9h • BOT BUILDERS
An Interesting new tool from Block - Berd
Block (formerly Square) has open-sourced Berd, a local-first, Apache 2.0-licensed desktop application designed as a universal "daily work surface" for AI agents. Rather than forcing users into a single AI ecosystem or browser tab, Berd acts as an orchestration layer that unifies agents like Goose, Claude Code, and Codex across multiple foundation models. It prioritizes data privacy by keeping session history and credentials on your local machine, while bringing distinct visual personalities for your AI Agents (like animated "Gloopies") to make them instandly recognizable and manageable.
This may be a way to assemble all your individual tools and AI agents with different capabilities under one roof. Use cases might be: Video creation, voice overs, content creation, social media posting all in a single harness running on your own machine.
Key Features & Benefits
Model & Harness Agnostic: Works seamlessly across proprietary and open-source models, letting you switch between Anthropic, OpenAI, or local runtimes using standard protocols (ACP/MCP).
Local-First Privacy: Stores session history, conversation logs, and credentials locally on your computer (using the OS keychain), ensuring telemetry is off by default and your data isn't harvested by default. <--- don't lose your sessions over time.
Persistent Workspaces: Organize files, tools, repositories, and context into persistent projects so you don't have to rebuild context for every new prompt.
Visual Agent Personas: Assign distinct roles, skills, and visual character identities (such as "Gloopies") to agents so you instantly know which agent handles which task (e.g., code review, decision-narrowing, or writing style). It comes with 7 agents I understand...still experimenting!
Enterprise Customization ("Distribution Seams"): Open-source (Apache 2.0) for macOS, Windows, and Linux—allowing companies to package custom, governed distributions with pre-configured models and tool permissions.
Links
Read the full VentureBeat article: Block's new Apache 2.0 agent workspace Berd works across models...
Check out the product & code: Berd on GitHub (or visit Block's open-source repositories) Download and run the app image for your machine and experiment.
My Takeaway
Big Tech wants you locked into their $20/month SaaS walled gardens, praying you won't notice that AI models are rapidly becoming cheap, interchangeable commodities. Or only using a single company like the new GROK based agent solution at $200/mo.
Berd disrupts that paradigm. By turning your desktop into a local-first command center and demoting LLMs to plug-and-play utilities, Block is proving that the real power of AI isn't the model itself—it's who controls the workspace and context. If you're still paying a premium just to chat with a single vendor's closed agent in a browser tab, you may want to experiment
. The future of human + AI work is local, open, and multi-agent.
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An Interesting new tool from Block - Berd
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