The CRM where
your agents
do the work.

Set goals. Approve exceptions. The rest runs. Agents discover, reach out, track, and pay people out under policies you write. You drain an inbox - the only place where work needs you.

Quietly powered by Pi (agents), executor.sh (tools), SurrealDB (graph data), Effect v4, and json-render (composable UI). Self-host on a small box or use the hosted version. Your data, your prompts, your stack.

02The demo

v1 - the moment that lands on HN

Your agency self-hosts in 10 minutes. Team signs in with email, OAuth, or SSO.
⌘K · find tiktok creators about indie SaaS, last 30 days.
An agent runs the TikTok integration, populates subject + creator_post records with full provenance - every field knows where it came from.
Click one. Inspector shows last 10 posts, engagement rates, contact history, agent decisions.
⌘K · draft outreach. Agent drafts a DM, awaits approval.
Three days later: creator replies → webhook → engagement record → notification. Deal closes.
payout record created. Pay out via Stripe, ACH, or USDC (Zoneless). 30 seconds, global.
Replay the flow. Audit every decision. Export to CSV anytime.

03Who it's for

Creator-marketing agencies running influencer campaigns for DTC brands. DTC ops teams tracking ads, affiliates, and creator relationships. Indie founders running founder-led outbound or creator partnerships. Technical GTM teams who want Clay's flexibility without the lock-in.

Common thread: they want to own their CRM - the data, the prompts, the agents, the integrations. They want a tool that fits how they actually work, not the one a sales rep showed their VP last year.

04Why now

Five things are true at once, for the first time:

AI agent harnesses ship as open source. Pi (`pi-agent-core`), OpenClaw, OpenCode, Hermes - the LLM-with-tools loop is solved infrastructure. Don't rebuild.
Tool normalization exists. executor.sh, MCP servers, OpenAPI auto-gen. You don't write 49 integrations - you compose them.
Effect v4 ships. Bundle size, unified packages, runtime, RPC, CLI, AI - all in one core. TypeScript primitives at production grade.
Self-hostable open source is a real distribution motion. PostHog, Plausible, Cal.com, Outline, n8n - all proved that open source plus a hosted tier is a viable business shape.
Creator-economy + AI = unsolved pain. Aspire and Grin charge agencies $25k/year for closed software. Twenty does B2B. Nobody does open-source AI-native creator CRM.

The gap is real and the substrate is ready.

05North star - 12 months out

end of year 1

An agency installs in 10 minutes. Hetzner one-click, Tailscale, done.
The team writes their first plugin in under an hour. SDK docs are good.
The first-party plugin pack covers TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Meta Ads, Stripe, Zoneless.
You (the maintainer) run 10+ plugins for your own outreach. The runtime is hardened by your daily use.
50-100 active self-hosted installs. 5-10 community plugins. 2-3 outside contributors who never met you.
One paid hosted cloud variant in private beta with 10-20 paying agencies.
Releases monthly. A real CHANGELOG. Discord with 200-500 members.
Not a unicorn. A tool people quietly love that pays a salary.

06The B2C lane - empty

The launch wedge. Existing influencer/creator CRMs are closed, expensive, and from a pre-AI era.

Tool	What it does	Price
Aspire	Influencer CRM, outreach, campaigns	$1k–5k/mo
Grin	Creator management, payments	$2k–8k/mo
CreatorIQ	Enterprise creator platform	$20k+/yr
Modash	Creator discovery + analytics	$200–800/mo
Upfluence	Creator discovery + outreach	$1k+/mo
Triple Whale	Ad attribution / DTC profitability	$129–2000/mo

Open-source equivalent: none. The lane is genuinely empty. That's the wedge.

07The B2B lane - crowded, but architecture covers it

Same data model serves B2B sales as v2 vertical. Real competitors:

Tool	What they do	What we do differently
Deepline	Unified API over 49+ GTM providers. CLI-first, Claude Code-native. Closed.	Open source. Full CRM, not just the data layer. Deepline plugs in as one provider source.
Clay	$1B GTM enrichment workbench. Spreadsheet UI. Closed, $$$.	Graph DB you own. Plugins you write. Self-hosted.
11x	Closed AI SDR replacement. Black-box agent.	Hackable agents (Pi). You see every prompt, tool call, decision.
Attio	Modern flexible CRM. Closed. AI features bolted on.	AI-first data model. Provenance native. Open.
Twenty	Open-source modern CRM. B2B-focused. Plugin story shallow.	B2C-first. Pi+executor.sh native. Hackable plugin SDK from v1.
Multica	Open-source managed-agents platform. AI-coding-task-shaped.	CRM-shaped. Same agent-runtime layer (Pi), different unit of work.

