Prime Agent

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.

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: persistent IPython is the built-in model tool; file operations, shell commands, tool use, subagents, and context management happen through code. Subagents are built in: rlm(.) 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 are executable: skills are importable Python packages, and the built-in skill creator can turn recurring workflows into project or personal skills. 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.

The installer downloads a versioned release, verifies its SHA-256 checksum, installs the prime-agent command, and can prepare the IPython runtime used by the agent.

Curated by Navid Moazzez·Updated Sept 30, 2026·2 min read·Fact-checked