joel@devrandom.co:~$ ./manifesto

Agents you can prove.Agents you can stop.

Open-source infrastructure for agents you can prove and stop. In Rust, on your hardware — cloud optional.

[ follow the build ] [ read the source ]

$ cargo add cesr-rs # the first layer, installable today

# milestones only — first demos, first releases, no noise

# the demo we're building — watch it happen

$ agency create researcher

✓ new agent — ID issued by you, not by a vendor

$ agency watch researcher

● signed ✓ read repo   signed ✓ opened pull request

$ agency kill researcher

✗ stopped mid-task — authority gone, provably

$ 

cesr ..... SHIPPED     v0.8.0 · crates.io · fuzzed · reference parity · pre-1.0 by choice
mnesis ... FROZEN      v0.1.0 · api settled · 1.0 waits on bombay
bombay ... IN PROGRESS the runtime, rebuilt in the open

joel@devrandom.co:~$ cat problem.md

Agents act. Nobody's accountable.

You're handing AI agents your shell, your APIs, your money. Here's the diff we're shipping:

$ diff status-quo devrandom

- no real record — a log anyone could rewrite

+ a record no one can doctor — signed, ordered, replayable

- no real kill switch — the API key can't stop what's already running

+ revoke mid-task — the next action is refused, even offline

- not really yours — agents live in a vendor's account

+ IDs you issue — portable across models, clouds, vendors

- nowhere but the cloud — offline, your agents die

+ your devices form their own network — even on a plane

joel@devrandom.co:~$ tree ./stack

Own your agents. Prove everything.

Four open-source Rust layers: an ID card, a flight recorder, a place to run, and a leash.

A tense operations room at night: three worried employees in front of wall monitors full of red warnings
A calm executive hands a glowing green ID badge across a desk to a translucent figure of light, like a new hire
An auditor smiles over a long paper ledger with glowing green seals unrolled across a boardroom table
A woman calmly flips a physical kill switch on a metal console; chaotic red screens go dark behind her
A passenger works serenely on a night flight, her laptop showing a small constellation of green dots
A woman carries a small crate glowing green out of a corporate tower, heading to her own studio
Someone sleeps peacefully while monitors in the next room quietly fill with green check marks
A founder watches dawn break over the city, one monitor behind her showing a steady green heartbeat line

the problem

Companies hand AI agents their systems, their money, their name — with no record anyone can trust.

01 / 08
├─

An ID card for every agent — cesr

Verifiable IDs — issued by you, rotatable, revocable. Implements KERI, the open standard.

receipts: [cesr-rs · crates.io][keri-rs · crates.io][docs.rs][ci]

├─

A flight recorder — mnesis

Every action signed, hash-chained, replayable. Don't investigate — rewind.

receipts: [crates.io][docs.rs][docs][ci]

├─

A place to run — bombay

Agents live on your devices, talk directly, keep working offline.

receipts: [ci]

└─

A leash — agency

Grant exact powers, watch them used, take them back mid-task.

joel@devrandom.co:~$ git log --graph --all

Roadmap

built bottom-up, in public — each layer ships with receipts before the next stands on it.

* [shipped] foundations — identity & memory kernels

  • cesr + keri: shipped on crates.io, fuzzed, byte-for-byte against the reference — frozen, pre-1.0 by choice
  • mnesis: embedded and Postgres storage, API frozen — 1.0 waits on the bombay integration

* [now] runtime — actors over the wire

  • bombay rebuilt piece by piece under a strict quality bar
  • the identity engine: issue, rotate, delegate, revoke — as pure, testable logic

* [next] accountable agents — identity-bearing actors

  • grant authority, watch it being used, take it back mid-task
  • the demo: kill a live agent’s authority in front of you — even offline

* [later] clients & mesh — everywhere, with or without internet

  • command line, web, and phone apps — your keys never leave your device
  • the airplane-mode demo: your devices keep working as a team, offline
  • share your GPU: serve local models to your own devices — with permissions and receipts

joel@devrandom.co:~$ whoami

Joel D'Souza

Joel D'Souza

founder — building all of it

14 years building software other people’s businesses run on — long enough to stop trusting logs that anyone can rewrite. Rust by choice; Java and TypeScript by history. Now building the whole stack on this page in the open, one fuzzed, tested layer at a time.

[linkedin] [github] [twitter]

joel@devrandom.co:~$ subscribe --milestones-only

Built in the open. Watch it happen.

The receipts are in CI. Your email gets the milestones — demos, releases, no noise.

Prefer code to promises? Read the source on GitHub →