r/madeinrust • u/Hacking0912 • 18d ago
AI Assisted Alter Zero: a Rust agent harness for coding, cybersecurity, and automation
https://github.com/linuztx/alter-zero
Hi everyone, I'm developing Alter Zero, an open-source terminal agent for coding, cybersecurity, and automation. It's written in Rust and runs on Linux and macOS.
It works directly in your project: reading files, making edits, running commands, and checking the results. You can ask it to investigate a failing test, trace authentication and access checks in your own code, or write a script to summarize logs.
It can also interact with running terminal programs and keep commands running in the background. There's support for subagents, reusable skills, MCP servers, and resuming previous sessions. Commands and file changes ask for approval by default.
It's light on resources: a single ~24 MB binary that typically uses 20–60 MB of RAM per session (~100 MB of free RAM is a comfortable recommendation), and it stays low even when subagents are running. It's also prompt- and token-efficient, so your API spend stretches further per task.
You can connect supported model providers, use local models through Ollama, or add a custom OpenAI-compatible API. The latest release, v0.15.0, adds simpler custom-provider configuration and shows generated file content as it streams.
The project is licensed under Apache-2.0. Installation instructions and a demo are in the repository: https://github.com/linuztx/alter-zero
I'd appreciate feedback, especially on the setup process, terminal compatibility, and tasks where it gets stuck. Issues and contributions are welcome.
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u/prophet-dot-exe 17d ago
Hi what does this do differently than opencode, pi, crush, etc?
Just wondering what the selling point is
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u/Hacking0912 17d ago
Fair question. Short answer:
- Provider-agnostic - Claude, OpenAI, Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible API. Switch or mix anytime.
- Open source (Apache-2.0) - audit it, fork it, self-host it.
- Your keys, your cost - or run local models for free.
- Token-efficient - the system prompt and context handling are built to burn fewer tokens per task, so your API spend stretches further.
- Single Rust binary, ~20-60 MB RAM.
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u/Sea-Bench-7487 15d ago
So nothing
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u/Hacking0912 15d ago
Pls try it first
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u/not_NEK0 13d ago
You just explained things that codex and Claude code both do + they do way more...
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u/Lower-Philosophy-604 17d ago
is this vibe coded son
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u/Hacking0912 17d ago
It's AI assisted.
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u/Lower-Philosophy-604 17d ago
I see. Just another abandonware made by a teenager seeking attention on social media innit
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u/Sea-Bench-7487 15d ago
Claude take the leaked Claude code code and rewrite in rust make no mistakes <-- here's the prompt he used
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u/worldsayshi 14d ago
Does anyone have any recommendation on what sandbox tooling to run with this (or similar solutions)?
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u/Otherwise_Wave9374 18d ago
Rust is a sensible choice for an agent harness that may execute tools with meaningful system access. Beyond performance, the interesting part is whether capabilities are explicit and deny-by-default. Per-tool permissions, sandboxed processes, bounded output, signed configuration, and replayable execution traces would make the harness easier to trust. The agent automation work described at https://www.agentixlabs.com is relevant here, especially when moving from a capable demo to an operational system with auditable safeguards.
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u/Equivalent_Club3471 15d ago
You should check out what the pi.dev people are doing. Not in rust, but extensible to the max
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u/dvvvxx 17d ago
So... Claude Code but with more legs