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Show HN: Zuckerman – minimalist personal AI agent that self-edits its own code

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Zuckerman [WIP]

Ultra-minimal personal AI: starts small, self-modifies its code live, adapts by writing exactly the code & features you need (beyond just self-looping), improves instantly, and shares improvements with other agents.

The vision: Build a truly self-growing intelligence — one that can add tools, rewrite behavior, or extend its core logic by editing its own files — with almost no external code required. 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.

Why Zuckerman Exists

OpenClaw exploded in popularity (100k+ GitHub stars in weeks) because it delivers real agentic power: it acts across your apps, remembers context, and gets things done. But that power comes with trade-offs — massive codebase, complex setup, steep learning curve, ongoing security discussions (prompt injection, privileged access), and constant updates that can overwhelm regular users.

Zuckerman takes the opposite path:

Ultra-minimal start — only the essentials, zero bloat

— only the essentials, zero bloat Full self-edit power — the agent can modify its own configuration, tools, prompts, personalities, and even core logic in plain text files

— the agent can modify in plain text files Instant evolution — changes hot-reload immediately (no rebuilds, restarts, or dev friction)

— changes hot-reload immediately (no rebuilds, restarts, or dev friction) Collaborative growth — agents share useful edits/discoveries so the whole network levels up together

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