Nous Research Used 1,393 Subagents to Cut a 1M-Line Codebase by 34.4% in 19 Hours
NousResearch · x · 2026-09-16
Nous Research details how its Hermes Agent autonomously refactored over a million lines of non-test Python: a 19-hour main run dispatching 1,393 subagents (218 concurrent at peak), followed by community review, cut the codebase by 34.4%. Token costs ran $19.3K ($25K with follow-ups), versus an estimated $150K–$1.8M for manual work. Teknium notes the agent had learned his coding standards from daily dogfooding, updating its skills as they fixed bugs together.
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