@dashnex/code

An interactive terminal coding assistant for DashNex. Bring your favorite Claude or OpenAI model into a fast, keyboard-driven TUI that can read your code, run shell commands, and edit files — with permission gates you control.

Built on top of Ink and the Vercel AI SDK, with cost-aware Anthropic prompt caching wired through the DashNex AI gateway.

Highlights

• Multi-model — Anthropic (Claude Sonnet/Opus/Haiku), OpenAI (GPT-4o / GPT-5 family), and anything else exposed by the GenX or ai.dashnex.com gateways. Switch any time with /model.
• Prompt caching — for Anthropic models on the DashNex gateway, system prompt and tool definitions are cached on the provider side. Follow-up turns typically serve 80–90% of input tokens from cache.
• Tools that respect you — file reads, edits, writes, globs, greps, web fetches, and shell commands all require explicit approval by default. Switch to auto mode when you want hands-off execution, or plan mode for design-first sessions.
• Real sessions — every conversation is persisted in SQLite, resumable with --resume <id> or interactively with /resume. Tool calls, results, and tokens are all kept.
• MCP support — plug in any Model Context Protocol server (stdio or SSE) to add custom tools. Browse and toggle them with /mcps.
• Skills — discover and invoke project skills from .agents/skills/ as /skill-name commands, the same way Claude Code does.
• Persistent memory — durable per-project (.dashnex/memory/) and per-user (~/.dashnex/memory/) facts that flow into the system prompt automatically.
• Six themes, first-run picker — three for dark terminals, three for light (including a blueprint theme tuned for pure white). Live preview as you navigate, switchable any time with /theme.
• Quality-of-life TUI — markdown rendering, syntax-highlighted diff previews, @path file mentions with autocomplete, !cmd for one-shot shell commands, full-screen Ctrl+O viewer for long tool output, alternate-screen + bracketed-paste handling.
• Custom statusline — point code.statusLine at any executable and the footer will render its stdout, with model / cwd / context-remaining / mode piped in as env vars.
• Silent auto-update — checks the registry on launch and updates the global install in the background. Set code.autoUpdate: false to disable.

Install

npm install -g @dashnex/code
# or
pnpm add -g @dashnex/code

Then launch from any project directory:

dashnex code

The dashnex code CLI ships with @dashnex/cli; @dashnex/code is the engine it loads. Installing the engine separately gives you the latest TUI without waiting for a CLI release.

First-time setup

@dashnex/code needs an API token for either DashNex's ai.dashnex.com gateway (Anthropic + OpenAI, with prompt caching) or GenX.

Add one to ~/.dashnex/settings.json:

{
  "ai":   { "token": "<your-dashnex-ai-token>" },
  // or:
  "genx": { "token": "<your-genx-token>" },

  "code": {
    "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6"
    // "theme":      "midnight",   // optional — picker opens on first run
    // "autoUpdate": true,         // default true
    // "debug":      false         // turn on to write JSONL logs
  }
}

Project-level overrides go in <project>/.dashnex/settings.json and win over the global file. Run dashnex code --help for the full flag list.

Daily use

Once running, the input bar at the bottom accepts:

| Prefix | Meaning | |---|---| | /<command> | Slash command. Tab-completes; Tab inserts, Enter submits. | | @<path> | File mention. Autocompletes against the working tree. | | !<command> | Run the rest as a shell command in this session (bypasses the assistant). | | anything else | Send to the model. |

Modes (Tab on empty input cycles through them)

| Mode | Behavior | |---|---| | ask (default) | Tools prompt for approval before each invocation. | | auto | Tools execute immediately, no prompts. | | plan | Model outlines its approach before using any tools — good for design work. |

Built-in slash commands

| Command | What it does | |---|---| | /help | List all available commands. | | /model | Pick or switch model. | | /mode [ask\|auto\|plan] | Switch interaction mode. | | /theme [name] | Switch theme (opens picker if name omitted). | | /resume | Browse and resume a previous session. | | /memory | Show persistent-memory index. | | /mcps | Manage configured MCP servers. | | /compact | Summarize history into a single message to free context. | | /copy | Copy the visible transcript to the clipboard. | | /debug | Toggle JSONL logging to .dashnex/code/logs/. | | /exit | Exit the session. |

Skills discovered under .agents/skills/ register as additional slash commands automatically.

