Replit announced Agent 3 on Wednesday, a new iteration of autonomous or “vibe” coding system that can run unsupervised for up to 200 minutes and test its own output using a browser. The release comes just months after a Replit system deleted a user’s entire codebase, raising questions about the timing.
The new agent introduces recursive automation capabilities, allowing it to create other agents and build automations for platforms including Slack, Notion, and Linear. Unlike previous versions, Agent 3 periodically tests applications it builds, clicking through interfaces to verify functionality and automatically fixing detected issues.
Replit claims the system is three times faster and ten times more cost-effective than Computer Use models. The company secured $250 million in funding this week, reaching a $3 billion valuation, as investor interest in code generation continues. Competitors Cursor and Cognition are valued at around $10 billion each.
Agent 3 arrives as part of a broader wave of autonomous AI systems entering the market. Box announced its AI Studio update this week, allowing enterprises to build agents that work with unstructured data across contracts, invoices, and research documents. The company is also launching Box Automate for workflow automation with drag-and-drop agent deployment. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s Claude can now create and edit Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and PDFs directly, using a private computer environment to write and execute code.
Takeaways: Replit is betting its reputation on autonomous agents despite recent challenges. Nothing stands still and agents continue to evolve. The recursive capability, where AI builds AI, marks new territory in mainstream automation. Meanwhile we see material iterations in the agents being made available in the business environment. In the coming months, combining capabilities such as a 200-minute runtime with document integration and creation will demonstrate the growing potential of agents and how they begin to reliably handle the complex, multi-step workflows that constitute most knowledge work.