kbot Ribbon Rendition

If kbot is useful to you, consider starring the repo — it helps others discover the project.

Short on time? Start with packages/kbot-finance/. It is the sharpest thing in this repo: a substrate where the AI never produces the number. Content-addressed request envelopes, a hash-chained audit log, rules-as-code with adverse-action reason codes, and signed human approval at material gates. v0.3 adds a ledger substrate — the model's reading of a source document is a claim, a deterministic engine must confirm it against arithmetic and the bank feed, an accountant signs the exact envelope, and only then does a ledger post. Vendor-neutral, replayable, 96 tests. Read ROLE.md for the field it names (provenance engineering), then the ledger section of the README.

New here — or reading this repo through an AI assistant? Start with SHOWCASE.md: the five-minute tour of the work this studio produces and the standing Fable 5 use cases it runs on.

npm install -g @kernel.chat/kbot

This repo ships five packages

Package	What it is	install	Source
provenance-substrate (Python, standalone repo)	The model proposes, deterministic code disposes, a human signs. The kbot-finance ledger substrate ported to Python and generalized to academia: Lean proof ledger, manuscript claim graph, reproducibility ledger with Zenodo/Croissant export, quantitative-hallucination benchmark, peer-review provenance. Passes the finance v1 conformance suite byte-for-byte (143/143) and ships its own academic v1 suite (167 vectors). MIT	pip install provenance-substrate	isaacsight/provenance-substrate
@kernel.chat/kbot	Open-source terminal AI agent — 100+ skills, multi-provider, BYOK, MIT	npm i -g @kernel.chat/kbot	packages/kbot/
@kernel.chat/kbot-finance	Audit-grade AI infrastructure for capital markets — content-addressed envelopes, hash-chained audit log, regulatory verifier, MCP server. Reference implementation of provenance engineering. Apache 2.0	npm i @kernel.chat/kbot-finance	packages/kbot-finance/
@kernel.chat/agent-os	POSIX for AI agents — ten OS-level primitives: signed capability tokens (acap), namespaces, per-agent quotas (ulimit-tok), taint-tracked exec (chexec), content-addressed audit, downscoped handoff, snapshot, credential vault, rubric-graded outcomes. Runs above Modal-class sandboxes, below MCP/A2A. Apache 2.0	npm i @kernel.chat/agent-os	packages/agent-os/
@kernel.chat/kbot-orchestrator	Reference implementation of orchestration engineering — pipelines that route work between agents and humans with audit trails. v0.1 ships the outreach pipeline. MIT	npm i -g @kernel.chat/kbot-orchestrator	packages/kbot-orchestrator/

Plus this repo also serves kernel.chat — the magazine of agentic engineering (the software branch of autonomy engineering, the broader field already in working use across defense, aerospace, robotics, and scientific-AI communities). The editorial beat is the whole field; the disciplines this group has coined and shipped reference implementations for are:

1. Provenance engineering — substrate underneath the agent. packages/kbot-finance/ROLE.md. Declared in ISSUE 381 — On Provenance.
2. agent-OS — system primitives the agent runs on top of. packages/agent-os/. Positioned as POSIX for AI agents.
3. Orchestration engineering — pipelines that route work between agents and humans with audit trails. packages/kbot-orchestrator/ROLE.md. Declared in ISSUE 387 — On Orchestration.

The field map is at docs/agentic-engineering.md: six disciplines, three coined and held by kernel.chat, three open to whoever names them first (skill curation, evaluation, operations). ISSUE 386 — On the Field makes the magazine's beat explicit. ISSUE 388 — On the Branch positions agentic engineering inside autonomy engineering and opens the "Agentic Substrates for the Frontier" series (4-6 issues reading the embodied, scientific, and neuro branches through the substrate-discipline lens). The practitioner's note on what agents can actually earn is at docs/agents-and-money.md.

The stack, end-to-end

            @kernel.chat/kbot-orchestrator   (pipelines — orchestration engineering)
                       │
                       │   reads briefings, routes work to specialist agents,
                       │   gates at material approval points, appends audit trails
                       │
            your AI agent  →  @kernel.chat/agent-os  (permissions, quotas, audit, vault)
                                   │
                                   ├─→  @kernel.chat/kbot          (the agent itself)
                                   └─→  @kernel.chat/kbot-finance  (regulated-industry verifier)

agent-os is the OS-level substrate; kbot is one tenant of that OS; kbot-finance is the compliance verifier those tenants call when the work is regulated; kbot-orchestrator is the pipeline layer that drives all of them through real-world multi-step outcomes. Open core throughout, with commercial offerings downstream.

---

Why kbot?

Most terminal AI agents lock you into one provider, one model, one way of working. kbot doesn't.

