About Nerve
Nerve is a simple Agent Development Kit for building, running, evaluating and orchestrating LLM-based agents using only YAML and a CLI. It targets technical users who want programmable, auditable and reproducible automation.
Key features
- 01Declare prompt, task, tools and variables in YAML
- 02Shell commands, Python functions and remote tools
- 03Evaluation mode with YAML, Parquet or folder test cases
- 04Linear workflows composing multiple agents
- 05Built on LiteLLM, switch models in one line
- 06Install agents from GitHub with nerve install
Use cases
- 01Defining and running LLM agents quickly from YAML
- 02Benchmarking agents and tracking regressions reproducibly
- 03Chaining agents into multi-step automations
- 04Installing ready-made agents from GitHub repositories
MCP support
Nerve has native MCP support and can act as both client and server, letting MCP servers be defined in YAML to enable agent teams and orchestration.
Details
From the project READMENerve is a simple yet powerful Agent Development Kit (ADK) to build, run, evaluate, and orchestrate LLM-based agents using just YAML and a CLI. It’s designed for technical users who want programmable, auditable, and reproducible automation using large language models.
Key Features
📝 Declarative Agents
Define agents using a clean YAML format: system prompt, task, tools, and variables — all in one file.
🔧 Built-in Tools & Extensibility
Use shell commands, Python functions, or remote tools to power your agents. Tools are fully typed and annotated.
🌐 Native MCP Support (Client & Server)
Nerve is the first framework to let you define MCP servers in YAML — and act as both client and server, enabling agent teams and deep orchestration.
📊 Evaluation Mode
Benchmark your agents with YAML, Parquet, or folder-based test cases. Run reproducible tests, log structured outputs, and track regression or progress.
🔁 Workflows
Compose agents into simple, linear pipelines to create multi-step automations with shared context.
🧪 LLM-Agnostic
Built on LiteLLM, Nerve supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, and dozens more — switch models in one line.
Quick Start
# 🖥️ install the project with:
pip install nerve-adk
# ⬇️ download and install an agent from a github repo with:
nerve install evilsocket/changelog
# 💡 or create an agent with a guided procedure:
nerve create new-agent
# 🚀 go!
nerve run new-agent
Read the documentation and the examples for more.
Contributing
We welcome contributions! Check out our contributing guidelines to get started and join our Discord community for help and discussion.
License
Nerve is released under the GPL 3 license.
Comments
New to MCP?
From what the protocol is to installing your first server, these answers cover most first questions.
An open protocol that defines how AI applications connect to external tools and data in a uniform way. Clients talk to the model; MCP servers provide tools, resources and prompt templates. They exchange standard messages, so one server can be reused by many clients.