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Autolith

Shares rank 20 of 41 coding agents by recommenders

A free coding agent built in Common Lisp that runs inside a live Lisp image, letting the agent inspect and modify running code and its own source.

A free coding agent built in Common Lisp that runs inside a live Lisp image, letting the agent inspect and modify running code and its own source.

14 people gave an opinion

recommend it
14
criticize it
0
approval share
100%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 3 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: not recommended
  2. December 2025: not recommended
  3. January 2026: not recommended
  4. February 2026: not recommended
  5. March 2026: not recommended
  6. April 2026: not recommended
  7. May 2026: not recommended
  8. June 2026: not recommended
  9. July 2026: recommended
  10. August 2026: recommended
  11. September 2026: not recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
  • Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
  • Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

What people say about it

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Why people recommend it

Each mark is one comment

  • Agent works inside a live Lisp image

    “The benefit of having the agent directly in the image like with Autolith here is that it can directly inspect all defined symbols”

    Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

    “I've had success loading Lisp programs into Autolith and letting it poke at them from the inside”

    Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”
  • Agent can read and update its own code

    “I've observed it modify itself to disassemble binaries in search of answers”

    Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “DeepSeek Harness Desktop for macOS and Windows”

    “autolith is very capable at reading and updating it's own code”

    Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”
  • Written in Common Lisp, suits LLMs

    “Autolith is great with LLMs exactly because it's written in Common Lisp”

    Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Why Common Lisp is now the best programming language”

    “here's an interesting tool to use CL with LLMs”

    Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “Why vibe code in Common Lisp?”
  • Lisp environment is enjoyable to use

    “The freedom of having a lisp machine is, to me, much more enjoyable than trying to maintain Typescript”

    Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “Pi 1.0”

    “I made Autolith in Common Lisp because I like Lisp”

    Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

    “This is cool. Love that you used lisp here.”

    Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

Other coding agents people recommend

The four most recommended other coding agents, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.

Autolith compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
GitHub Copilot57199337%121 yr46 owners—
oh-my-pi1042879%92 mo5 ownersApproved
Grok Build CLI6611437%6——
DeepSeek Harness632869%41 mo5 ownersApproved
AutolithThis page140100%3——
See all 41 coding agents, ranked

What people said

18 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“I'm the author and I share the same philosophy”

RecommendsComment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Why Common Lisp is now the best programming language”

“Autolith is great with LLMs exactly because it's written in Common Lisp”

RecommendsComment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Why Common Lisp is now the best programming language”

“I've observed it modify itself to disassemble binaries in search of answers”

RecommendsComment from 2 Oct 2026 in “DeepSeek Harness Desktop for macOS and Windows”

“The freedom of having a lisp machine is, to me, much more enjoyable than trying to maintain Typescript”

RecommendsComment from 1 Oct 2026 in “Pi 1.0”

“This is cool. Love that you used lisp here.”

RecommendsComment from 23 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

“I've had success loading Lisp programs into Autolith and letting it poke at them from the inside”

RecommendsComment from 23 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

“changes submitted to Autolith developed by Autolith are by far the highest quality”

RecommendsComment from 23 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

“This idea almost gets us there.”

RecommendsComment from 23 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

“autolith is very capable at reading and updating it's own code”

RecommendsComment from 23 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

“it's been very useful for this”

RecommendsComment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

“the harness detects Lisp file edits (CL, Scheme, Clojure) and gives hints when the edits lead to unbalanced files”

RecommendsComment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

“very cool, thanks for making this!”

RecommendsComment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

“I made Autolith in Common Lisp because I like Lisp”

RecommendsComment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

“if you'd like to try Autolith, I am happy to help with issues/questions on our Zulip”

RecommendsComment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

“This is really interesting.”

RecommendsComment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

“The benefit of having the agent directly in the image like with Autolith here is that it can directly inspect all defined symbols”

RecommendsComment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Autolith: A programming agent with a live runtime”

“here's an interesting tool to use CL with LLMs”

RecommendsComment from 13 Aug 2026 in “Why vibe code in Common Lisp?”

“Not mine, but interesting.”

RecommendsComment from 29 Jul 2026 in “Steel Bank Common Lisp version 2.6.7”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.