Show HN: God – real-time control room for LLM agent societies (EMNLP 2026 demo)

A paper describing GOD, a real-time control room for inspecting language-agent societies, was accepted to the System Demonstrations track at EMNLP 2026, according to the project's GitHub release notes. GOD lets operators pause, scrub and fast-forward a live simulation, question individual residents or the whole town mid-run, inject instructions to steer the next step, and reset run state, with browser replays that require no install or API key. The project shipped v0.2.0 on 2026-06-11, adding a public site with browser replays, Experiment/Map/Agent pack hubs with ZIP import-export, and a Windows launcher, following the first tagged release v0.1.0 on 2026-05-21.

🌩️ Be like a god to a town of agents. Pause time. Whisper to a soul. Bend the next step. Reset the world — all from a single click. ▶ Try browser replay https://xiaoluolyg.github.io/GOD/replays/god-town/ · no install, no API key · Run locally 🌐 Live Demo -live-demo · 🚀 Quick Start -quick-start · Updates -updates · Roadmap %EF%B8%8F-roadmap · Highlights -highlights · Features -features · Built-in Experiments -built-in-experiments · Public Site https://xiaoluolyg.github.io/GOD/ · AtomGit Mirror https://atomgit.com/yigeluo/GOD · Developer Docs https://xiaoluolyg.github.io/GOD/developer/ · Contributing https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md · 🌏 中文 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/blob/main/README.zh-CN.md Most agent-society demos let you watch a simulation play out. GOD gives you the controls. Replay a run, question any resident, change what happens next, and export a pack others can rerun, all from one screen. It is built for inspecting language-agent societies, not for claiming they are socially realistic. - 2026-08-27 · 🎉🏆 GOD accepted at EMNLP 2026 Our paper was accepted to the System Demonstrations track. 📄✨ Read the camera-ready paper https://xiaoluolyg.github.io/GOD/papers/god-emnlp-2026.pdf . - 2026-06-11 · v0.2.0 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/releases/tag/v0.2.0 : public site with browser replays; Experiment / Map / Agent pack hubs and ZIP import-export; Windows launcher; hardened first-run startup. 64 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/64 65 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/65 - 2026-06-06 · Site & packs: rebuilt public site and frontend; site packs delivered through release assets; map pack preview pages. 61 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/61 62 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/62 63 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/63 - 2026-06-01 · Portable packs: unified ExperimentPack downloads; GOD package import/export; curated experiment library. 57 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/57 59 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/59 60 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/60 - 2026-05-30 · Windows launcher & hubs: god.cmd start matches the macOS/Linux flow; AgentPack hubs and public replay exports; parallel JiuwenClaw requests. 45 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/45 49 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/49 50 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/50 - 2026-05 · Operator studios: bilingual control room, map-first /ask + /intervene rail, Agent Studio, Map Studio, unified skill runtime. 26 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/26 to 31 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/31 - 2026-05-21 · v0.1.0 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/releases/tag/v0.1.0 : first tagged release with two built-in experiments and the PKU campus map. 21 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/21 24 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/pull/24 | ⏯️ Pause time <sub Stop, scrub, fast-forward, auto-play any live step.</sub | 💬 Ask anyone <sub Ask one resident, a group, or the whole town, mid-run.</sub | 🎛️ Steer the next step <sub Inject instructions and inspect how agents respond.</sub | 🪄 No-code setup <sub Configure model, scenario and agents from a browser wizard.</sub | 🔄 Reset run state <sub One command wipes a stale run and re-seeds a clean world.</sub | <sub Live control room: PKU map, step controls, targeted ask, and resident roster in one view.</sub Browse everything in your browser on the public site https://xiaoluolyg.github.io/GOD/ : curated replays, map packs, agent packs, and downloadable experiments. No install or API key needed. <sub Left to right: the public site homepage, downloadable map packs, and downloadable agent packs.