08The stack

Workbench (what we build) Storage · SurrealDB embedded (schemaless graph) Runtime · Bun + Effect v4 beta (unified packages) UI primary · Web UI served by daemon UI optional · Electrobun desktop client (later) Auth · Email · OAuth · SSO · Tailscale (any) Surfaces · Daemon ↔ Web ↔ CLI ↔ MCP server Reactivity · LIVE SELECT → Effect Stream → WebSocket → UI Plugin format· Unified TS module (records, tools, agents, views, commands) UI primitives · composable shells · Sidebar · Grid · Inspector · Stream · Kanban · Palette · Timeline · LineageBlock UI renderer · @json-render/react (Vercel Labs) · catalog-constrained · code · JSON · or prompt

Embedded OSS (stand on shoulders) Agent runtime· pi-agent-core · github.com/earendil-works/pi LLM API · pi-ai · multi-provider Tool layer · executor.sh SDK · MCP / OpenAPI / GraphQL Payouts (opt)· Zoneless · USDC on Solana · Apache 2.0 Orchestration· DIY Effect v4 · Schedule · Semaphore · forkDaemon

AI-driven orchestration Goals · user expresses outcome; orchestrator agent emits the plan Policies · first-class records · permit · deny · escalate Inbox · the only daily surface · drain approvals · rest runs Capabilities · plugins advertise verbs · orchestrator finds & binds Memory · approvals + edits feed next run via Pi's transformContext

Unified CRM data model (B2B + B2C) subject · lead · contact · creator · influencer · customer account · company · brand · agency client engagement · email · DM · call · post · impression · click placement · sponsored post · ad creative · campaign send attribution · engagement → outcome linkage payout · commission · creator fee · ad spend · refund

09Business model

Open source

single-tenant · free forever

Self-host on your VPS, homelab, or Mac mini
One logical organization (your team)
Email, OAuth, SSO, or Tailscale - pick one
All plugins, all integrations
Full source, full data export

Cloud (later)

multi-tenant · paid per seat + API proxy

We host it for you
Workspaces, teams, permissions
SSO, audit log, backups
Managed API proxy - pooled credits across providers, one bill
Premium plugins, priority support
No vendor lock-in - export anytime

Same playbook as PostHog, Cal.com, Plausible, n8n, Outline. OSS wins trust; hosted wins customers who don't want to operate it.

10What this is not

not

A no-code workflow builder. Workflows are TypeScript plugins. n8n / Zapier folks not the target.

not

A Stripe Connect replacement. Zoneless is one payout backend. Stripe / ACH / wise plugin sit alongside.

not

A Notion / Linear / Obsidian replacement. Notes live there. We link to them. We track the people, agents, and money.

not

A black-box AI SDR. Every agent prompt, tool call, and decision is yours to inspect, fork, and override.

not

A closed marketplace. Plugins are TypeScript on disk; the registry is GitHub.

not

A drop-in Salesforce / HubSpot replacement. Different ICP entirely - technical teams that bend tools to fit, not vice versa.

11Status

Locked

Stack: Bun + Effect v4 + SurrealDB + web UI
Self-hostable (or hosted later)
OSS single-tenant; cloud multi-tenant later
Embed: Pi · executor.sh · Zoneless · json-render
AI orchestration: goals · plans · policies · inbox
Safe-mode seed policies - opt INTO autonomy
Unified data model (B2B + B2C)
Layout primitives + composable views
Launch vertical: B2C creators / influencers / ads
v1 demo: find → outreach → track → payout

Open - needs decisions

Codename + domain. "Workbench" is dead.
~~License~~ - LOCKED: AGPL-3.0 + commercial.
Repo home. Personal GH / new org.
First B2C plugin pack. Which 5 ship at v1?
Cloud billing model. Per-seat / per-record / hybrid.