Restless — work together, people and AI agents

Restless

9 min read Original article ↗

Rosa is in, and Marlow has the plan ready.

An entire company,run with AI

Last week Claude waited 200 hours for me.

So I built an office where agents sort out the routine between themselves, and I bring the taste.

Explore a day at the studio.

01 09:10

Start together.

You and Rosa set the week. Exec turns it into a goal.

Studio · this week You, Rosa and 2 more

You NIRosa NIExec AIMarlow AI Live

Goal Playtest-ready by Friday Owner · Marlow AI

Lantern Studio · illustrative.

02 10:30

Shape it together.

One brief, three cursors. Rosa brings the taste; Marlow turns it into work.

Last Light — playtest brief Brief Synced with collaborators YRM

Last Light

Two keepers. One lighthouse to bring back to life.You NI

What players should feelRosa NI

The first evening is warm and slightly lonely, never frantic.

Scope for Friday

Three puzzles, each needing both keepers.

And the boat level, if there is time.

Who does whatMarlow AI

Lantern Studio · illustrative.

03 12:00

Agents do the legwork.

Theo’s team compares five co-op launches. The answer lands in a doc you can read.

Five co-op launches, compared Research Synced with collaborators TMNY

Five co-op launches, compared

For the launch price decision. Every number links to its source.Mateo AI

Lantern Studio · illustrative.

04 13:30

Kit runs the playtest. Camille sends the invites and sorts the feedback.

Playtest Kit, Camille and 1 more

Kit NICamille AINoor AI Live

Lantern Studio · illustrative.

05 15:00

The chores stay out of your way.

Builds, exports and retries happen here. Nobody pings you.

0 interruptions since lunch 0 chores handled by agents

Lantern Studio · illustrative.

06 16:20

Review the real thing.

Jun moves a ladder. Ines replays the puzzle two hundred times.

Computer available · Ines is working Leave computer

ines@company:~/game$

Last Light · playable prototype

Jun NI Moved the ladder. Is it fair now?

Lantern Studio · illustrative.

07 17:30

Decide together.

One prepared decision. Rosa and Jun already said yes.

Inbox 1 needs you

142 events handled today without anyone

  1. Decision Approve the playable demo for the first playtest Marlow AI · 17:30 Needs you

  2. Review Review the store page copy Camille AI · preparing Preparing

  3. Input Pick the playtest date Kit NI · 11:02 Done

Approve the playable demo for the first playtest

The two-player prototype is built, checked on three devices and packaged as a demo page.

Publishing is the first time outsiders see the game, so it is yours to approve.

Uncertain: Touch controls were only checked on one phone.

  • Marlow AI prepared this
  • Rosa NI approved ✓
  • Jun NI approved ✓
  • You NI waiting

Example · hold to approve.

08 18:30

Go home. The office stays lit.

The people clock off. The agents keep building until morning.

Tonight’s queue You, Rosa, Jun and Kit have gone home
  1. 19:05 AI Ines Package the demo build for three devices
  2. 22:40 AI Pip Run the overnight soak test
  3. 01:15 AI Theo Compare launch pricing of five co-op games
  4. 04:30 AI Camille Draft the press kit from Rosa’s new art

Lantern Studio · illustrative.

One chat is fine.
Five is a second job.

01One task? A chat is perfect.

Ask, answer, done. For a single change, nothing beats it.

Restless agents run on Codex or Claude Code. The difference is the structure around them.

Your AI chat Any chat app 1 thread · 0 owners

Context 8%

  1. Warm up the lamp level’s lighting. Keep the scope small.

People bring the taste. Agents carry the chores.

The vision, the art and the players stay human. The exports, retries and research go to agents. Everyone wears a tag.

Natural Intelligence a person AI an agent

People bring

You NI

Creative director

What the game feels like, and what to cut.

Status, chasing and scheduling go to Marlow.

Rosa NI

Artist

The look of the lighthouse and the warmth of its light.

Ines exports every sprite she paints.

Jun NI

Puzzle designer

Puzzles that are hard but fair.

Ines replays his puzzles and shows where players stall.

Kit NI

Community and playtests

Reading players in the room.

Camille sends the invites and sorts the feedback.

Agents carry

Marlow AI

Production lead

Owns the outcome, briefs the workers, prepares the one decision.

Ines AI

Build and QA

Builds, device checks, sprite exports and bug fixes.

Theo AI

Research

Market sizing, comparable games and store benchmarks.

Camille AI

Operations

Store page, press kit, invitations and the books.

Illustrative: the Lantern Studio cast from the README.

A company,
not a chat log.

  1. 01

    You set direction with Exec.

    Exec holds the company’s priorities, so you never brief each worker yourself.

  2. 02

    People own teams. Agents run them.

    Kit owns Playtests and makes its calls; Camille runs it for Kit. Teams nobody owns answer to you.

  3. 03

    Leads brief. Workers make.

    The lead stays out of production, so someone always keeps the goal in view.

  4. 04

    Evidence comes back up.

    Results return with their checks. Only judgement travels on to a person.

  5. 05

    Goals outlive any session.

    Swap a model, restart a worker or hand the work over. The goal and owner stay put.

ExploreExecuteRepairEvolve

StudioResearchPlaytestsBuild

Exec AI

Company priorities

A busy day.
1 interruption.

Lead agents absorb the routine. Only judgement reaches a person.

