Lampson

A coding agent that lives in your project. Open it inside a folder, say what you want in plain words, and it reads, edits and runs — showing you every step and asking before anything risky. Terminal or browser. Works with the model you already pay for.

❯ the login form doesn't show an error when the password is wrong. fix it

✓ grep "password" src/                    3 files
✓ read src/components/LoginForm.tsx       88 lines
✓ edit src/components/LoginForm.tsx       +6 −1
? bash npm test                           allow? ❯ yes  no
✓ bash npm test                           14 passed

The form now shows “Wrong email or password” when the API returns 401. Tests pass.
─── 5 steps · 12k tokens · 38s

Install

npm i -g lampson

No Node.js? One line does it all (installs what's missing, including Synsema):

# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kitecosmic/lampson/main/install.ps1 | iex

# macOS / Linux
bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kitecosmic/lampson/main/install.sh)"

Then, in any project:

cd path/to/your/project
lampson            # in the terminal
lampson --web      # in the browser → http://127.0.0.1:8080

The first time it asks which provider you use — DeepSeek, Anthropic, OpenAI, GLM (Z.ai, pay-as-you-go or Coding Plan), Kimi, Groq, OpenRouter, Ollama (runs on your machine, no key)… — and for your API key. That's it. Change it any time with /model.

More ways (Docker, from source, updating): lampson.org/install.

What it's for

• Fix, build, refactor — describe the change; it finds the files, edits them and runs your tests.
• Understand a codebase — lampson --agent plan is read-only: ask how things work, get a plan, nothing changes.
• Review — /agent review runs the tests and reads the diff, but never edits.
• Run things while you're away — "every weekday at 9, run the tests and tell me if something broke." If a scheduled run hits something risky, you get a link on your phone to approve or deny it.

It can only touch the folder you opened it in — not your home directory, not the project next door. That isn't a setting: it's how the language it's written in works. Reading and editing just happen; deleting, installing, git reset, sudo stop and wait for your yes; truly destructive commands are refused in every mode.

Plugins

A plugin is a small folder that gives Lampson a new tool: query your database, call your company's API, deploy, send a message. Any language. Off by default — you turn each one on, and only then can the agent use it.

~/lampson/plugins/postgres/
  plugin.json        ← what it's called, what it does, which tools it offers
  query.py           ← the code

{"name": "postgres", "description": "read-only queries on the dev database",
 "kind": "exec", "command": "python query.py",
 "tools": [{"name": "query", "description": "Run a SELECT, return rows as JSON",
            "parameters": {"type": "object", "properties": {"sql": {"type": "string"}}}, "readonly": true}]}

The script gets the call in environment variables (PLUGIN_TOOL, PLUGIN_ARGS as JSON) and prints the result. Turn it on with /plugins on postgres or the plugins pill in the web UI. Keep plugins global (every project) or inside a project (.lampson/plugins/ — commit it and your team has it). The agent can write a plugin for you; turning it on is always yours.

→ How plugins work · the example ships in plugins/example-hello/.

Plugins are yours and local: any language, no sandbox unless you write them in Synsema. For tools with an enforced capability ceiling, versioned and shared with any agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Lampson…), use lamps.sh: lamp add <ref>, then lamp mcp as an MCP server in Lampson. (Until 0.2.6 plugins were called lamps; old .lampson/lamps/ folders and LAMP_* variables still work for now.)

Also in the box

Sub-agents that work in parallel · skills (SKILL.md procedures, anything on skills.sh works) · MCP servers with the JSON you already have · language servers for real go-to-definition · project memory it reads back next session · sessions with a readable trace of every step · web pages fetched as Markdown (a tenth of the tokens of raw HTML) · paste a screenshot and ask · computer use, opt-in: the agent drives your desktop and browser in the background (one tab, no destructive keys) on a driver you install apart.

Learn more

• lampson.org/docs — quickstart, permissions, providers, plugins, schedules…
• guide.md — the long version: how it runs, architecture, every knob, runtime notes.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.