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Fundamentals

What the poison0 agent does

The poison0 agent is a small program that runs on the same machine as your AI coding agent and protects the files the agent trusts as its own memory. This page is the short orientation: what it is, what it protects, and who it is for. How it decides is a separate page.

~3 min read · Fundamentals

What it is

The poison0 agent is a local guard against memory poisoning, the quiet planting of instructions an agent later carries out as if they were its own:

  • Local: it runs on the same machine as your agent, so no file has to leave the device to be protected.
  • Focused: it guards one thing, the files an agent reads as instructions, and does not touch the rest of the machine.
  • Automatic: a poisoned change is caught as it lands, before the agent acts on it.
This page is the "what" and "for whom". For the watch, score and act mechanism, see how the poison0 agent protects.

What it protects

The scope is an allowlist of the files an AI agent treats as its own memory and rules, for example:

  • Memory files: the notes and long-term memory an agent keeps between sessions.
  • Instruction files: the standing instructions an agent reads on every run, such as an agent's rules or guidance file.
  • Configuration files: the settings and tool definitions that steer what an agent may do.
Everything outside that allowlist is never opened. The poison0 agent is not a virus scanner for your disk; it guards the small set of files that can quietly rewrite how your agent behaves.

Who it is for

Anyone who runs an AI coding agent that keeps memory or reads instruction files on the machine:

  • Individuals running an agent locally on Linux, macOS or Windows.
  • Teams and fleets that need the same protection on every device, managed centrally or fully offline.
Every device gets the same local protection. Whether it reports to a console or stays fully private is a separate choice; see cloud or private.

How the poison0 agent decides on each change: how the poison0 agent protects. Cloud or fully private: choosing a mode. Put it on a device: installing the poison0 agent.

FundamentalsHow the poison0 agent protectsOperating modesCloud or private: choosing a modeInstallation & operationInstalling the poison0 agent: complete reference