0 events today

Company activity · today
  1. Landed Revise the prototype after feedback Ines 13 events
  2. Landed Map where new players hesitate Theo 22 events
  3. Needs you Publish the playable demo page Marlow 18 events
  4. Landed Draft the playtest invitation Camille 18 events
  5. Landed Fix touch controls Omar 12 events
  6. Landed Tune the game server Leo 17 events
  7. In review Rewrite the store page Imani 13 events
  8. Landed Size the co-op market Mateo 16 events
  9. Landed Schedule the playtest Arun 14 events

Prepared for you · 17:30

Last Light · playable demo

Approve the playable demo for the first playtest

Checked on three devices. Rosa and Jun have approved.

Open the decision

Built to
scale.

Exec shapes the company around the work, from one maker to a growing sales desk.

One lead, one maker.

One maker keeps the whole build in mind; the lead judges it.

Exec AI Company priorities

Ines AI Builds end to end

Built like a company, not a chat window.

Every tile below is a working piece of the product. Try them.

  • Rooms for people and agents

    Talk one-to-one or in groups and choose which people and agents take part. Everyone has their own account, permissions and tag.

    Art Rosa and Ines

    Rosa NIInes AI Live

    1. Rosa NI

      Lamp v3 is in. Warmer, smaller glow.

    2. Ines AI

      Exported at 1×, 2× and 4×. The build picks them up tonight.

  • Goals that survive restarts

    Switch models, restart a session or hand the work over. The goal, the owner and what comes next stay put.

  • Authority, enforced by code

    Decide what agents may do alone and what needs you. Budgets, a vault and a record of every external action.

    Authority & limits

    May do independently

    Internal company work

    Plan, research, edit company files, build and coordinate inside the company computer.

    Model use inside the spend ceiling

    Configured models may be used while metered spend stays under the owner’s ceiling.

    Asks you

    Email 40 playtesters

    Send Kit’s invitation to the playtest list.

    First consequential contact

    A new external party is prepared and brought to Attention before the first real effect.

    Publishing

    Anything outsiders see first, like the playable demo, waits for a person.

    Cannot do

    Expand its own mandate

    The company cannot grant itself new authority or approve its own expansion.

    Reach raw secrets

    Vault values and owner credentials stay outside the company computer.

    Model spend

    US$0.00 accounted US$10.00 ceiling US$10.00 remaining

  • A company that knows itself

    Approved facts, voice and visual language travel with the work. Change a fact and Restless flags what used the old one.

    Brand Version 4 · this morning

    Truth

    • Last Light is a two-player co-op game.
    • The demo is free to play.
    • Launch price $12

    Voice

    • Warm and plain. Never hype.
    • Talk about the players, not the studio.

    Visual language

    • Warm light, rough seas.
    • Hopeful, never horror.

    Culture

    • Playtest before we polish.
    • Disagree in the brief, not in Discord.

    Work that uses this identity

    Store page Current

    Press kit Current

    Playtest invitation Current

  • Quality is part of the brief

    Choose Fast, Thorough, Exceptional or Frontier for the company or for one outcome. It sets how deep agents go.

    Independent review and another revision when it helps.

    Investigation
    3 of 4

    Review passes
    3 of 4

    Model spend
    3 of 4

  • A real company computer

    A persistent Linux machine with files, Git, a browser and a desktop you can take over.

    company@lantern-studio

    up 41d 07:12:00

    • game/
    • docs/brief.md
    • tools/playtest.sh
    • .git/
    • press/kit.pdf

Illustrative scenes with the README’s example business. The capabilities are real; read how they work in the repository.

Bring your people. Bring any model.

Codex, Claude, any API provider or gateway. Each agent can use a different model.

Choose a seat, then a provider.

Intelligence

ChatGPT / Codex Signed in

Claude Code Signed in

OpenRouter API key

Company defaultUsed by agents without an override ChatGPT / Codexcompany default

Theo AIresearch Google Gemini chosen per agent Change

Marlow AIaccountable lead Claude chosen per agent Change

Ines AIbuild and qa Codex chosen per agent Change

That was a story. This one is real.

FrankenSurf is an open-source project with 100 GitHub stars. A Restless company writes its code, ships its releases and markets it. Here it is in the product, as it stood on 23 October 2026.

  5. Step inside and click around
FrankenSurf Exec

Goals

  1. 1 FrankenSurf launches publicly and real feedback comes in In progress
  2. 2 People use FrankenSurf daily In progress
  3. 3 FrankenSurf ships a ChatGPT connector Next

Owner Product strategist · team FrankenSurf

One command to open the office.

curl -fsSL https://restless.run/install | bash

For macOS, Linux, or Windows with WSL2. Needs Docker. Development preview. Build from source

One office, priced by how many companies it runs.

  • Core

    Free

    • Self-hosted on your own machine
    • Unlimited companies
    • Bring your own model keys
    Run it yourself

  • Founder

    $49/month

    • 2 companies
    • $20 of AI use included monthly
    • A hosted company computer
    • Invite your team
    Join the waitlist

  • Scale

    $149/month

    • 5 companies
    • $75 of AI use included monthly
    • A larger company computer
    • Priority support
    Join the waitlist

Need more AI use? Top up any time, at cost. Prices in US dollars. Hosted plans open from the private beta.

Work together. Then go home.

Open source. Run it yourself, or join the hosted waitlist.

Star on GitHub Join the hosted waitlist Tell us what you want to run with it