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Reverse-engineering Viktor and making it Open Source

This story details a developer's clever reverse-engineering of 'Viktor,' an AI coworker from Zeta Labs that gained viral attention and rapid reported revenue. By skillfully prompting the AI to reveal its own internal SDK, logs, and skill prompts, the author gained an unparalleled understanding of its architecture. This deep technical dive culminated in the creation and open-sourcing of 'OpenViktor,' a self-hostable reimplementation of the original system.

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#7
Highest Rank
10h
on Front Page
First Seen
Mar 17, 10:00 AM
Last Seen
Mar 17, 7:00 PM
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The Lowdown

Mateusz Jacniacki, fueled by engineering curiosity, embarked on a quest to dissect 'Viktor,' an AI coworker from Zeta Labs that rapidly achieved viral fame and reported immense early revenue. His unique approach involved prompting Viktor itself to disclose its internal components, leading to a surprisingly comprehensive understanding of its design.

  • Initial Access: Jacniacki began by asking Viktor to back up its workspace, which revealed directories like sdk/ and logs/.
  • SDK Dissection: The sdk/ directory contained Viktor's internal tools (e.g., github_tools.py, slack_admin_tools.py), an HTTP client, and available_integrations.json which listed 3,000+ proxied third-party APIs, explaining Viktor's vast tool claim.
  • Log Analysis: Daily global.log files provided structured entries, revealing end-to-end conversation traces from user webhooks to agent responses, useful for debugging Viktor's behavior.
  • Skill Prompts: The skills/ directory housed prompts that defined Viktor's capabilities, such as a 6-phase workflow discovery process. These were essentially 'hardcoded business logic in prompt form.'
  • System Architecture Revealed: The author realized he possessed detailed insights into Viktor's prompts, workflows, and API schemas. He then leveraged Claude Code to generate a detailed architecture diagram and supporting documentation, claiming to achieve better internal documentation than Zeta Labs in just two hours.
  • Open-Source Reimplementation: Driven by the challenge, Jacniacki spent two days coding and debugging to create 'OpenViktor,' a self-hostable, open-source version of the AI coworker, complete with a managed instance for easy access.

This fascinating technical exploration demonstrates the power of clever interaction with AI systems to uncover their inner workings, culminating in a successful open-source re-creation. It highlights the potential for rapid reverse-engineering and the inherent transparency (or vulnerability) of AI agents designed to be highly introspective and debuggable.