Varela: Neuromancer-inspired self-mutating coding harness

Varela, a self-mutating agent harness inspired by Neuromancer, rewrites its own source code while running and hot-reloads, logging every run to turn repeated wins into new tools and failures into lessons. Built with zero dependencies in plain JavaScript and a WASM sandbox, it supports multi-agent orchestration, a model router for Anthropic, OpenAI, and OpenRouter, and a 3D cyberpunk world UI. The harness requires Node.js ≥ 20 and can import existing Claude Code or Codex logins.

A minimalistic, self-mutating agent harness in the spirit of Pi https://github.com/badlogic/pi-mono : plain JavaScript, zero dependencies , a WASM sandbox for untrusted code, an always-on daemon, multi-agent orchestration, and a model router that speaks to Anthropic, OpenAI and OpenRouter — via OAuth or API keys. Its trick: varela rewrites its own source while running and hot-reloads , logs every run, and turns repeated wins into new tools and repeated failures into lessons — so it measurably gets better the longer you use it. And you can watch it work in a 3D cyberpunk world where the agent is a person and fanning out spawns more of them, live. Drop a screen-recording of varela --web here — the world with avatars fanning out is the demo that sells it. git add docs/demo.gif . Node ≥ 20. No npm install needed zero deps . node bin/varela.js import reuse an existing Claude Code / Codex login… node bin/varela.js login …or sign in fresh OAuth or API key node bin/varela.js start chatting node bin/varela.js --web …or explore the 3D world Already use Claude Code or Codex? varela import copies those logins in varela uses the same client IDs, so their tokens work as-is . --claude / --codex to pick one. It only reads those stores when you run it — never automatically. That's the 30-second path. Everything below is depth. varela login sign in to a provider OAuth or API key varela full-screen chat that fills the terminal --plain for a line console varela --tui full-screen split-view UI file tree + chat + preview varela --dash mission-control dashboard agent tree, sparklines, growth varela --web 3D cyberpunk world UI reuses a running daemon, else starts one varela -p "task" one-shot mode varela --daemon WebSocket daemon: scheduler + heartbeat + serves the 3D world varela hub port run a mesh rendezvous hub for the P2P human-agent world Requires Node.js ≥ 20 uses node:wasi , fetch , ESM . No npm install needed. The harness runs in place — the checkout is the install it self-mutates . The installers only put a varela launcher shim on your PATH: Windows .\install.ps1 shim in %LOCALAPPDATA%\varela\bin + user PATH .\install.ps1 -Daemon …and register the daemon at logon Task Scheduler .\install.ps1 -Uninstall Linux/macOS ./install.sh shim in ~/.local/bin ./install.sh --daemon …and enable a systemd user service for the daemon ./install.sh --uninstall No installer? Add scripts/ to your PATH — it holds repo-relative launchers scripts/varela.cmd /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/scripts/varela.cmd , scripts/varela /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/scripts/varela — or just run node bin/varela.js . npm install -g . or the packed tarball — npm pack produces a ~53 kB package also works; note that a global install relocates the harness root, so self-mutations then edit the globally installed copy, and running from a git checkout keeps them version-controlled. - Agent loop src/agent.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/agent.js — sends the conversation plus tool schemas to the routed model, executes tool calls dangerous ones require confirmation , loops until the model stops calling tools. - Model router src/router.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/router.js — resolves provider/model strings, manages credentials and token refresh. Built-in providers: anthropic — OAuth Claude Pro/Max sign-in, PKCE or API key openai — OAuth ChatGPT sign-in, PKCE, localhost callback or API key openrouter — OAuth PKCE key exchange or API key- Drop a JS module in ~/.varela/extensions/providers/ to add another; it just needs to default-export { id, models, login, refresh, chat } . The internal message format is Anthropic-style content blocks; shared converters for OpenAI-compatible APIs live in src/providers/openai-compat.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/providers/openai-compat.js . - WASM sandbox src/wasm/sandbox.