools for lean context usage.

mischief6 7d ago
ive looked at your project before but forgot about it. I think mine is in a similar vein: https://github.com/mischief/clm https://github.com/mischief/clm it grew out of annoyance of dependencies on js runtimes, probably similar to you. mine additionally works on solaris and esp32. could be interesting to collaborate!
- d3Xt3r 7d ago
  I'm using fourlexboehm's minimal agent[1], it's only 674 lines of C (with comments), which results in a tiny ~10KB binary (after various optimizations). Dynamically linked, with only libcurl and libc as direct dependencies. Could probably shave a couple of KBs further if I UPX'd it. If anyone's aware of a smaller agent than this, hit me up! [1] https://gist.github.com/fourlexboehm/a60e4ef9306744483731cd176bd02e9f https://gist.github.com/fourlexboehm/a60e4ef9306744483731cd1...
- nasutton12 7d ago
  The annoyance is real. Let's do it.
Systemerror7A69 7d ago
It's absolutely amazing to see this harness. I've been on the lookout for something like this for a while now. I've used both Pi and Maki in the past but was unhappy with certain aspects for both. Pi is not respecting XDG and the author refuses to change and maki you curl an install script into bash. So the points about it being a well behaved unix tool, installing it via brew and it not being react are points I - love - to see. Thank you for making it, I will definitely try it out.
- SSLy 7d ago
  try also goose, 70-80 MiB RSS.
- sejje 7d ago
  You could always curl the install script to your disk instead of into bash. It's a command you copy/paste, but you are free to edit it to suit your whims.
mring33621 7d ago
Happy Hax user here! Thanks again, Oleksandr!
altruios 7d ago
Digging down through the source code, I see "const char *system_prompt_append;" in the config. A lot of people have multiple files for their injected system prompts (a.la openclaw or hermes), I think it would be a good idea to either add or modify this point to be able to handle multiple file injections (system_prompt_append_folder or the like). Fitting that shape would make it easy to compare to those systems and make it easier for people to transition from those systems to yours.
crossroadsguy 7d ago
This looks like such a nice cli/tui talking/chat harness - an agent with which I can work on non-coding tasks (where it literally doesn't need any tool - maybe a read tool for few files in that folder, or not even that) - writing critique (w/ strict strict for on generation/suggestion), analysis, summary etc. I've been so far using pi like this: > pi --offline --no-extensions --no-skills --no-prompt-templates -nc -nt --thinking low --system-prompt "$(cat <custom purpose path for system/role prompt>) Purpose was to reduce token usage to an absolute minimum (zero extra token) as often I use this per use API keys (and not my GLM key, which let's say, is a bit "different" when it comes to conversations). Are there any other tools specifically designed for such tasks? Even though hax looks like the absolute bare minimum one can go while still being usable. I wish there was also tools that would refuse and reject (or prevent) models from inserting "thinking" messages into responses. They keep appending those and that very soon that part starts snowballing on steroids.

mischief6 7d ago

ive looked at your project before but forgot about it. I think mine is in a similar vein: https://github.com/mischief/clm https://github.com/mischief/clm it grew out of annoyance of dependencies on js runtimes, probably similar to you. mine additionally works on solaris and esp32. could be interesting to collaborate!

d3Xt3r 7d ago
I'm using fourlexboehm's minimal agent[1], it's only 674 lines of C (with comments), which results in a tiny ~10KB binary (after various optimizations). Dynamically linked, with only libcurl and libc as direct dependencies. Could probably shave a couple of KBs further if I UPX'd it. If anyone's aware of a smaller agent than this, hit me up! [1] https://gist.github.com/fourlexboehm/a60e4ef9306744483731cd176bd02e9f https://gist.github.com/fourlexboehm/a60e4ef9306744483731cd1...
nasutton12 7d ago
The annoyance is real. Let's do it.

Systemerror7A69 7d ago

It's absolutely amazing to see this harness. I've been on the lookout for something like this for a while now. I've used both Pi and Maki in the past but was unhappy with certain aspects for both. Pi is not respecting XDG and the author refuses to change and maki you curl an install script into bash. So the points about it being a well behaved unix tool, installing it via brew and it not being react are points I - love - to see. Thank you for making it, I will definitely try it out.

SSLy 7d ago
try also goose, 70-80 MiB RSS.
sejje 7d ago
You could always curl the install script to your disk instead of into bash. It's a command you copy/paste, but you are free to edit it to suit your whims.

mring33621 7d ago

Happy Hax user here! Thanks again, Oleksandr!

altruios 7d ago

Digging down through the source code, I see "const char *system_prompt_append;" in the config. A lot of people have multiple files for their injected system prompts (a.la openclaw or hermes), I think it would be a good idea to either add or modify this point to be able to handle multiple file injections (system_prompt_append_folder or the like). Fitting that shape would make it easy to compare to those systems and make it easier for people to transition from those systems to yours.

crossroadsguy 7d ago

This looks like such a nice cli/tui talking/chat harness - an agent with which I can work on non-coding tasks (where it literally doesn't need any tool - maybe a read tool for few files in that folder, or not even that) - writing critique (w/ strict strict for on generation/suggestion), analysis, summary etc. I've been so far using pi like this: > pi --offline --no-extensions --no-skills --no-prompt-templates -nc -nt --thinking low --system-prompt "$(cat <custom purpose path for system/role prompt>) Purpose was to reduce token usage to an absolute minimum (zero extra token) as often I use this per use API keys (and not my GLM key, which let's say, is a bit "different" when it comes to conversations). Are there any other tools specifically designed for such tasks? Even though hax looks like the absolute bare minimum one can go while still being usable. I wish there was also tools that would refuse and reject (or prevent) models from inserting "thinking" messages into responses. They keep appending those and that very soon that part starts snowballing on steroids.