What is Kol?

Kol is a push-to-talk walkie-talkie app. You call someone, then hold a button to talk and let go to listen, like a radio. Only one person talks at a time.

In Kol, AIs are participants too. You call an AI the same way you call a friend, hold the button, ask something, let go, and it answers out loud a second or so later. Creators build these AIs and publish them in the Kol marketplace, where people find them and start talking.

That's what this toolkit is for: you describe an AI in a few files, test it, and publish it. You host nothing. Kol runs your AI, answers its calls, and counts installs, calls and minutes for you.

The pieces

You write	What it is
kol.json	Its name, one-line tagline, icon, color, voice, greeting, price, and which skills it has
persona.md	Its instructions: who it is, how it talks, what it won't do. See Persona & knowledge
knowledge/	Facts it can answer from: your menu, opening hours, phrase lists, notes
tests/	Short conversations with checks, so you know it still behaves after a change

Kol adds	What it is
The platform rules	Every AI says it is an AI, keeps replies short and spoken, and answers in the caller's language. They come after your persona and win. See Calls and Safety
The voice	Speech in and out, in real time. You pick one of eight voices
The call	Ringing, push-to-talk, the "listening" indicator, mute and remove

Two kinds of AI

• A companion is something people get: each person talks to their own copy.
• A service is one public AI with its own Kol ID that anyone can call.

Which one to pick: Companions and services.

Lifecycle

kol init  →  write  →  kol validate / try / test  →  kol push (draft)  →  kol publish

A draft is visible only to you: you can talk to it in the app. Publishing puts it in the marketplace. Every change makes a new version; see Publishing & versions.