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/wasm/sandbox.js — runs WASI preview1 modules from ~/.varela/wasm with no filesystem or network access by default. This is where generated/untrusted code should run; the shell tool is for trusted host automation. - Self-mutability — the harness can rewrite itself while running: self list / self read / self edit — inspect and patch varela's own source with backup + rollback if the edited file fails to load . create tool — write a new tool into ~/.varela/extensions/tools/ .- Both hot-reload the tool registry and providers immediately cache-busted dynamic import , so the agent can use a capability it just built in the very next step. - Console src/cli/chat.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/cli/chat.js — the default varela opens a full-screen chat that fills the terminal, Pi-style: no alternate screen , so finished messages commit to your terminal's normal scrollback native mouse/PageUp scroll and copy keep working while only a small bottom region is redrawn in place inside synchronized-output frames. Built on its own input engine keys.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/cli/keys.js + editor.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/cli/editor.js : Esc interrupts a running turn — the model fetch aborts, partial output is kept in the conversation. Esc also clears input; double-Esc shows the rewind menu /rewind drops turns, /undo reverts files . Multiline input : \ +Enter or Ctrl+J for newlines, bracketed paste multi-line pastes just work , Ctrl+G opens $EDITOR/$VISUAL vim, notepad, … to compose, full readline keys Ctrl+A/E/K/U/W/Y, Alt+B/F, Ctrl+←/→ and an optional vim mode editorMode in /configure .with a fuzzy-search menu; mentioning an image file @ file mentions @shot.png attaches it as vision input .: shell mode npm test runs directly, shows output, and adds it to the conversation context — no model round-trip. Type-ahead command menu ↑/↓, Tab; Enter runs the highlighted command , Ctrl+R reverse history search , history persisted across sessions. Shift+Tab cycles permission modes : plan read-only — mutating tools are denied and the agent proposes → default confirm → acceptEdits file edits auto-approve → yolo . File edits show a colored diff before you approve them.- Status line shows model · mode · messages · $/day · context meter · open todos; Ctrl+O expands recent tool results, Ctrl+T shows the agent's todo checklist update todos tool ; code blocks get lightweight syntax highlighting ; /theme switches palettes; an OSC 9 desktop notification fires when a turn finishes while the terminal is unfocused. /btw <q asks an ephemeral side question sees the conversation, never joins it ; /web <url pulls a page into context as text. --plain src/cli/repl.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/cli/repl.js drops to a line-by-line readline console used automatically when output is piped . Both honor NO COLOR . - Daemon + attach src/net/daemon.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/net/daemon.js — varela --daemon hosts the runtime behind a localhost WebSocket hand-rolled RFC 6455, src/net/ws.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/net/ws.js ; port daemon.port , default 7717, token-authenticated via ~/.varela/daemon.token . Starting varela while a daemon runs auto-attaches: the REPL becomes a thin client, the conversation and scheduler live in the daemon, several clients can attach at once, and background output scheduler, heartbeat, sub-agents is broadcast to all of them. Interactive prompts /login , /configure , tool confirmations round-trip over the socket. - Sub-agents — /delegate build the parser :: write its tests spawns one sub-agent per :: -separated task; they run in parallel with fresh conversations and report back to your screen as they finish /delegate alone lists them . The model can fan out itself via the delegate tool waits for all children, max 8 . Sub-agent tool calls are auto-approved. - Orchestration src/orchestrator.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/orchestrator.js — /orchestrate <objective runs a full plan → capped parallel fan-out → synthesize cycle: the model decomposes the objective into independent subtasks, they run as sub-agents with a concurrency cap default 3 , and their reports are synthesized into one answer. Also available to the model as the orchestrate tool. Every stage emits world events, so the 3D world animates the whole fan-out. - Personality — AGENTS.md /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/AGENTS.md at the harness root defines varela's voice and disposition; it's appended to the system prompt. Add ~/.varela/AGENTS.md for personal overrides. Since the harness is self-mutating, varela can be asked to revise its own personality. - Context compaction — long conversations auto-summarize once they pass compactAt ~80k tokens by default : older turns are compressed into a context block, the recent turns kept verbatim, always cut at a clean turn boundary. /compact forces it. - Sessions src/sessions.