INIT Labs releases INIT, a Rust agent harness that hot-swaps its own core mid-task

• INIT is an open-source coding agent from INIT Labs that rewrites its own harness (prompts, tools, and compiled core) and hot-swaps the new version during an active conversation.
• A fixed "Root" layer, which the model cannot access, holds API keys, signed records, and undo capabilities to roll back harmful changes.
• Measured performance on v0.3.x shows a 4.3-second core swap time, 87.9% prompt cache retention, and a cost of $0.0005 per turn on DeepSeek.
• The system uses twelve harm signals to trigger automatic rollbacks, with a signed audit trail recording every change, refusal, and rollback event.

Architecture and Safety

• The agent body consists of 136 files (508k tokens) at v0.3.3, including 7 prompt/skill files, 5 tool files, and 124 compiled-core files.
• Changes pass through four gates: build and tests, self-map, boot beside the live core, and self-edit verification.
• The Root service operates outside the sandbox, holding the signing key and enforcing resource floors and stop conditions.

Research and Availability

• INIT Labs frames the signed change records as a dataset for studying agent swarms, evolution, metacognition, and immunity.
• The project is available under the Apache-2.0 license on GitHub with a one-line installation script.