[HN Gopher] Show HN: Zuckerman - minimalist personal AI agent th...
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Show HN: Zuckerman - minimalist personal AI agent that self-edits
its own code
Hi HN, I'm building Zuckerman: a personal AI agent that starts
ultra-minimal and can improve itself in real time by editing its
own files (code + configuration). Agents can also share useful
discoveries and improvements with each other. Repo:
https://github.com/zuckermanai/zuckerman The motivation is to
build something dead-simple and approachable, in contrast to
projects like OpenClaw, which is extremely powerful but has grown
complex: heavier setup, a large codebase, skill ecosystems, and
ongoing security discussions. Zuckerman flips that: 1. Starts
with almost nothing (core essentials only). 2.
Behavior/tools/prompts live in plain text files. 3. The agent can
rewrite its own configuration and code. 4. Changes hot-reload
instantly (save -> reload). 5. Agents can share improvements with
others. 6. Multi-channel support
(Discord/Slack/Telegram/web/voice, etc). Security note: self-edit
access is obviously high-risk by design, but basic controls are
built in (policy sandboxing, auth, secret management). Tech stack:
TypeScript, Electron desktop app + WebSocket gateway, pnpm +
Vite/Turbo. Quickstart is literally: pnpm install
&& pnpm run dev It's very early/WIP, but the self-editing
loop already works in basic scenarios and is surprisingly addictive
to play with. Would love feedback from folks who have built agent
systems or thought about safe self-modification.
Author : ddaniel10
Score : 59 points
Date : 2026-02-01 13:50 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| ekinertac wrote:
| there are hardcoded elements in the repo like:
|
| /Users/dvirdaniel/Desktop/zuckerman/.cursor/debug.log
| ddaniel10 wrote:
| thanks
| 4b11b4 wrote:
| DIY agent harnesses are the new "note taking"/"knowledge
| management"/"productivity tool"
| ddaniel10 wrote:
| DIYWA - do it yourself with agent ;) hopefully zuckerman as the
| start point
| amelius wrote:
| Sounds cool, but it also sounds like you need to spend big $$ on
| API calls to make this work.
| ddaniel10 wrote:
| I'm building this in the hope that AI will be cheap one day.
| For now, I'll add many optimizations
| amelius wrote:
| Yes, it certainly makes sense if you have the budget for it.
|
| Could you share what it costs to run this? That could
| convince people to try it out.
| ddaniel10 wrote:
| I mean, you can just say Hi to it, and it will cost
| nothing. It only adds code and features if you ask it to
| croes wrote:
| AI is cheap right now. At some point the AI companies must
| turn to generate profit
| WalterSear wrote:
| Anthropic has stated that their inference process is cash
| positive. It would be very surprising if this wasn't the
| case for everyone.
|
| It's certainly an open question whether the providers can
| recoup the investments being made with growth alone, but
| it's not out of the question.
| croes wrote:
| Problem is the models need constant training or they
| become outdated. That the less expensive part generates
| profit is nice but doesn't help if you look at the
| complete picture. Hardware also needs replacement
| Zetaphor wrote:
| Have you tested this with a local model? I'm going to try
| this with GLM 4.7
| mcny wrote:
| What would be the best model to try something like this on
| a 5800XT with 8 GB RAM?
| aaaalone wrote:
| I will not download or use something which constantly reminds me
| of this weird dude suckerberg who did a lot of damage to society
| with facebook
| zeroonetwothree wrote:
| I was hoping it was a Philip Roth reference but I was
| disappointed when I opened the page.
| philipallstar wrote:
| That's really good to know
| gowld wrote:
| Zuckerberg.
|
| At first I thought it was a naming coincidence, but looking at
| the zuckerman avatar and the author avatar, I'm unsure if it
| was intentional:
|
| https://github.com/zuckermanai
|
| https://github.com/dvir-daniel
|
| https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/258404280?s=200&v=4
|
| The transparency glitch in GitHub makes the avatar look either
| robot or human depending on whether the background is white or
| black. I don't know if that's intentional, but it's amazing.
| ddaniel10 wrote:
| Haha it's your personal agent, let him handle the stuff you
| don't like. But soon, right now its not fully ready
| 627467 wrote:
| This Zuckerman[0] would like a word
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortimer_Zuckerman
| dang wrote:
| Ok, but please don't post unsubstantive comments to Hacker
| News.
| falloutx wrote:
| Terrible name, kind of a mid idea when you think about it (Self
| improving AI is literally what everyone's first thought is when
| building an AI), but still I like it.
| ddaniel10 wrote:
| Thanks for the feedback. Are you going to forget this name
| though?
| noncoml wrote:
| I don't know if I will forget it, but it's enough to keep me
| away from considering using it
| hereme888 wrote:
| I think it's a genius name and is playful on the meme of a
| pale Zuckerberg being a robot.
| asim wrote:
| I started working on something similar but for family stuff. I
| stopped before hitting self editing because, well I was a little
| bit afraid of becoming over reliant on a tool like this or
| becoming more obsessed with building it than actually solving a
| real problem in my life. AI is tricky. Sometimes we think we need
| something when in fact life might be better off simpler.
|
| The code for anyone interested. Wrote it with exe.dev's coding
| agent which is a wrapper on Claude Opus 4.5
|
| https://github.com/asim/aslam
| joonate wrote:
| |The agent can rewrite its own configuration and code.
|
| I am very illiterate when it comes to Llms/AI but Why does nobody
| write this in Lisp???
|
| Isn't it supposed to be the language primarily created for AI???
| tines wrote:
| Nah, it's pretty unrelated to the current wave of AI.
| lm28469 wrote:
| > Isn't it supposed to be the language primarily created for
| AI???
|
| In 1990 maybe
| plagiarist wrote:
| If hot reloading is a goal I would target Erlang or another
| BEAM language over a Lisp.
| nullbio wrote:
| > Agents propose and publish capabilities to a shared
| contribution site, letting others discover, adopt, and evolve
| them further. A collaborative, living ecosystem of personal AIs.
|
| While I like this idea in terms of crowd-sourced intelligence,
| how do you prevent this being abused as an attack vector for
| prompt injection?
| adriancooney wrote:
| 100%. This is why I'm so reluctant to give any access to my
| OpenClaw. The skills hub is poisoned.
| ddaniel10 wrote:
| Great point. I wrote it as important note and ill take it into
| account.
| lmf4lol wrote:
| I am surprised that no one did this in a LISP yet.
| dboreham wrote:
| Someone needs to send this to Spike Feresten.
| noncoml wrote:
| I would change the name of the project. Why would I want to run
| something that keeps remind me of that guy
| scotth wrote:
| Does this do anything to resist prompt injection? It seems to me
| that structured exchange between an orchestrator and its single-
| tool-using agents would go a long way. And at the very least
| introduces a clear point to interrogate the payload.
|
| But I could be wrong. Maybe someone reading knows more about this
| subject?
| grigio wrote:
| i like the idea is possible to run in a docker container?
| neomindryan wrote:
| This looks interesting, but I'm stuck on step 4 of the web setup:
| where do I get agents to start with? Shouldn't there be a default
| one that can help me get other ones?
| dzonga wrote:
| could've made it in PHP ;) to be zuck-like
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