SeedBot: a self-evolving personal assistant

A bootstrapper that turns Codex into a personal assistant.

SeedBot starts with only two abilities: coding and terminal input. From there, it can build new capabilities upon requests.

Inspired by OpenClaw and nanobot.

Built with < 100 lines of Bash.

TODO

• Cross compare with nanobot.
• Add timeout to prevent blocking calls.
• Support non-blocking launch of codex while still stick with <100 lines of code.

Prerequisites

• Preconfigured Codex CLI (GPT-5.3-Codex/5.4 recommended)
• macOS, Linux, or WSL with Bash

Quick Start

On macOS, install GNU coreutils and alias timeout to gtimeout. Also need to upgrade Bash since MacOS comes with an outdated Bash.

# For MacOS
brew install coreutils
brew install bash
alias timeout=gtimeout

Run SeedBot (add -v if you want to view codex execution details):

./main.sh

Pre-configured Slack integration:

1. Download and extract the prepared Slack integration module:

wget https://github.com/RalphMao/seedbot/releases/download/v0.3/slack_integration.tar
tar xf slack_integration.tar

2. Create your own Slack workspace or use any existing workspace that allows app integration.

3. Create a Slack app at https://api.slack.com/apps with an OAuth bot token. Grant the following scopes:

   • channels:history
   • channels:read
   • chat:write
   • reactions:write

4. In your workspace, create a channel, invite the bot to it, and note the channel ID.

5. Fill in env.sh with your bot token and channel ID.

Checkpoint your "trained" assistant:

echo "pack the current non-git-tracked files, with corresponding git commit, into my_assistant.tar for distribution. Remember not to pack files under workspace/ and  logs/" | codex exec --full-auto --skip-git-repo-check -

Showcase

Set Alarms	Telegram Messaging	System Control
Self-build cron-like reminders and then set alarms.	Self-build a Telegram interface to communicate outside the terminal.	sudo -v grants temporary admin access (for example, allowing desktop notifications or screen control). Use it at your own risk!

Why Codex

Codex is preferred over Claude Code for SeedBot because:

• Codex handles complex logic and ambiguous requests more reliably.
• OpenAI has more permissive legal terms for backend-in-app workflows, especially for subscriptions.

Notes

SeedBot is a proof of concept: coding is the only truly essential primitive for a capable personal assistant.

For production-grade setups, prefer Codex App Server over shell-piped invocation.