• 20 providers, zero lock-in — Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Groq, Mistral, SambaNova, Cerebras, OpenRouter, and more. Switch with one command.
• Runs fully offline — Embedded llama.cpp, Ollama, LM Studio, or Jan. $0, fully private.
• Learns your patterns — Bayesian skill ratings + pattern extraction. Gets faster over time.
• 35 specialist agents — auto-routes your request to the right expert (coder, researcher, writer, guardian, quant, and 30 more).
• 600+ tools — files, bash, git, GitHub, web search, deploy, database, game dev, VFX, research, science, finance, security, and more.
• Programmatic SDK — use kbot as a library in your own apps.
• MCP server built in — plug kbot into Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Zed, or Neovim as a tool provider.

How it compares

	kbot	Claude Code	Codex CLI	Aider	OpenCode
AI providers	20	1	1	6	75+
Specialist agents	35	0	0	0	0
Built-in tools	600+	~20	~15	~10	~15
Science tools	114	0	0	0	0
Learning engine	Yes	No	No	No	No
Offline mode	Embedded + Ollama	No	No	Ollama	Ollama
SDK	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
MCP server	Yes	N/A	No	No	No
Web companion	kernel.chat	No	No	No	No
Open source	MIT	Source available	Apache 2.0	Apache 2.0	MIT
Cost	BYOK / $0 local	$20+/mo	BYOK	BYOK	BYOK

Quick Start

# Install globally
npm install -g @kernel.chat/kbot

# Or run directly (no install)
npx @kernel.chat/kbot

# Or use the install script (auto-installs Node.js if needed)
curl -fsSL https://kernel.chat/install.sh | bash

# Interactive mode
kbot

# One-shot
kbot "explain this codebase"
kbot "fix the auth bug in src/auth.ts"
kbot "create a Dockerfile for this project"

# Pipe mode (for scripting)
kbot -p "generate a migration for user roles" > migration.sql

# Use local models (free, no API key)
kbot local

# Set up your API key
kbot auth

Specialists

kbot auto-routes to the right agent for each task. Or pick one with --agent <name>.

	Agents
Core	kernel, researcher, coder, writer, analyst
Extended	aesthete, guardian, curator, strategist
Domain	infrastructure, quant, investigator, oracle, chronist, sage, communicator, adapter
Presets	claude-code, cursor, copilot, creative, developer

600+ Tools

Category	Examples
Files & Code	read, write, glob, grep, lint, format, type-check
Shell	bash, parallel execute, background tasks
Git & GitHub	commit, diff, PR, issues, code search
Web	search, fetch, browser automation, browser agent
Research	arXiv, Semantic Scholar, HuggingFace, NASA, DOI
Data	CSV read/query/write, transforms, reports, invoices
Quality	lint (ESLint/Biome/Clippy), test (Vitest/Jest/pytest), deps audit, formatting
Deploy	Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Workers/Pages, Fly.io, Railway
Database	Postgres, MySQL, SQLite queries, Prisma, ER diagrams, seed data
Containers	Docker build/run/compose, Terraform
Creative	p5.js generative art, GLSL shaders, SVG patterns, design variants
VFX	GLSL shaders, FFmpeg, ImageMagick, Blender, procedural textures
Game Dev	16 tools for Godot, Unity, Unreal, Bevy, Phaser, Three.js, PlayCanvas, Defold
Training	dataset prep, fine-tuning, evaluation, model export
Social	post to X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Mastodon — single posts and threads
Sandbox	Docker sandboxes, E2B cloud sandboxes, isolated code execution
Notebooks	Jupyter read/edit/insert/delete cells
Build Matrix	cross-platform builds — mobile, desktop, WASM, embedded, server
LSP	goto definition, find references, hover, rename, diagnostics
Memory	persistent memory save/search/update across sessions
MCP	marketplace search/install, 20 bundled servers
IDE	MCP server, ACP server, LSP bridge
Forge	create tools at runtime, publish to registry, install from registry
Meta	subagents, worktrees, planner, sessions, checkpoints, self-eval
Science & Math	symbolic compute, matrix ops, FFT, ODEs, probability, optimization, graph theory, OEIS
Physics	orbital mechanics, circuits, signal processing, particles (PDG), relativity, quantum simulator, beam analysis, fluid dynamics
Chemistry	PubChem compounds, reactions, periodic table (118 elements), spectroscopy, stoichiometry, thermodynamics
Biology	PubMed, gene lookup, protein/PDB, BLAST, drug/ChEMBL, pathways, taxonomy, clinical trials
Earth & Climate	earthquakes/USGS, climate/NOAA, satellite imagery, geology, ocean, air quality, volcanoes, water resources
Neuroscience	brain atlas, EEG analysis, cognitive models, neural simulation, connectome, psychophysics
Social Science	psychometrics, game theory, econometrics, social network analysis, survey design, voting systems
Humanities	corpus analysis, formal logic, argument mapping, ethics frameworks, historical timelines, stylometry
Health & Epidemiology	SIR/SEIR models, epidemiology calculations, disease surveillance, nutrition, vaccination modeling
Finance	market data, technical analysis, paper trading, DeFi yields, wallet & swaps, stock screener, sentiment
Cybersecurity	dep_audit, secret_scan, ssl_check, headers_check, cve_lookup, port_scan, owasp_check
Self-Defense	memory HMAC, prompt injection detection, knowledge sanitization, forge verification, anomaly detection

