StarNet AI agent is a free, open-source agent harness that turns your AI agents into characters living on a pixel-art space station — and it’s the smoothest “agent office” I’ve tested so far. I set it up from scratch in the video below: creating an agent, plugging in a model, adding skills and apps, and recruiting a crew. Here’s everything I learned.
Key takeaways
- StarNet is free and MIT-licensed, for Windows and macOS.
- You can use your existing subscriptions, an OpenRouter key, or local models through Ollama.
- Each agent gets its own model, personality, permissions, memory and workspace.
- Add apps, skills and a whole crew — then watch them work on the station.
What the StarNet AI agent harness is
StarNet describes itself as a living pixel-art station where real AI agents do real work. Under the cute graphics it’s a proper local-first desktop harness: you bring your own model, and each agent is a genuinely separate run with real model calls, real tools and real cost.
The clever bit is that the station isn’t decoration. A room is a team with a specific set of capabilities, a hallway is a lane where one agent is allowed to hand work to another, and an object you place in a room is an actual permission. So what you see on screen is what your agents can actually do.
| StarNet at a glance | |
|---|---|
| What it is | A local-first desktop agent harness with a pixel-art space station interface |
| Price | Free — MIT-licensed open source (code only) |
| Platforms | Windows 10/11 (64-bit) and macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) |
| Models | OpenRouter key, sign-in with Anthropic, OpenAI or Google accounts, or local models through Ollama |
| Official site | starnetos.com |
| Source code | github.com/androoAGI/starnet |
How I set up my first StarNet AI agent
Creating an agent took me one or two clicks:
- Name it and pick an appearance.
- Choose a personality — warm, dry, composed or unhinged.
- Set the approval level — I chose “ask for approval” so it doesn’t do anything crazy in the background.
- Connect a brain — sign in with a provider, paste an API key, or point it at a local model.
- Pick the model and reasoning level — low, medium, high or max.
In the video I signed in with Grok and picked Grok 4.7 — I wasn’t impressed with 4.6. Then the agent wakes up with a nice animation and asks what direction to give the station. I told it I wanted help with SEO for the AI Profit Boardroom, and it started asking sensible follow-up questions. There’s a slight delay when you send messages, so don’t panic if it takes a second.
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StarNet features worth knowing
- Agents with personalities — name, appearance, personality (warm, dry, composed or unhinged), model and reasoning level.
- Approval levels — “ask for approval” or full power, plus per-agent access to the web and local files.
- A station that reflects real state — rooms are capability-scoped teams, hallways are handoff lanes, and placed objects are real capability grants.
- Apps and widgets — connect Gmail, Notion, GitHub and more from a catalogue, many with direct sign-in.
- Skills and a framework library — install skills from the market and switch procedures like decision frameworks or content humanising on and off.
- Crew — recruit a strategist, chief of staff, researcher or marketer and summon them into the station alongside your first agent.
- Tasks, quests and levels — agents level up the more you use them, and you can track work as tasks and quests.
You can zoom in and out of the station, open the four docks where everything you run lives, and click into any agent to see its brief, growth, history and saved memories. It’s like a Tamagotchi for AI agents — and you can change the model, personality, instructions or permissions at any time.
Apps, skills and the framework library
The app catalogue goes deep. You can add Gmail, Notion, GitHub and loads more — most with direct sign-in, some with an API key. Some apps even reach into the physical world, like finding flights or sending real letters.
Then there’s the skill market (things like ad copy testing or calendar scheduling) and the skill library, which holds procedures your agent follows — a decision framework for hard technical problems, planning, humanising content, handling hard conversations. You switch each one on or off.
Recruiting a crew in StarNet
Once your first agent is running you can give it friends. Under Crew → Recruit you pick a role — strategist, chief of staff, researcher or marketer — give it a name and look, then either deploy it (overwriting an existing agent’s setup) or summon it as a new agent. I summoned a marketer and it appeared on the station right next to my first agent.
It reminds me of a more fun version of Paperclip — and it gave me the same “this is different” feeling I had the first time I used Hermes Agent.
StarNet vs other AI agent offices
| Tool | What it’s like | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| StarNet | Pixel-art space station; agents level up, recruit a crew, apps and skills built in | Fun, visual multi-agent setups with your own models |
| Hermes Agent Office | A visual office plugin for Hermes Desktop | Hermes users who want to see their agents |
| Paperclip | An org-chart style tool for running agent ‘companies’ | Structured multi-agent teams |
Of the visual agent offices I’ve tested, StarNet is the most polished and the most fun. Paperclip feels more like a spreadsheet of agents; StarNet feels like a game you happen to get work out of. If you live inside Hermes, the Hermes Agent office plugin is the closest equivalent.
My tip: start with one agent and one clear job — SEO research, a daily brief, inbox triage — before you build a crew. Every agent makes real model calls, so a big crew on a paid model adds up fast. Set a budget, use ask-for-approval mode, and only grant the access each agent needs.
Is the StarNet AI agent worth using?
Honestly, I think it’s mostly fun right now — I wouldn’t say there are loads of practical use cases yet. But it’s the smoothest visual agent office I’ve tried, it’s free, and it works with the models you already pay for. If you want to see the code or build it yourself, read my StarNet GitHub guide. And if you’re a Hermes user: several viewers asked about using Hermes with StarNet — it isn’t a built-in provider today, so treat them as two separate tools.
If you want a free agent office that’s genuinely enjoyable to use, the StarNet AI agent harness is worth an afternoon.
FAQ: starnet ai agent
What is the StarNet AI agent?
A free, open-source desktop harness where your AI agents live on a pixel-art space station and do real work with real models and tools.
Is StarNet free?
Yes — the code is MIT-licensed and free to run. You pay only for the models you connect, or use local models through Ollama for free.
Which models work with StarNet?
An OpenRouter key, sign-in with Anthropic, OpenAI or Google accounts, other providers like Grok, or local models through Ollama.
Does StarNet work with Hermes Agent?
Not as a built-in provider right now — treat them as separate tools.
Is StarNet available on Linux?
Linux isn’t a supported public release target; the official builds are for Windows and macOS.
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About Julian Goldie
I’m Julian Goldie — founder of Goldie Agency, best-selling author, and an AI educator with 428K+ YouTube subscribers. I’ve spent 10+ years in SEO and online business and I test every AI agent on my own work before I recommend it. Join the AI Profit Boardroom for the daily builds, or book a free strategy session to talk through yours.
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Last updated October 2026. This page is a living guide to starnet ai agent — the facts here move fast and it is updated as they do.