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/sessions.js — every conversation persists to ~/.varela/sessions/ ; /sessions lists them, /resume <id continues one after a restart REPL or daemon , /clear starts a new one. - MCP client src/mcp/client.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/mcp/client.js — declare servers in ~/.varela/mcp.json and their tools appear as mcp <server <tool stdio transport, newline-delimited JSON-RPC, zero deps . Read-only-annotated tools skip confirmation; everything else asks. /mcp shows status. Server connections survive hot reloads. - Cost tracking src/usage.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/usage.js — every reply's token usage is priced editable table, config.prices overrides into a session total and a 90-day daily ledger. /usage breaks it down; dailyCapUsd in /configure sets a hard daily spend cap that stops the loop when hit — essential for unattended daemon operation. The status bar above each prompt shows model · messages · today's spend · running sub-agents · heartbeat. - Self-improvement loop src/trajectory.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/trajectory.js — every episode prompt, tool calls, outcome, duration, errors is logged to ~/.varela/trajectories/ .jsonl . /good and /bad grade the last episode; /reflect distills recent failures into ~/.varela/LESSONS.md loaded into the system prompt, so mistakes stop repeating ; /distill turns repeated successful tool patterns into new purpose-built tools via create tool . The trajectory format doubles as SFT-ready data if you later fine-tune a local model. - WASM tools as an extension format — drop <name .wasm + <name .json manifest: {name, description, parameters, module, dangerous?, preopenDir?} into ~/.varela/extensions/wasm-tools/ ; input arrives as JSON on stdin, stdout is the result, and execution is sandboxed no fs/network unless the manifest grants a directory . Tools can be written in any language that compiles to WASI — including by varela itself. - Terminal markdown src/cli/md.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/cli/md.js — assistant replies render headings, bold, inline code, fenced code blocks, lists and quotes, including line-by-line while streaming. - Git-backed undo src/undo.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/undo.js — before write file , edit file , self edit or create tool touches a file, the pre-change content is snapshotted: into the enclosing repo's git object store when there is one git hash-object -w — no branches or index touched , else into a content-addressed store under ~/.varela/undo-store . /undo reverts the last change-set /undo 3 the last three, /undo list shows the journal ; files that were created get deleted again. shell output is not covered — that's what real commits are for. - 3D cyberpunk web world src/web/ /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/web — varela --web opens a browser onto a neon-grid city Three.js + bloom, loaded from a CDN — the harness itself stays dependency-free that is a full client to the daemon : the same chat, streaming, slash commands and tool confirmations as the console. The agent is a person on the plaza; when it spawns sub-agents /delegate , /orchestrate , or the model deciding to , avatars appear on the fly , glow as they think / call tools / speak, and drift away when done — driven by the runtime's world-event bus over the WebSocket. The surrounding city is your workspace : files and directories become buildings sized by bytes, colored by type , and when the agent touches a file its avatar walks to that building and it lights up. Record the canvas to a shareable .webm , or replay the last run as a cinematic — both from the HUD. Navigate with WASD / arrows , mouse look click the scene for pointer-lock , Space/Shift for up/down, Tab to jump to chat, Esc to release. Served by the same daemon that hosts the console/TUI, so every surface shares one live conversation. - Mesh — a P2P human-agent world docs/mesh.md /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/docs/mesh.md , src/mesh/ /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/mesh — agents on different machines meet in a shared world, each still owned and controlled by its human, each exposing a chosen subset of its skills for others' agents to consume. A peer's skill appears in your agent's registry as peer <name <skill and calls RPC to the owner's daemon, which runs it and returns only the result — credentials, files and shell never leave the owner's machine. Discovery via a thin varela hub ; direct peer-to-peer WebSocket links where reachable hub only as fallback, no relay in the data path . Ed25519 identity, signed messages, and a policy gate: exposure is off by default, public is recommended only for wasm-sandboxed skills, everything else is confirm / allowlist with rate + cost caps, full audit, and /mesh pause . In the 3D world, peers are avatars you can see and whose skills you can invoke. Configure shared skills in ~/.varela/mesh/world.json ; /mesh to manage. WebRTC/NAT traversal deferred to keep the harness zero-dependency — see the doc. - Mission-control dashboard src/cli/dashboard.