Custom system.md prompt

[thecannabisapp]

What feature would you like to see?

I'd like to have the ability to set my own custom system.md prompt as I prefer the custom prompt I was using in kimi-cli and the new default system prompt doesn't perform as well as my previous setup.

Additional information

No response

[Bronya0]

+1

[Bronya0]

除了自带的tool那些要带，其他的希望能自定义

[igamenovoer]

+1, per-instance system prompt is really important for multi agent works

[thecannabisapp]

The maintainers have indicated they're not currently accepting PRs for custom agent profile support.

For those who need this feature now, we've implemented it in a fork: https://github.com/thecannabisapp/kimi-code

You can:

1. Clone the fork and build from source
2. Use --agents-dir <path> to load custom agent.yaml, system.md, and init.md

Quick start:

# Build and install
cd kimi-code && pnpm install && pnpm build && cd apps/kimi-code && pnpm build

# Link globally
npm link

# Run with custom profiles
kimi --agents-dir ~/.config/kimi/agents/

The agents directory expects:

• agent.yaml — agent profile (name, description, tools, subagents)
• system.md — system prompt with template vars ({{ KIMI_OS }}, {{ KIMI_WORK_DIR }}, etc.)
• init.md — optional init prompt

---

⚠️ Important — disable auto-updates after installing the fork

kimi-code has automatic background updates enabled by default. If you build and install this fork, the next time upstream releases a new version, your installation will be silently replaced with the official release — losing the --agents-dir feature.

Disable auto-update immediately after install:

# Option 1: environment variable
export KIMI_CODE_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1

# Option 2: config file
cat >> ~/.kimi-code/tui.toml << 'EOF'
[upgrade]
auto_install = false
EOF

# Option 3: via TUI settings
kimi
# then type /settings and toggle automatic updates off

This gives full control over the system prompt, tool list, and subagent definitions without waiting for upstream.