Designing AI with character: what we learned building Berd
Corporate blog post from **Block** (`block.xyz/inside`), unsigned — the displayed author is **"Block"** —, published on **August 18, 2026**, ~930 words, announcing **the open-sourcing of Berd**, Block's internal desktop application for working with agents, and laying out the design thesis that guided it: giving agents character *"not only through roles, instructions, skills, and tools, but through distinctive visual identities"* — hence the in-house animated characters, the *"Gloopies"*. The post starts from an observation of fragmentation (*"The technology was powerful, but the experience around it was fragmented"*) and a precisely named interface problem: *"the product gives people little sense of how the agent is configured, which context and tools are available to it, and how it differs from another agent"*. Two structuring contributions. **(A) A three-tier articulation**: **goose** remains the framework and *runtime* that holds the agent loop; **Berd** is the desktop client (projects, context, sessions, agents, configuration); the two communicate via the **Agent Client Protocol**. **Buzz** is designated as the follow-up, for when solo work becomes collaborative (*"Start alone, then go multiplayer"*). **(B) Six requirements handed off to Buzz**, stated as a takeaway: *"private space, durable context, recognizable agent identities, reusable skills, visible configuration, and clearer visibility into an agent's configured context, tools, and capabilities"* — a grid directly reusable for evaluating an agent client. The text itself distinguishes identity from capability: *"The avatars make the agent recognizable. Its role, skills, and tools make it useful."* No usage figures are produced and no license is named for the open-sourcing.
**Aucun auteur nommé** : le billet est signé **« Block »** — le champ *Author* de la page porte le nom de l'entreprise. Publié le **18 août 2026** sur `block.xyz/inside` · le blog **corporate** · et non sur `engineering.block.xyz`.