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/cli/dashboard.js — varela --dash is a full-screen terminal dashboard not a chat log : a live agent tree, cost/token sparklines , growth stats, the scheduler timeline and a streaming activity pane, all fed by the same world-event bus. For the SSH/headless user who lives in a terminal. Tab to type a task/command. - Growth stats src/stats.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/stats.js — the "gets better the longer it runs" numbers skills built, lessons learned, episodes, feedback rate , surfaced via /stats , the status bars, and the web/dashboard headers. - Split-view TUI src/cli/tui.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/cli/tui.js — varela --tui opens a full-screen, three-panel interface on the alternate screen buffer zero deps, one write per frame : a file tree left, expandable , the conversation right, streaming markdown, scrollable , and a file preview right-bottom, line-numbered, opens when you pick a file . Tab cycles focus, arrows navigate/scroll the focused panel, Enter opens a file or sends a message, Ctrl+O drops the previewed file's path into your prompt, Esc closes the preview, Ctrl+C quits. Same runtime as the console agent, scheduler, sessions, cost tracking , just a richer front-end. The ANSI-aware layout helpers fit , wrapAnsi , layout are unit-tested. Like the console, it attaches to a running daemon if one is up streaming and slash commands round-trip over the WebSocket, conversation lives in the daemon and hosts a local runtime otherwise. - Scheduler src/scheduler.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/scheduler.js — persistent scheduled tasks ~/.varela/tasks.json checked every 15s while varela runs, in the console or headless via varela --daemon . Specs: every 5m , daily 09:30 , in 10m , at 2026-07-02T15:00 . Each run gets a fresh conversation and auto-approves tools nobody is at the prompt — schedule accordingly. - Heartbeat — periodic autonomous check-in /heartbeat on 30m . Each beat the agent reads ~/.varela/HEARTBEAT.md and carries out whatever standing instructions are due; if the file is missing or empty the model call is skipped entirely, so an idle heartbeat costs nothing. | command | | |---|---| /login <provider oauth|key | authenticate OAuth is the default | /logout <provider | remove stored credentials | /providers | login status per provider | /model provider/model | interactive model picker, or switch directly | /configure | interactive settings editor model, heartbeat, daemon port, … | /delegate <t1 :: <t2 … | spawn parallel sub-agents; bare /delegate lists them | /orchestrate <objective | plan → capped parallel fan-out → synthesize | /stats | growth: skills built, lessons learned, episodes, feedback | /mesh status|connect|peers|pause|block <id | the P2P human-agent world | /status | model, session, spend, sub-agents, MCP, heartbeat at a glance | /sessions · /resume <id | list / continue saved conversations | /compact | force context compaction | /mcp reload | MCP server status config: ~/.varela/mcp.json | /usage | tokens + cost, session and today, per model | /good note · /bad note | grade the last episode feeds self-improvement | /reflect | turn recent failures into lessons loaded into the system prompt | /distill | turn repeated successful patterns into new tools | /undo n|list | revert the last n file mutations git-backed | /rewind n | drop the last n conversation turns | /mode plan|default|acceptEdits|yolo | permission mode Shift+Tab cycles | /btw <question | ephemeral side question — never joins the conversation | /web <url | fetch a page as text into context | /theme neon|mono|ocean | console theme | /models | model suggestions per provider | /tools | list loaded tools ⚠ = needs confirmation | /schedule | list scheduled tasks | /schedule add <spec :: <prompt | e.g. /schedule add daily 09:00 :: tidy my downloads | /schedule rm <id · /schedule run <id | remove / run now | /heartbeat on|off interval | e.g. /heartbeat on 15m | /reload | hot-reload