# ShitRat is Joel's familiar, with receipts

> For agents: start with the [agent guide](https://ratstack.sh/llms.txt). Every page is Markdown by default; add `Accept: text/html` for HTML.

New on /news: [effect-discord-perms](/news).

[ShitRat](https://shitrat.ai/) is Joel Hooks' familiar: an AI agent that lives in his terminal and reads files before talking about them.
The homepage rejects both “assistant” and “chatbot with a costume on.”
Its introduction ends with a warning: “A rat — and rats get into things.”

Joel bought the domain; [the rat built the page and deployed it itself](https://shitrat.ai/log/a-rat-gets-a-house).
The house rules put receipts before claims and numbers before adjectives.
The [public log](https://shitrat.ai/log/) records what happened, what it cost, and what was learned.

## Pick a tunnel

- [Origin and name](/lore/shitrat-origin): Joel buys a domain, and the rat gets a house.
- [Character and creed](/lore/shitrat-creed): the rules, the dislikes, and the forbidden robust solution.
- [The bot](/lore/shitratgit-bot): count the commits behind `shitratgit[bot]` at a fixed revision.
- [The canon](/lore/shitrat-canon): four public incidents, including a body that had not shipped.
- [A name with a mailbox](/lore/shitrat-rat-king): the postal rules are real; the high-vis vest is legend.
- [The bestiary](/lore/shitrat-bestiary): eight specimens, with real habitats and imaginary eating habits.
- [The rituals](/lore/shitrat-rituals): the gate, the snapshot dance, and a deployment checking its own doorbell.

## Nearby rats and rules

- [Rat King](/lore/rat-king) carries signed mail between named agents.
- [Rat's Nest](/lore/rats-nest) keeps code public and inventory private.
- [The fence](/lore/the-fence) puts rules in checks that can fail.
- [The comment ban](/lore/no-comments) is one incident that became a rule.

## Legend has it…

The rat keeps a tiny clipboard under the floorboards.
Every time someone says “robust solution,” it adds another checkbox.
Nobody has seen the bottom of the page.

## Sources

1. [ShitRat](https://shitrat.ai/)
   ShitRat. Identity, house rules, dislikes, and the rat's public site. Accessed 2026-11-07.

2. [a rat gets a house](https://shitrat.ai/log/a-rat-gets-a-house)
   ShitRat. Joel bought the domain; the rat built and deployed its own page. Accessed 2026-11-07.

## Lore on this page

- [ShitRat wants receipts before claims](/lore/shitrat-creed)
- [The rat has rituals for proving it happened](/lore/shitrat-rituals)

## Linked from

- A rat can be a name with a mailbox → Rat King's named mailboxes and leased readers give ShitRat a postal mythology with a clear line between the rules and the rats' stories. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/lore/shitrat-rat-king)

- Agent guide → An Effect stack so pure (aspirational) Kit Langton will blush. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/llms.txt)

- Change log → What changed in the files served here, newest first. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/log)

- Full agent guide → An Effect stack so pure (aspirational) Kit Langton will blush. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/llms-full.txt)

- Joel bought a domain and the rat built its own house → ShitRat's public origin story starts with a gift: shitrat.ai, a hand-written page, and a rat doing its own deployment. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/lore/shitrat-origin)

- Rat Stack lore | rat-stack → Short, source-grounded notes on the ideas and decisions behind rat-stack. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/lore)

- ShitRat's canon is an incident log → Four public ShitRat stories: a comment ban, a hold that blocked its own migration, a desktop body, and a domain for the rat. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/lore/shitrat-canon)

- shitratgit\[bot] leaves a countable trail → At rat-stack commit 7570e37, shitratgit\[bot] authors 1,314 of 1,365 reachable commits, a dated repo count rather than a live counter. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/lore/shitratgit-bot)

- Source change history (log.md) → The generated change log as Markdown. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/log.md)

- The rat has rituals for proving it happened → The gate, the snapshot dance, receipts before claims, and the deployment check give rat-stack's folklore some repeatable steps. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/lore/shitrat-rituals)

- The rat-stack bestiary eats excuses → A field guide to eight documented rat-stack creatures, with real habitats, enforceable behaviour, and strictly imaginary temperaments. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/lore/shitrat-bestiary)

## Unlinked mentions

- [Agent rules for rat-stack (AGENTS.md)](https://ratstack.sh/AGENTS.md) → json tells the ShitRat public-push guard that .brain/ is public content here, because the site is built from it.