Portable Agent Layer (PAL)

A cross-platform, cross-agent layer for portable AI workflows, memory, and accumulated knowledge.

PAL lets you carry your agent context across Windows, macOS, and Linux, and work across different agent runtimes and interfaces such as Claude Code, opencode, Cursor, and Codex. Its core idea is simple: your knowledge and workflows should belong to you, not to a single machine, tool, or vendor.

Inspired in part by Daniel Miessler's work on Personal AI Infrastructure. PAL is an independent open-source implementation focused on portability across platforms and agents. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Daniel Miessler.

Why PAL?

Most AI setups are fragmented.

Your prompts live in one place, your context in another, your notes somewhere else, and your workflows are often tied to a specific operating system or a specific agent tool.

PAL is designed to fix that.

With PAL, you can:

• keep your AI workflow portable
• move accumulated knowledge between machines
• work across multiple agent environments
• avoid lock-in to a single platform or interface
• build a durable personal layer that outlives any one tool

Install

Prerequisites

Bun is required. PAL is built on Bun and will not work with Node.js or other runtimes. Install it with curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash.

• Bun >= 1.3.0
• At least one of: Claude Code, opencode, Cursor, or Codex

Package mode (recommended)

bun add -g portable-agent-layer
pal cli init

Repo mode (for development / contributors)

git clone https://github.com/kovrichard/portable-agent-layer.git
cd portable-agent-layer
bun install
bun run install:all

In repo mode, add an alias to your shell profile:

alias pal="bun run ~/path/to/portable-agent-layer/src/cli/index.ts"

Quick start

pal cli init          # scaffold home, install hooks for all targets
pal                   # start a Claude session (with session summary on exit)
pal cli status        # check your setup

Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | pal | Start a Claude session with session summary on exit | | pal cli init | Scaffold PAL home directory and install hooks | | pal cli install | Register hooks/skills for targets | | pal cli uninstall | Remove hooks/skills for targets | | pal cli update | Update PAL (git pull or npm update) and reinstall hooks | | pal cli export | Export user state (telos, memory) to a zip | | pal cli import | Import user state from a zip | | pal cli status | Show current PAL configuration | | pal cli doctor | Check prerequisites and system health |

Target flags

init, install, and uninstall accept target flags:

pal cli install --claude      # Claude Code only
pal cli install --opencode    # opencode only
pal cli install --cursor      # Cursor only
pal cli install               # all available (default)

Supported agents

| Agent | Support | Skills | Hooks | AGENTS.md | Subagents | |-------|---------|--------|-------|-----------|-----------| | Claude Code | Full | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | opencode | Full | Yes | Yes (plugin) | Yes | Yes | | Cursor | Full | Yes | Yes | Yes (injected via hook) | Yes | | Codex | Partial | Yes | No | Yes | No |

Environment variables

Required

| Variable | Description | |----------|-------------| | PAL_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY | Required for PAL's hook inference (sentiment analysis, session naming). Uses Haiku for low-cost background calls. |

Optional

| Variable | Description | |----------|-------------| | PAL_GEMINI_API_KEY | For YouTube video analysis and web search skill | | PAL_XAI_API_KEY | For Grok real-time research skill (X/web search) | | PAL_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY | For Perplexity deep research skill | | PAL_HOME | Override user state directory (default: ~/.pal or repo root) | | PAL_PKG | Override package root | | PAL_CLAUDE_DIR | Override Claude config dir (default: ~/.claude) | | PAL_OPENCODE_DIR | Override opencode config dir (default: ~/.config/opencode) | | PAL_CURSOR_DIR | Override Cursor config dir (default: ~/.cursor) | | PAL_CODEX_DIR | Override Codex config dir (default: ~/.codex) | | PAL_AGENTS_DIR | Override agents dir (default: ~/.agents) |

Skills

PAL ships with built-in skills that extend your agent's capabilities:

| Skill | Description | |-------|-------------| | analyze-pdf | Download and analyze PDF files | | analyze-youtube | Analyze YouTube videos using Gemini | | council | Multi-perspective parallel debate on decisions | | create-skill | Scaffold a new skill from a description | | extract-entities | Extract people and companies from content | | extract-wisdom | Extract structured insights from content | | first-principles | Break down problems to fundamentals | | fyzz-chat-api | Query Fyzz Chat conversations via API | | reflect | Diagnose why a PAL behavior didn't trigger | | research | Multi-agent parallel research | | review | Security-focused code review | | summarize | Structured summarization |

Core idea

PAL stands for Portable Agent Layer.

It is a layer that sits between you and the tools you use, helping preserve and transfer:

• context
• memory
• notes
• workflows
• reusable prompts
• agent-specific configurations
• accumulated knowledge

The emphasis is on portability.

Your setup should be able to travel with you.

Features

• Cross-platform: works on Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Cross-agent: full support for Claude Code, opencode, and Cursor; partial support for Codex
• Portable knowledge: export and import accumulated knowledge
• TypeScript-first: built in TypeScript from day one
• Open source: hackable, inspectable, extensible
• Composable: intended to fit into real developer workflows

Philosophy

PAL is built around a few simple beliefs:

• your AI context should be portable
• your workflows should be tool-agnostic
• your knowledge should be exportable
• your personal system should be owned by you
• agent tooling will change, but your layer should remain useful

Who this is for

PAL is for people who want:

• a personal AI layer they control
• to switch between agents without losing continuity
• to move between machines without rebuilding everything
• a durable way to store and reuse context
• an open foundation for portable agent workflows

License

MIT