Show HN: Exponent, a collaborative AI programming agent

Seems interesting. I feel like cursor currently places too _much_ emphasis on AI tooling for how often I use it; and claude code, while nice; is vendor locked + has no UI. Seems like an interesting combo of the two.

Anyone have experience with it yet?

Extremely cool product - I'm excited to get early access!

i've been using it for the past couple of weeks and it has been pretty great, has replaces composer and cascade for me

Hi HN, I’m Sashank and I'm excited to share Exponent. Exponent is an AI programming assistant that runs in any environment (terminal, web, CI, IDE, remote), can perform simple tasks up to multi-step workflows, and is easy to steer. Our early users have been using Exponent to debug Docker setups, improve query performance, onboard new teammates, automate CI fixes and incident response, and more.

We first got some attention after collaborating with OpenAI on one of their API features last year: https://x.com/OpenAIDevs/status/1853564730872607229, and we're ready to open to a wider audience.

Here's a quick demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN0vU_FbE7c and if you want to try Exponent, get started here: https://exponent.run/.

I know there are many options and preferences (and probably fatigue) for AI coding tools. After building and using many of these tools, I repeatedly found the same limitations: opaque behavior, difficulty steering outputs, or being locked into just one environment like an IDE or terminal.

So, I built Exponent to be the AI programming agent that I would want to use. It feels great to work alongside, but is also powerful enough to complete work end-to-end. It runs anywhere: I can use Exponent to debug an error in my local development environment while another instance of Exponent runs in a CI pipeline which auto-fixes typechecking errors, without needing any other tooling. And it has a clean, intuitive interface which shows me exactly what the agent is doing instead of obfuscating it.

Right now, Exponent is best for people who:

- View AI collaboration as a skill: you think working with AI is worth improving at, and would use a tool that rewards and encourages high-quality interaction vs. using an agent that tends to go off the rails.

- Want a single tool for multiple contexts: you work in some combination of in your terminal, against CI, with your database, on remote machines you ssh into, and you want consistent context and capabilities across all of them.

- Use other pro software: you are partial to tools like Raycast, Linear, etc. because you have a low tolerance for friction.

And here are some ways you can quickly see if Exponent resonates:

- Try something you're unsatisfied by other AI tools for: Pick a scenario you've been frustrated by elsewhere, and see how Exponent handles it.

- Pick the next task on your to-do list: Whether it's frontend, backend, or infrastructure, a side project or a chore at work, just ask Exponent and it will collaborate with you on working through the task.

- Play: Experiment casually--ask Exponent to do the worst refactor it can think of, or run an obscure but interesting git operation, or autogenerate an exponent.txt. You'll get a feel for the UX and judge how you'd approach a more serious task.

We'll be quickly improving the agent with your feedback, as well as launching complementary products in the coming weeks. Please reach out to us with any feedback or requests you have!

Try Exponent and let me know what you think: https://www.exponent.run/.