</sub git clone https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD.git cd GOD ./scripts/god.sh start Windows PowerShell: from the repo root, run .\scripts\god.cmd start . On the first run the script installs everything, opens a browser-based setup wizard , and waits for you to finish. You never have to edit .env or pass command-line flags by hand. <sub The Setup Wizard: model config, experiment choice, and custom society creation in one browser flow.</sub | 🔌 1. Model <sub Paste an OpenAI-compatible API key, base URL, and model name.</sub | 🧭 2. Choose <sub Open GOD Town, open PKU Trump Visit, or create your own.</sub | 🧪 3. Scenario <sub Describe your world: date, weather, vibes, rules.</sub | 🤖 4. Generate <sub The GOD agent drafts agent profiles and a step plan.</sub | ✏️ 5. Edit <sub Tweak personalities, relationships, locations, or steps.</sub | 6. Launch <sub Publish the experiment and step into the control room.</sub | Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint works. When the wizard hands off, the script prints a URL like: http://127.0.0.1:5174/pixel-replay/god town/1 Full walkthrough: Quickstart → https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/blob/main/QUICKSTART.md | | Feature | What you get | |---|---|---| | 🎬 | Replay control | Scrub a live or recorded replay by step. Pause, jump, auto-play. | | 💬 | Targeted ask | Send a natural-language question to one agent, a group, or the whole town. | | 🎛️ | Real-time intervention | Inject instructions into the next step; agents read them on their next turn. | | ⌨️ | Command composer | Type /ask or /intervene , use @Name id completions, and send operator commands without leaving the map. | | 🪄 | No-code setup wizard | Browser-based: configure model + scenario, let GOD generate agents and steps, edit, then launch. | | 🧬 | Agent Studio | Add or edit residents through a map-aware wizard for seed, identity, appearance, personality, routine, and review. | | 🧭 | Map Studio | Generate or upload a map draft, calibrate locations and collisions, validate it, then publish it as a local map package. | | 🧼 | One-command reset | Wipe replay data and seed a clean society without leaving the terminal. | | 🗺️ | Pixel town world | A live tiled map: locations, actions, messages, statuses, all replay-friendly per step. | | 🧱 | Single current experiment | .env stores local model/port settings; .god/current experiment.json stores the one active experiment. | | 🌐 | Browser replays | Curated replays on GitHub Pages, no local setup or API key required. | | 📦 | Pack library | Import and export Experiment, Map, and Agent packs; browse more on the public site. | | 🪟 | Windows launcher | god.cmd start on PowerShell, the same one-command flow as macOS/Linux. | - 🗺️ Pluggable map packages : drop a folder under agentsociety/custom/maps/<map id / , refresh the wizard, and a new world is selectable. Auto-discovered, validated, hot-swappable. See docs/MAP PACKAGES.md https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/blob/main/docs/MAP PACKAGES.md . - 🏫 PKU campus map : the PKU map package is bundled as a first-class map alongside The Ville. - 🪄 No-code setup wizard : browser flow for model setup, built-in experiment choice, custom experiment generation/editing, and launch. - 🧪 Scripted experiments : reproducible experiments ship as plain folders under quick experiments/<hypothesis /<experiment / ; choosing or publishing one makes it the current experiment. - 🎮 Control Room command rail : replay controls, resident roster, live console, targeted Ask, and Intervene now live in one map-first operator surface. - 🧬 Agent Studio v1 : map-aware add/edit flow with structured profile metadata, ID validation, setup integration, and sprite generation support. - 🧭 Map Studio v1 : prompt/reference-image map draft generation, anchor and collision calibration, package validation, publishing, and Setup handoff. - 🌏 Bilingual runtime UI : English/Chinese UI and runtime-owned labels for setup, replay, maps, statuses, actions, and system events. - 🔌 Agent skill-runtime path : the shipped JiuwenClaw agent adapter now uses the AgentSociety skill runtime as the canonical execution path. - 🌐 Public site & browser replays : GitHub Pages hosts curated replays, map packs, agent packs, and downloadable experiments, with no local setup or API key. - 📦 Portable packs & import/export : Experiment, Map, and Agent packs with ZIP import/export, delivered through release assets. - 🪟 Windows one-key launcher : god.cmd start mirrors the one-command macOS/Linux flow. - 🤖 Pluggable agent runtimes : swap LLM runtimes and persona templates as cleanly as we now swap maps. - 🧪 Multi-experiment