# Partner: An AI That Does Research While You Sleep

> Source: <https://dev.to/zty522/partner-an-ai-that-does-research-while-you-sleep-jfl>
> Published: 2026-05-23 15:42:48+00:00

**LLM generates text. Agent executes tasks. Partner does research — on its own.**

## The Problem

As a researcher, I have more ideas than time. Papers to read, experiments to run, code to review, and connections to find between projects. No matter how fast I work, the backlog grows.

What if I had a research companion that worked independently — reading papers, exploring my codebase, building a knowledge base, and proposing new ideas — while I focused on the hard problems?

## The Three Layers of AI

We've seen two layers of AI tools:

## Introducing Partner 🤝

Partner is an **autonomous research entity**. It sits on top of existing agent frameworks (like how agents sit on top of LLMs) and conducts research independently.

The core interaction is beautifully simple:

"Hey Partner, what have you been doing?"

And it tells you everything it discovered while you were away.

## How It Works

Partner runs in the background, executing a research cycle every 30 minutes (configurable). Each cycle:

-
**Picks a task** from its queue (self-generated or user-injected) -
**Executes it** via the agent backend (web search, code analysis, etc.) -
**Records findings** in its knowledge base -
**Generates new tasks** based on what it learned -
**Repeats**— forever

## Events: The Heart of Partner

An **Event** is one complete research cycle — like how Agents have Skills, Partner has Events.

Each Event follows a structured flow:

📖 Literature → Search and read papers

🔬 Project Scan → Analyze your codebase

💡 Idea Generate → Propose improvements

🧭 Exploration → Try new directions

📝 Knowledge → Record findings

🌱 Spawn → Create new Events

Events **grow on their own** — one Event's findings automatically spawn new Events. The research never stops.

## Real Results

I ran Partner overnight on my bioinformatics research projects. By morning:

-
**29 research cycles** completed autonomously -
**34 tasks** finished -
**48 knowledge entries** accumulated -
**94 tasks** queued for future exploration

Key discoveries Partner made on its own:

## Multi-Agent Support

Partner works on top of existing agent frameworks — it doesn't reinvent the wheel.

Run `partner setup`

to auto-detect installed agents.

## Cross-Platform

Partner runs on **Linux, macOS, Windows, and WSL**. On WSL, it can automatically access your Windows files through the WSL Bridge.

## Getting Started

```
git clone https://github.com/zty522/partner.git
cd partner
pip install -e .
partner setup
```

Then open your agent (Hermes, OpenClaw, etc.) and say:

"Hey Partner, what have you been doing?"

## What's Next

-
**WeChat/QQ integration**— ask Partner via voice message -
**Community Events**— share and install Event templates -
**Multi-Partner collaboration**— multiple Partners working together -
**More agent backends**— Claude Code, Cursor, and more

**Partner: because research shouldn't wait for you.**

GitHub:

# 🤝 Partner

*"Hey Partner, what have you been doing?"*

**An AI research companion that works independently in the background
You don't give it commands. You just check in.**

## The Idea

```
LLM:     You ask → It answers → Done
Agent:   You command → It executes → Waits
Partner: It works on its own → You ask "what have you been doing?" → It reports
```

Partner is **proactive**. It reads papers, explores your projects, builds a knowledge base, and proposes new ideas — all without you telling it to. When you're ready, you just ask:

"Hey Partner, what have you been doing?"

And it tells you everything it discovered while you were away.

## Quick Start

```
git clone https://github.com/zty522/partner.git
cd partner
pip install -e .
partner setup
```

The setup wizard detects your installed agents (Hermes, Codex, Claude Code), configures a workspace, and registers Partner as a skill. Then just talk naturally:

```
You:
```

…