berd
- role
- Product designer, Engineer
- date
- 2026
- team
- Berd
overview
The team released Berd as an open-source desktop application in August 2026. Goose remains the agent framework and runtime; Berd provides an environment for projects, context, sessions, agents, and configuration, with support for different harnesses.
This covers the 2026 explorations that led there, and the launch work I implemented.
agents and identity
By 2026, we were exploring how people could shape their agents and the context they worked in. I built a separate prototype alongside the internal app so the design team could try ideas before committing to them, including agent avatars and a concept we called “worlds.”
The companion flow let someone give an agent a name and describe its character. The prototype paired those descriptions with distinctive avatars and showed the companions together in a collection.
worlds
With worlds, we explored how someone could keep an agent’s memory focused on a topic or project. We imagined each world growing and changing visually as its memory developed.
We built and tested visual explorations to make the idea concrete. Working memory and adaptive growth were outside the MVP scope; the screenshots show the interface concept.
project cube and motion
I implemented the 3D project cube: a glass artifact with images inside, tinted by the project’s color. It is the hero when creating a project and a pin on Home. Drag orbits it; pointer movement on Home gives it a short spin.
I also tuned motion around launch: agent builder and profile transitions, avatar editing, the skills grid, and the create-project and add-agent panels.
The screenshots below show the app the team launched. The team’s account of building Berd covers the broader design effort.