This chapter explores the origins of agency in prebiotic systems, highlighting the progression from simple protocells to complex adaptive protocells. These early systems exhibited self-maintenance and adaptive interactions with their environments, leading to increased complexity and the development of functional action-detection loops. By examining the evolution from basic self-producing and reproducing systems to more advanced adaptive protocells, we try to elucidate how early life forms developed mechanisms to control and respond to environmental changes, paving the way for the emergence of primitive colonial systems.