pool

Short Answer

pool is Poolside’s coding agent that runs in your terminal as an interactive app (or non-interactively with pool exec) and integrates with any ACP-compatible editor, Zed, JetBrains, Neovim, and others. It implements open agent specs like AGENTS.md for project context, skills to extend workflows, and MCP servers to connect tools and data sources.

It’s a developer tool. By default it asks for approval before each tool call, with modes to let it act more autonomously when you trust it.

What pool Is Best For

• Terminal coding: run an AI agent directly from your command line
• Editor-based AI coding: works as an ACP server inside supported editors
• Agentic coding workflows: AGENTS.md context, skills, and MCP tool connections
• AI-assisted development: investigate bugs, modify code, automate dev tasks

Practical Use Cases

• Run coding-agent tasks from the terminal
• Use AI inside editor workflows
• Investigate bugs and modify code
• Automate repetitive developer tasks
• Connect coding agents with MCP tools and data sources

Honest Limitations

• More technical than beginner coding tools: built for developers
• Requires developer setup: terminal/editor configuration expected
• AI code must be reviewed: approve and check output before shipping

Alternatives Worth Knowing

• Claude Code, terminal coding agent from Anthropic
• Codex, OpenAI’s coding agent
• OpenCode, open-source terminal coding agent
• Cline, editor-based AI coding agent
• Kilo Code, another agentic coding tool

See also: Poolside Laguna S 2.1, Poolside’s own open-weight coding model, which pool can run alongside other providers.