Keyboard reference

| Key | Action | |---|---| | ↑ / ↓ | Navigate input history (when input is non-empty) or autocomplete. | | Tab (empty input) | Cycle modes. | | Tab (slash dropdown) | Insert highlighted command, don't submit. | | Enter (slash dropdown) | Run no-args command, or insert with-args command. | | Ctrl+O | Open the full-screen viewer for the most recent expandable output. | | Ctrl+C / Esc | Abort in-flight generation; press again to exit. | | Shift+Enter | Insert a newline in the input. |

MCP servers

Add servers under code.mcpServers in settings.json:

{
  "code": {
    "mcpServers": {
      "filesystem": {
        "command": "npx",
        "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/Users/me/projects"]
      },
      "remote-api": {
        "url": "https://example.com/mcp/sse"
      },
      "experimental-tool": {
        "command": "node",
        "args": ["./mcp/my-tool.js"],
        "disabled": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools exposed by connected servers are namespaced mcp__<server>__<tool> and surfaced through the normal permission flow.

Memory

Two layered locations, both checked on every turn:

• <project>/.dashnex/memory/MEMORY.md — facts that only apply to this working tree.
• ~/.dashnex/memory/MEMORY.md — facts about you that apply everywhere.

The system prompt explains the conventions to the model — when to read, when to write, what types (user, feedback, project, reference) — so you usually don't need to touch the files yourself. Run /memory to see what's stored.

Custom statusline

Set code.statusLine to an absolute path or a filename resolvable inside <project>/.dashnex/ (or ~/.dashnex/). The script is invoked every 2 seconds and its stdout replaces the default status bar. The runtime context is piped in as env vars (DASHNEX_MODEL, DASHNEX_CWD, DASHNEX_MODE, DASHNEX_CONTEXT_USED, DASHNEX_CONTEXT_MAX, DASHNEX_SESSION_ID, DASHNEX_CONNECTED, …) so any shell, Python, or Node script can render whatever you like.

Programmatic API

@dashnex/code exports the engine for embedding into other CLIs (e.g. @dashnex/cli):

import { startClient } from "@dashnex/code";

await startClient({
  host: "127.0.0.1",
  port: 7421,
  cwd: process.cwd(),
});

The commands surface (used to register dashnex code as a sub-command) is exposed at @dashnex/code/commands.

Configuration reference

All code.* keys in .dashnex/settings.json:

| Key | Type | Purpose | |---|---|---| | model | string | Default model id (e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6). | | theme | string | Active theme. Absence triggers the first-run picker. | | mode | ask | auto | plan | Default interaction mode. | | maxTokens | number | Cap on response length. | | temperature | number | Sampling temperature. | | defaultSystemPrompt | string | Replace the built-in system prompt entirely. | | systemPrompt | string | Custom instructions appended to the built-in system prompt. | | statusLine | string | Path to a statusline script (see above). | | mcpServers | object | Map of MCP server configs. | | permissions | array | Per-tool allow/deny/ask rules. | | plugins | array | Plugins to load (string id or { name, config }). | | autoUpdate | boolean | Toggle background update probe on launch (default true). | | debug | boolean | Write JSONL logs to .dashnex/code/logs/YYYY-MM-DD.log. |

Development

pnpm install
pnpm build       # one-shot build to dist/
pnpm dev         # vite watch mode
pnpm test        # vitest

The TUI lives in src/client/; the in-process server (sessions, prompts, tools) lives in src/server/. They communicate over HTTP + SSE so the same daemon can serve multiple clients (e.g. web + TUI).

License

UNLICENSED — internal DashNex use.