orchestration : run experiments, control groups, repeats, and ablations side by side. - 🗺️ Live map generation : maps that evolve with events, repairs, blockages, and crowds. - 🌦️ Event-responsive worlds : weather, accidents, festivals, rumors, and shortages that change agent behavior over time. - 🌐 Large-scale simulation : AgentSociety batching, sharded runs, sampled replay, and performance-minded replay summaries. - 📊 Experiment evaluation : cross-run metrics, behavior diffs, intervention effect analysis. - 📝 Operator workflow : per-step notes, tags, bookmarks, key-event summaries. - 🌍 Hosted live control room : a hosted demo where you can steer a run, not just watch replays, plus community scenario templates. Have an idea? Open an issue or PR -contributing . flowchart LR O "Operator" :::operator UI "Control Room" :::surface API "Live API" :::core RT "Agent Runtime" :::runtime TOWN "Pixel Town" :::world CFG "Experiment Files" :::data DB "Replay Store" :::data O -- UI UI <-- |"commands / updates"| API API -- |"prompts"| RT RT -- |"actions"| TOWN TOWN -- |"frames"| DB CFG -- |"scenario"| API classDef operator fill: fff7ed,stroke: f59e0b,color: 7c2d12,stroke-width:2px; classDef surface fill: eef2ff,stroke: 6366f1,color: 312e81,stroke-width:2px; classDef core fill: ecfeff,stroke: 0891b2,color: 164e63,stroke-width:2px; classDef runtime fill: f0fdf4,stroke: 22c55e,color: 14532d,stroke-width:2px; classDef world fill: fefce8,stroke: ca8a04,color: 713f12,stroke-width:2px; classDef data fill: fdf2f8,stroke: db2777,color: 831843,stroke-width:2px; GOD is intentionally local-first: the control room, backend, runtime bridge, experiment files, and replay store all run on your machine. The model endpoint is the only external service you choose. GOD keeps three concepts separate: - Experiment is the playable setup: map, agents, scenario context, and step plan. - Replay is the viewable result of an experiment after it has been played. - Runtime state is local machine data such as SQLite replay stores, logs, and agent snapshots; it is not part of an ExperimentPack and should not be committed. | Layer | What it does | |---|---| | 🎮 Control Room | React/Vite browser UI: replay, ask, intervention, status. | | ⚙️ Backend | Local FastAPI service exposing live and replay APIs. | | 🗺️ Pixel Town | Replay-friendly social world: locations, actions, messages, agent status. | | 🤖 Agent Runtime | Out-of-process LLM agents reached over a local WebSocket. | ./scripts/god.sh start start the full stack idempotent ./scripts/god.sh configure open setup to switch defaults or create an experiment ./scripts/god.sh restart stop everything cleanly, then start again ./scripts/god.sh new-run wipe local runtime state for the current experiment and start fresh ./scripts/god.sh status ports, URLs, model status ./scripts/god.sh stop stop everything ./scripts/god.sh tail follow logs ./scripts/god.sh open open the frontend pages in the default browser On Windows, replace ./scripts/god.sh with .\scripts\god.cmd . GOD ships two built-in experiments and treats them exactly like experiments you publish yourself. The setup wizard writes the selected experiment to .god/current experiment.json ; start , open , and new-run then act only on that current experiment. More downloadable scenarios live on the public site https://xiaoluolyg.github.io/GOD/experiments/ : Empty City Gate, Gaokao Blackout, Hogwarts Parent Meeting, and others. .env is intentionally local-only and only stores model, API, port, and similar machine settings. It no longer decides the default experiment or map, so an old GOD MAP ID=pku cannot make GOD Town load the PKU map. A late-spring Tuesday morning at 8:20. Sunny, 18°C, light breeze. A 200-person town with 10 residents who know each other but don't live in each other's pockets . It is a slice-of-life simulation, not a quest script. ➡️ Choose god town in the Setup Wizard to make this the current experiment. It is bound to hypothesis god town/experiment 1 and the the ville map. ➡️ See hypothesis god town/experiment 1/ https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/blob/main/agentsociety/quick experiments/hypothesis god town/experiment 1/README.md for the full breakdown of locations, profiles, and interactions. <sub The Ville: all 10 residents going about a typical day across home, school, library, cafe, park, market, pharmacy, pub, and dorm.