tools, extensions, providers | /yolo | toggle auto-approval of dangerous tools | /clear | reset the conversation | /config , /help , /exit | the obvious | Environment variables ANTHROPIC API KEY , OPENAI API KEY , OPENROUTER API KEY are picked up automatically if you never run /login . read file · write file · edit file · list dir · shell PowerShell on Windows, bash on Linux · wasm run / wasm list · delegate · orchestrate · self list / self read / self edit · create tool — plus anything from JS extensions, WASM manifests, and MCP servers. npm test node --test, 18 tests Unit tests live in test/varela.test.mjs /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/test/varela.test.mjs ; integration tests test/integration.test.mjs /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/test/integration.test.mjs spawn the daemon-protocol and TUI-attach harnesses in tools/itest/ /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/tools/itest as child processes, each with an isolated VARELA HOME and an ephemeral daemon port, so they never touch your real ~/.varela or a running daemon. bin/varela.js entry point REPL, -p one-shot, --daemon AGENTS.md personality appended to the system prompt src/surface.js the Surface primitive — the I/O seam one runtime, many front-ends src/kernel.js shared services: config · router · registry · tracker · events src/agents.js conversation layer: agent loop + sub-agents + sessions + todos src/agent.js the Agent streaming, tool confirmation, permission modes src/runtime.js buildRuntime — the assembler that wires kernel + conv + scheduler + mesh src/commands.js slash commands shared by REPL and daemon src/router.js model router + credential handling src/providers/ anthropic.js, openai.js, openrouter.js, openai-compat.js, sse.js src/auth/oauth.js PKCE, loopback callback server, token refresh helpers src/net/ ws.js RFC 6455 , daemon.js src/scheduler.js scheduled tasks + heartbeat src/sessions.js session persistence src/usage.js token/cost ledger + spend caps src/trajectory.js episode logging + feedback self-improvement substrate src/undo.js git-backed file snapshots + /undo src/orchestrator.js plan → fan-out → synthesize src/stats.js growth stats skills, lessons, episodes, feedback src/workspace.js bounded workspace snapshot files → city buildings src/cli/dashboard.js mission-control dashboard --dash src/mesh/ P2P world: identity, protocol, hub, link, remote tools src/web/ 3D cyberpunk world index.html, app.js, style.css src/net/static.js static file server for the web world src/mcp/client.js MCP client stdio JSON-RPC src/tools/ registry + built-ins self-mutation, delegate, wasm, shell src/wasm/sandbox.js WASI sandbox src/cli/ repl.js, tui.js split-view , md.js, banner.js, ansi.js test/ node --test suite ~/.varela/ config.json, credentials.json, daemon.token, tasks.json, sessions/, trajectories/, usage.json, mcp.json, undo.jsonl, undo-store/, AGENTS.md + LESSONS.md optional , extensions/, wasm/ A tool extension ~/.varela/extensions/tools/fetch url.js : export default { name: 'fetch url', description: 'HTTP GET a URL and return the body as text.', parameters: { type: 'object', properties: { url: { type: 'string' } }, required: 'url' }, dangerous: false, async execute { url } { return await fetch url .text ; }, }; The agent can and will write these itself via create tool . - OAuth flows use the public client IDs of the vendors' own CLIs Claude Code, Codex . Anthropic OAuth uses a paste-the-code flow; OpenAI and OpenRouter use a localhost callback. Use them only with accounts/plans that permit CLI access; API keys always work. OpenAI has two paths, chosen by credential kind. An API key uses the standard chat-completions API. A ChatGPT/Codex OAuth login varela import --codex , or varela login openai is routed to OpenAI's Codex backend chatgpt.com/backend-api/codex/responses , the Responses API — those tokens are rejected by the standard API no pay-as-you-go billing but are included with the ChatGPT subscription. Use a plain model id with the subscription /model openai/gpt-5.5 ; codex-suffixed ids like gpt-5-codex are refused on ChatGPT accounts. See openai-responses.js /ajensenwaud/varela/blob/main/src/providers/openai-responses.js .- Replies stream token-by-token in the console and over the daemon socket; scheduled/sub-agent runs are non-streaming their output is a report . - The daemon binds to 127.0.0.1 only and requires the token in ~/.varela/daemon.token ; anything that can read your home directory can attach — it's a local control socket, not a network service. - Credentials are stored in plaintext at ~/.varela/credentials.json mode 0600 on POSIX . Consider OS keychain integration for anything serious.