20 Providers

Provider	Cost	Local?
Embedded (llama.cpp)	Free	Yes
Ollama	Free	Yes
LM Studio	Free	Yes
Jan	Free	Yes
DeepSeek	$0.27/M in	Cloud
SambaNova	$0.50/M in	Cloud
Cerebras	$0.60/M in	Cloud
Groq	$0.59/M in	Cloud
NVIDIA NIM	$0.80/M in	Cloud
Together AI	$0.88/M in	Cloud
Fireworks AI	$0.90/M in	Cloud
Google (Gemini)	$1.25/M in	Cloud
Mistral	$2.00/M in	Cloud
OpenAI (GPT)	$2.00/M in	Cloud
Cohere	$2.50/M in	Cloud
Anthropic (Claude)	$3.00/M in	Cloud
xAI (Grok)	$3.00/M in	Cloud
Perplexity	$3.00/M in	Cloud
OpenRouter	varies	Cloud
kbot local	Free	Yes

Set any provider's env var and kbot auto-detects it. Or run kbot auth for interactive setup.

SDK

import { agent, tools, providers } from '@kernel.chat/kbot'

const result = await agent.run("fix the auth bug", { agent: 'coder' })
console.log(result.content)

for await (const event of agent.stream("explain this code")) {
  if (event.type === 'content_delta') process.stdout.write(event.text)
}

Architecture

graph TD
    A[User Message] --> B{Local-first check}
    B -->|file, git, grep| C[Instant response — $0]
    B -->|Needs AI| D{Complexity detection}
    D -->|Simple| E[Bayesian Router → Specialist]
    D -->|Multi-step| F[Autonomous Planner]
    E --> G[Provider API + Tool Loop]
    F --> G
    G --> H{600+ Tools}
    H --> I[File ops, bash, git, GitHub, search, deploy, DB, game dev...]
    G --> J[Learning Engine]
    J --> K[Patterns + Solutions + User Profile]
    G --> L[Checkpointing]
    L --> M[Resume from last tool call]

MCP Server

Use kbot as a tool provider inside any MCP-compatible IDE:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "kbot": { "command": "kbot", "args": ["ide", "mcp"] }
    }
  }
}

Or run via Docker:

docker run -i --rm kernelchat/kbot ide mcp

Works with Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Zed, Neovim.

Commands

Command	What it does
kbot	Interactive REPL
kbot "prompt"	One-shot execution
kbot auth	Configure API key
kbot local	Use local AI (Ollama, embedded, LM Studio, Jan)
kbot serve	Start HTTP REST + SSE streaming server
kbot audit <repo>	Security + quality audit of any GitHub repo
kbot contribute <repo>	Find good-first-issues and quick wins
kbot share	Share conversation as GitHub Gist
kbot pair	File watcher with auto-analysis
kbot team	Multi-agent TCP collaboration
kbot record	Terminal session recording (SVG, GIF, asciicast)
kbot voice	Text-to-speech output mode
kbot watch	Real-time file analysis on change
kbot bootstrap	Outer-loop project optimizer (visibility scoring)
kbot plugins	Search, install, update community plugins
kbot models	List, pull, remove, catalog local models
kbot changelog	Generate changelog from git history
kbot completions	Shell completions (bash, zsh, fish)
kbot cloud	Sync learning data to kernel.chat
kbot ide mcp	Start MCP server for IDEs
kbot doctor	10-point health check

Power-User Flags

kbot --architect "design the auth system"    # Architecture mode — plan before code
kbot --thinking "solve this hard problem"    # Extended reasoning with thinking budget
kbot --self-eval "write a parser"            # Self-evaluation loop — scores and retries
kbot --computer-use "fill out this form"     # Computer use — controls mouse and keyboard
kbot -p "query" > output.txt                 # Pipe mode — clean output for scripting

Security

• API keys encrypted at rest (AES-256-CBC)
• Destructive operations require confirmation
• Shell commands sandboxed with blocklist
• Tool execution timeout (5 min) with middleware pipeline
• Config files restricted to owner (chmod 600)
• 0 P0/P1 security issues (audited March 2026)

Development

cd packages/kbot
npm install
npm run dev          # Run in dev mode
npm run build        # Compile TypeScript
npm run test         # Run tests (vitest)

Web Companion — kernel.chat

kbot has a web companion at kernel.chat — same agents, persistent memory, and a visual interface. Free to use (20 messages/day).

Community

• Web: kernel.chat
• npm: @kernel.chat/kbot
• Discord: discord.gg/kdMauM9abG
• GitHub: isaacsight/kernel
• Issues: Report a bug

License

MIT — kernel.chat group