Agent Substrate

What it does

Agent Substrate is behind-the-scenes software for running AI agents (programs that act on their own) on Kubernetes, a popular system for managing groups of servers. Each agent runs inside its own sealed-off sandbox, with its own computing power, network and storage, so agents can't reach each other or the main system.

Agents spend most of their time waiting for an AI model, a tool or a person. Substrate saves a snapshot of idle agents, removes them from memory, and brings them back when a request arrives. Its makers say this lets many more agents share a small pool of machines than ordinary setups allow.

Passwords and keys for online services are kept outside the sandbox and added only to approved outgoing requests, so a misbehaving agent has nothing to steal. It works with agents built on many tools, including LangChain, Claude Code and MCP servers. The README says the project is still early and may change significantly.

Who it's for

Engineers and platform teams who run many AI agents on Kubernetes and need them isolated and cost-efficient.

Can I use it without coding?

Developers only. Setting it up requires Kubernetes, Go, Docker and command-line experience. New to this? Start here.

Can I run it?

Cost

FreeNothing to pay or sign up for.

Runs on

Linux, Server, Cloud

Computer

Made for servers or data centres

Try it

Using Claude Code, Cursor or another AI coding assistant? Paste the prompt and it will walk you through the setup.New to this?

Before you install

• Only download from the official GitHub page or the official download page above. Copies with similar names exist for many popular projects.
• Plain-AyI is an independent guide and doesn't host or review the software it lists. Please check each project's official page before installing.
• License (Apache-2.0): Permissive: free to use, change and share, including for business.
• More on staying safe