#1717th of 42 in Agent and MCP starters

exo

Runtime that hosts Codex, Claude Code or Pi agents behind an API

Stars
1.6k
License
MIT
Last commit
Oct 2026
Language
Rust
Stars, last 23 weeks+1,548
22 May 2026: 11 stars29 May 2026: 12 stars5 Jun 2026: 14 stars12 Jun 2026: 27 stars19 Jun 2026: 30 stars26 Jun 2026: 52 stars3 Jul 2026: 55 stars10 Jul 2026: 55 stars17 Jul 2026: 107 stars24 Jul 2026: 167 stars31 Jul 2026: 611 stars7 Aug 2026: 637 stars14 Aug 2026: 652 stars21 Aug 2026: 844 stars28 Aug 2026: 898 stars4 Sept 2026: 1,337 stars11 Sept 2026: 1,392 stars18 Sept 2026: 1,428 stars25 Sept 2026: 1,452 stars2 Oct 2026: 1,488 stars9 Oct 2026: 1,505 stars16 Oct 2026: 1,523 stars23 Oct 2026: 1,531 stars30 Oct 2026: 1,559 stars

11 on 22 May 20261,559 on 30 Oct 2026

From GitHub's daily star counts.

Checked on GitHub.

Overview

Exo is a Rust runtime that turns a markdown agent definition into a hosted agent with durable conversations, sandboxes, a credential vault and network policies. It separates harness behavior (compaction, tool calling, planning) from infrastructure, and supports Codex, Claude Code and Pi out of the box. It is positioned as a self-hostable alternative to Claude Managed Agents and OpenAI's Agents API.

Who it is for: Engineers self-hosting custom agents on top of existing coding harnesses

Strengths

  • Agent defined in one markdown file with harness, model and credential fields
  • Harness and model agnostic: Codex, Claude Code and Pi supported, custom harnesses extendable
  • Credential substitution and granular network policies for unsupervised agent runs
  • Durable history and environments let clients disconnect and resume

Weaknesses

  • README says docs are under construction and some documented features are unimplemented
  • Installation instructions not written; only a development setup from the repo
  • No tagged release yet
  • Exo-side code models Codex and Claude Code event lifecycles, adding complexity

What it needs

  • Rust, Codex harness, Claude Code harness, Pi harness, OpenAI
  • Needs Model provider API key (e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY)
  • env example file

Quick answers

Is exo open source?

Yes. Its code is on GitHub under the MIT license.

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