</sub | 🗺️ 10 Locations · 65 location-scoped interactions | | | | | | 🏠 Home <sub cook · sleep · tidy · read · WFH · video-call</sub | 🏫 School <sub attend / teach class · grade · office hours</sub | 📚 Library <sub read · study · research · borrow / return</sub | ☕ Hobbs Cafe <sub light meal · coffee chat · cafe shift · meetup</sub | 🌳 Johnson Park <sub walk · meet · exercise · public announcement</sub | | 🛠️ Supply Store <sub repair · restock · lend tools · customer service</sub | 🛒 Market <sub buy food · haggle · deliver · chat w/ regulars</sub | 💊 Pharmacy <sub buy medicine · refill · check BP · home visit prep</sub | 🍻 Pub <sub socialize · watch match · host small event</sub | 🛏️ Dorm <sub rest · self-study · common-room hangout · video call</sub | | 👥 10 residents, each with a real life | | | | | | 🧭 Alice · 34<sub Neighborhood coordinator</sub | 🛠️ Bob · 45<sub Supply-store shopkeeper</sub | 📖 Charlie · 39<sub High-school history teacher</sub | 💊 Dana · 41<sub Pharmacy nurse</sub | ☕ Elena · 36<sub Cafe owner</sub | | 🎒 Farah · 16<sub High-school student</sub | 📮 George · 68<sub Retired postman</sub | 💻 Hana · 28<sub Remote software engineer</sub | 🦺 Ivan · 52<sub Public-safety volunteer</sub | 🍅 Mei · 47<sub Market vegetable vendor</sub | <sub Every resident carries a full profile: age, family, housing, economic status, health, daily routine, skills, needs, worries, secrets, social network, language style, quirks, short- & long-term goals.</sub A campus public-situation experiment on a stylized PKU map. Daily routines begin around gates, classrooms, library, lake, dining hall, dormitory, and Centennial Hall, then a high-attention visit event tests how residents notice, ask, gather, and react. ➡️ Choose pku trump visit in the Setup Wizard to make this the current experiment. It is bound to hypothesis pku trump visit/experiment 1 and the pku map. ➡️ See hypothesis pku trump visit/experiment 1/ https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/blob/main/agentsociety/quick experiments/hypothesis pku trump visit/experiment 1/README.md for the full scenario, cast, operator notes, and replay data. <sub PKU campus map: gates, classrooms, library, Weiming Lake, Boya Pagoda, dining hall, dorm, and Centennial Hall, with named residents and the Trump-visit cast.</sub GOD now discovers map packages automatically from agentsociety/custom/maps/<map id / . To add a map, copy agentsociety/custom/maps/ template/ https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/blob/main/agentsociety/custom/maps/ template , replace map.yaml , visuals/map.json , tileset PNGs, and optional characters/ or location assets/ , then run: cd agentsociety uv run python scripts/validate map package.py custom/maps/<map id The setup wizard will list valid packages without code changes. v1 supports Tiled JSON maps with PNG tilesets and a Collisions layer where 0 means walkable. The PKU campus package now ships in the repository at agentsociety/custom/maps/pku/ . See docs/MAP PACKAGES.md https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/blob/main/docs/MAP PACKAGES.md for the full package contract. Issues and pull requests are very welcome. To set up a dev environment: ./scripts/god.sh start That installs Python and Node dependencies, brings up the full stack, creates a live session, and runs the first step so the control room opens on a populated town. From there, edit and reload. Full guide: CONTRIBUTING.md → https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md covers branching, the PR checklist, style, and how to ship a new map or experiment. GOD builds on open research and open-source work. It bundles two trimmed upstream checkouts: - AgentSociety https://github.com/tsinghua-fib-lab/AgentSociety : large-scale generative-agent simulation framework. - JiuwenClaw https://github.com/openJiuwen-ai/jiuwenclaw : out-of-process agent runtime. And takes inspiration from Generative Agents https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.03442 and OASIS https://github.com/camel-ai/oasis . @article{piao2025agentsociety, title = {AgentSociety: Large-Scale Simulation of LLM-Driven Generative Agents Advances Understanding of Human Behaviors and Society}, author = {Piao et al.}, journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.08691}, year = {2025} } @misc{park2023generativeagents, title = {Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior}, author = {Joon Sung Park and Joseph C. O'Brien and Carrie J. Cai and Meredith Ringel Morris and Percy Liang and Michael S. Bernstein}, year = {2023}, eprint = {2304.03442}, archivePrefix = {arXiv}, primaryClass = {cs.HC}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.03442} } Released under the Apache-2.0 https://github.com/XiaoLuoLYG/GOD/blob/main/LICENSE license. Upstream LICENSE and NOTICE files are kept inside the integrated runtime checkouts and apply to those subtrees. <sub If GOD is useful to you, a ⭐ helps other people find it.</sub