Skip to main content

​
OpenProse

OpenProse is a portable, markdown-first workflow format for orchestrating AI sessions. In Fased it ships as a plugin that installs an OpenProse skill pack plus a /prose slash command. Programs live in .prose files and can spawn multiple sub-agents with explicit control flow. Official site: https://www.prose.md

​
What it can do

  • Multi-agent research + synthesis with explicit parallelism.
  • Repeatable approval-safe workflows (code review, incident triage, content pipelines).
  • Reusable .prose programs you can run across supported agent runtimes.

​
Install + enable

Bundled plugins are disabled by default. Enable OpenProse: 
fased plugins enable open-prose
Restart the Gateway after enabling the plugin. Dev/local checkout: fased plugins install ./extensions/open-prose Related docs: Plugins, Plugin manifest, Skills.

​
Slash command

OpenProse registers /prose as a user-invocable skill command. It routes to the OpenProse VM instructions and uses the normal Fased tool/runtime surface under the hood. Common commands: 
/prose help
/prose run <file.prose>
/prose run <handle/slug>
/prose run <https://example.com/file.prose>
/prose compile <file.prose>
/prose examples
/prose update

​
Example: a simple .prose file

# Research + synthesis with two agents running in parallel.

input topic: "What should we research?"

agent researcher:
  model: sonnet
  prompt: "You research thoroughly and cite sources."

agent writer:
  model: opus
  prompt: "You write a concise summary."

parallel:
  findings = session: researcher
    prompt: "Research {topic}."
  draft = session: writer
    prompt: "Summarize {topic}."

session "Merge the findings + draft into a final answer."
context: { findings, draft }

​
File locations

OpenProse keeps state under .prose/ in your workspace: 
.prose/
├── .env
├── runs/
│   └── {YYYYMMDD}-{HHMMSS}-{random}/
│       ├── program.prose
│       ├── state.md
│       ├── bindings/
│       └── agents/
└── agents/
User-level persistent agents live at: 
~/.prose/agents/

​
State modes

OpenProse supports multiple state backends:
  • filesystem (default): .prose/runs/...
  • in-context: transient, for small programs
  • sqlite (experimental): requires sqlite3 binary
  • postgres (experimental): requires psql and a connection string
Notes:
  • sqlite/postgres are opt-in and experimental.
  • postgres credentials flow into subagent logs; use a dedicated, least-privileged DB.

​
Remote programs

/prose run <handle/slug> resolves to https://p.prose.md/<handle>/<slug>. Direct URLs are fetched as-is. This uses the web_fetch tool (or exec for POST).

​
Fased runtime mapping

OpenProse programs map to Fased primitives:
OpenProse conceptFased tool
Spawn session / Task toolsessions_spawn
File read/writeread / write
Web fetchweb_fetch
If your tool allowlist blocks these tools, OpenProse programs will fail. See Skills config.

​
Security + approvals

Treat .prose files like code. Review before running. Use Fased tool allowlists and approval gates to control side effects. For scheduled or recurring work, use Tasks. For one structured model step inside a workflow, use LLM Task.