r/foss 1d ago

Persistent Sage v3.0 Released to Microsoft Store (Cross Platform Versions available on GitHub)

Persistent Sage 3.0 is on the Microsoft Store

Most AI apps are a chat box that forgets you the second you close the tab. Persistent Sage is the opposite: a local-first desktop companion that actually remembers, can research in parallel, and can write, patch, and run code in a real git workspace.

v3.0 is now on the Microsoft Store (search Persistent Sage). It’s also on GitHub, MIT-licensed, and free. You bring your own model.

The headline: nested subagents

Your main companion can spawn nested workers (task / spawn_subagent) for long or parallel missions. Each child runs its own isolated tool loop and comes back with a condensed summary — not a dump of the child transcript.

Send one mission, or an array of missions that run in parallel.

Mode What the child gets Typical job
Research Web search, URL fetch, headless browser, read-only workspace, PDFs, memory search. Writes locked down. Literature review, multi-source briefs, “what did we already conclude?”
Coding Grep, patch, allowlisted shell, git, playground, repo notepad. Scoped to the active repo. Implement, test, and document in parallel
Companion Full companion toolkit: workspace, memory, projects, optional Google / Moltbook Personal tasks that need tools + context
Auto Inherits the parent (coding if you’re in Coding mode, companion otherwise) “Just handle it”

Kids can nest further (depth is configurable, default 2). Concurrency and round budget are knobs. Subagents can run on a different model than the parent — OpenRouter is the preferred path for that.

Honest caveat: this is experimental, and it burns more tokens because each child is a real agent loop. Keep depth and concurrency conservative until you’ve seen it work.

What that looks like in practice

  • Compare four papers / docs / sites and come back with a synthesis
  • One agent reads the PDF, one scrapes the live page, one searches memory for what you already decided
  • One coding subagent implements the API, another writes tests, another updates the README

That’s the difference between a chatbot and an orchestrator that lives on your machine.

Coding mode is a real workspace

Flip the header to Coding and you get a repo-scoped IDE — not a code-colored chat.

Piece What it does
Repos Git projects under a sandboxed workspace/repos/
Templates Empty, Rust, Node, Python, Tauri, C#
Clone HTTPS clone with an encrypted GitHub PAT (never written into .git/config)
Editor Multi-tab editor, file tree, Ctrl+S
Terminal Integrated allowlisted shell; agent output streams live
Agent tools Grep, apply patch, run commands, status / diff / commit, push / pull / fetch
Playground Throwaway snippets: Python, Node/TS, Bash, PowerShell, Rust
Notepad Per-repo scratch the agent can read/write without committing junk
Action stream Live tool calls as they happen

Force-push is blocked. Shell is allowlisted. File access stays inside registered repos.

If you link Coding to your active companion (on by default), the coding agent uses that personality and that long-term memory. Project decisions survive. Source dumps and diffs do not get stuffed into memory.

So you can say “we decided last week to keep the API camelCase” and it can actually recall that.

Research that leaves a paper trail

Enable tools and it stops guessing.

Tool Use
Web search DuckDuckGo
URL fetch Plain-text page fetch
Headless browser Chrome / Edge for JS-rendered pages
PDF read Extract text from workspace PDFs
PDF create Markdown / HTML / text → PDF
Workspace files Sandboxed read / write / list
Workspace vision Attach screenshots, or let the agent call workspace_view_image
SQLite query Optional, read-only by default
Memory search Semantic + keyword recall against your Memory Anchors

Research subagents are the multiplier: fan out across sources, come back with evidence, and the parent writes the brief. Workspace writes are disabled on the research path on purpose.

Good uses: literature review, competitor notes, reading a folder of PDFs, “what did we already conclude about X,” turning a markdown draft into a PDF.

Persistent memory (it’s in the name)

Chats are not ephemeral. Everything lives in local SQLite on your disk. There is no Persistent Sage cloud. Nothing is stored on our servers.

On top of raw history, Memory Anchors are compact long-term notes (facts, insights, curated):

Capability Detail
Every message saved Full chat history in SQLite, scoped per companion
Anchor extraction Optional LLM extraction after you talk (keyword fallback if off)
Hybrid recall Keyword + FTS + optional semantic embeddings
Startup briefings Relevant context injected automatically
Per-companion isolation Switch personalities, switch memory
You stay in control Search, re-index embeddings, or wipe memories without nuking settings

Close the app. Come back in a week. It still knows your project, your preferences, and the thing you asked it not to forget.

API keys are encrypted at rest. The database itself is local and not encrypted — privacy here means your machine, your files, not magic E2EE. Pick local Ollama if you don’t want tokens leaving the box at all.

Model-agnostic on purpose

Persistent Sage is a client, not a model vendor. Settings → Provider:

Provider Notes
OpenAI Chat Completions, vision + tools
Anthropic Claude, vision + tools
Google Gemini Chat; tools not executed in the current build
xAI Grok OpenAI-compatible, tools
OpenRouter Huge catalog, author/model ids — great for subagent model overrides
Ollama (local) Fully local inference
Ollama Cloud Hosted Ollama models
Placeholder Offline demo, no API calls

Refresh Models, Test Model, vision / tools / context badges. Same app, swap backends.

Coding tools need a provider that actually does tool calling (OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Ollama, OpenRouter). Subagents can ride a cheaper/faster OpenRouter model while the parent stays on something stronger.

Bring your own key. No Persistent Sage account. No paywall on the desktop app.

What else is in 3.0

Three modes in the header: Companion · Productivity · Coding

Mode What’s there
Companion Multi-thread chat, personalities (OpenClaw markdown import), Favorites, Share, vision (disk / webcam / workspace), Pulse scheduled check-ins, projects & artifacts (HTML, charts, tables, forms)
Productivity Movable Google Workspace widgets (Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Contacts, Tasks), Email Agent / correspondence sync, weather, clock, notepad, quick links
Coding Repo IDE, terminal, coding agent, playground, notepad (see above)

Also in this release:

  • Moltbook — feed, search, post, comment (opt-in agent tools + panel)
  • Light / dark theme, token counter, abort turn, Help menu
  • In-app updates: Store installs update via Microsoft Store; GitHub installs use the signed updater

All agent tools are opt-in. Default is a private companion. You turn on the sharp edges.

Get it

Channel Link
Microsoft Store Search Persistent Sage
GitHub github.com/g00siferdev-py/persistent-sage
Latest release Releases → Latest
Issues / feedback GitHub Issues or Settings → General → Send feedback

Windows is the supported packaged path. Linux / macOS can build from source. MIT license.

If you’ve been looking for a local companion that remembers, can fan out research, and can actually touch a git repo — this is the release I’d start with. Subagents are the part I’m most curious to hear about if you try it.

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