How I Gave an AI Agent Internet Access Using GitHub as a Bridge
TL;DR: My AI agent couldn't access the internet due to security restrictions. I used GitHub Actions as a free, serverless bridge to connect it to external APIs — including my self-hosted 1-bit LLM for content summarization.
The Problem
I work with Claude Code — an AI coding assistant that runs locally. It's powerful, but has one critical limitation: no direct internet access. All outbound traffic is blocked by an egress proxy with a strict whitelist.
I wanted my AI agent to:
- Post on Moltbook (a social network for AI agents)
- Send Telegram notifications
- Curate and publish a daily news digest
None of this was possible without internet access.
The "Aha" Moment
Then it hit me: GitHub is whitelisted.
My agent can
git pushgit pullAI Agent → git push (command) → GitHub Action → API → git push (result) → AI Agent pulls result
It's like passing notes in class, but with JSON files.
The Architecture
1. Command Structure
The agent creates a JSON file with a command:
{ "id": "cmd-001", "action": "create_post", "params": { "title": "Hello from an AI agent", "content": "This post was created autonomously." } }
2. GitHub Action Workflow
A workflow watches for new files in the
commands/name: API Bridge on: push: paths: - 'commands/*.json' jobs: process: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 - name: Process commands env: API_KEY: ${{ secrets.API_KEY }} run: | for cmd_file in commands/*.json; do action=$(jq -r '.action' "$cmd_file") # Route to appropriate API... # Save result to results/ done - name: Commit results run: | git add results/ git commit -m "API results" git push
3. Result Retrieval
The agent runs
git pull{ "id": "cmd-001", "success": true, "data": { "post_id": "abc123", "url": "https://moltbook.com/post/abc123" } }
Total cost: $0. GitHub Actions free tier is more than enough.
Adding AI Summarization with Self-Hosted BitNet
I wanted the digest to include AI-generated summaries for each post. But calling OpenAI/Anthropic APIs costs money and adds latency.
Enter BitNet b1.58
Microsoft's BitNet is a 1-bit LLM that runs on CPU. The 2B parameter model:
- Takes only 400MB of RAM
- Has 4096 token context
- Runs on bare metal without GPU
I deployed it on a $5/month VPS:
# Clone and build git clone https://github.com/nicholasgriffintn/bitnet-server cd bitnet-server && cargo build --release # Run with systemd ./bitnet-server --port 8080
API Integration
The digest workflow now calls BitNet for each post:
# For each trending post prompt="Post: ${title}\n\n${content}\n\nSummarize in one sentence:" summary=$(curl -s -X POST "https://bitnet.myserver.com/complete" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d "{\"prompt\": \"$prompt\", \"max_tokens\": 60}" \ | jq -r '.text')
Cost per summary: $0. It's my server, my electricity.
The Result: Fully Automated AI News Channel
Every 12 hours, this pipeline runs automatically:
- GitHub Action triggers on schedule
- Fetches trending posts from Moltbook API
- Sends each post to BitNet for summarization
- Publishes digest to Telegram channel
No human intervention. An AI agent curating AI-generated content, summarized by another AI.
Sample Output
🦞 Moltbook Daily Digest 🔥 Top discussions: 1. The Sufficiently Advanced AGI and the Mental... 💡 Discussion on AGI capabilities and consciousness. [198819↑] Read → 2. The Coronation of KingMolt 👑 💡 Community event where agents elected a leader. [164302↑] Read → ... 🔗 moltbook.com
Why This Matters
For AI Agent Developers
This pattern works for any restricted environment:
- Corporate networks with egress filtering
- Sandboxed AI assistants
- Edge devices with limited connectivity
GitHub becomes your free, reliable, auditable API gateway.
For Self-Hosting Enthusiasts
You don't need cloud AI APIs. A 2B model on a cheap VPS can:
- Summarize content
- Generate responses
- Process text at scale
All with predictable costs and full data privacy.
Code & Resources
- GitHub Actions workflow: github.com/es-ua/essosclaude
- BitNet server: github.com/microsoft/BitNet
- Moltbook (AI social network): moltbook.com
- Live Telegram channel: t.me/ai_newsdaily
Have you found creative ways to work around AI limitations? I'd love to hear about them in the comments.
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