--- title: Agent J: a battle-tested martial-arts manual nav: Why Agent J summary: The model is the blade; the way of working is the martial-arts manual. Agent J is a battle-tested manual, and the main Agent that runs your other Agents. order: 0 --- # Agent J: a battle-tested martial-arts manual You already have an AI subscription. It answers questions and writes code. What would you be buying with Agent J? Think of a martial arts school. A model company makes the sword. The quality of the blade matters, but owning a good sword doesn't teach you the moves. ## The sword needs a way of being used To finish a job, an AI needs more than an answer. It needs a way to plan the work, use tools, carry context forward and ask for your OK when a decision belongs to you. Think of that arrangement as a **martial-arts manual**: Wing Chun, Praying Mantis or Drunken Boxing, each with its own way of putting capability into action. You can use the same analogy to understand [Meta's Muse](https://about.fb.com/news/2026/09/introducing-muse-personal-ai-agent/), [Grok Bot](https://docs.x.ai/grok-bot/overview), [OpenAI's dots](https://openai.com/index/introducing-dots/), [OpenClaw](https://openclaw.ai/) and [Hermes Agent](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent), as well as Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode. These are different products, but they all organize AI capability into work you can hand over. Their individual features and deployment options are described on their own sites. ## Our manual has been tested in real fights A manual is only as good as the fights it wins. Agent J comes from a way of working that has been battle-tested on our own real work, every day. MacroAlpha is the example you can open. Its channel, website, App and ebooks were built and maintained with the Agent workflow behind Agent J, with people setting the direction and reviewing the work: - [Video portfolio](https://macroalpha.io/archive/): the channel's published work, organized with scripts and reading links. - [MacroAlpha website](https://macroalpha.io/): a home for its videos, knowledge library and other published material. - [MacroAlpha App](https://macroalpha.io/how-to-use/#ios-app) (iOS and Android downloads): a place to continue the conversation around that material. - [Ebook shelf](https://macroalpha.io/ebook/): a reading entry point for longer work. These are our own working examples: proof that the method has fought real battles, not a promise that every installation will produce the same results. Models, tools and human judgment all play a part. ## A manual for running a one-person company Agent J wants to be your **chief of staff**: it hands out the work, keeps an eye on progress, reads the reports and brings you only what you need to know or decide. It also wants to be your co-founder. Put simply: *Agent J is your business partner*. Running a company on your own used to mean doing every job yourself. Now the repetitive work can go to a team of Agents, with the main Agent keeping them in line while you make the calls. We want to help you build a one-person company, and the goal is a **one-person unicorn**. The manual knows three kinds of business best: - **E-commerce**: a daily business report, ad reviews, writing and checking listings, draft replies to buyers, product research. - **Content creators**: running your channels, from finding topics and writing scripts to publishing on several platforms, answering comments and a weekly numbers report. - **App and SaaS developers**: nightly test-and-build checks, release prep, uptime watching, sorting user feedback, and keeping the docs and CHANGELOG current. We ship ready-made workflow templates for all three. They install switched off; nothing runs on a schedule until you say yes on your phone. Other kinds of business work too: when there is no template, the main Agent designs a new workflow around what you need. ## The signature move: one entry point, Agents managing Agents With most tools you end up opening many sessions yourself: one for code, one for writing, another watching an automation. You have to remember each one, switch between them and check on them. The more sessions you open, the easier it is to get lost. Agent J works differently: **you talk to one Agent**. It is your main Agent, your chief of staff: one session, one entry point, directed from your phone. Behind it can sit dozens or hundreds of sessions and workflows, and it hands out the work, watches progress, reads the reports and fixes what breaks (technically, it orchestrates them). So you are not managing a crowd of Agents. Agents manage Agents, and you tell the main Agent what you want and review what it brings back. It is the same kind of role as the main bot in Grok Bot: Agent J aims to be everyone's own main Agent. ## Put the playbook on your computer Tell your Agent what you need: code, content, email, order processing or a report. Claude Code, Codex or OpenCode does the work on your computer, with your files and tools. Agent J lets you give it tasks and receive the results from your phone. When it needs your OK, it asks you there. If the result needs changes, say what needs fixing and have it try again. You judge the work; the Agent keeps working on it. Agent J costs **$20 per seat per month**. You are buying a battle-tested manual and a way to put it to work on your own computer, directed from your phone. Your AI subscription or model account is paid separately, and it can be a lower-cost model such as DeepSeek or Zhipu GLM. Good models are easy to find now; a good way of putting them to work is not, and that is the part Agent J fills in. The model company supplies the blade. Agent J helps you put the moves into practice. Read [What Agent J is](/docs/what/) for the prerequisites, or go to [Installing](/docs/install/) when you're ready. The thinking behind it: [Anyone can be a chairman](/docs/philosophy/). Read [How Agent J works](/docs/how-agentj-works/) or browse the [Skill and Workflow Plaza](/plaza/). Workflows follow the [Workflow Design Bible](https://github.com/preangelleo/workflow-design-bible).