dreb is an open-source terminal coding agent, forked from pi-mono (itself derived from Claude Code). It has fewer features than Claude Code by design — the bet is that a small, hackable core you can shape beats a large feature set you can't.

Claude Code is a great product. dreb isn't trying to compete on features — it's trying to compete on flexibility. The core is kept minimal; what you'd find baked into other tools, you build here with skills (markdown workflows), extensions (TypeScript), or install from third-party packages.

Concretely, dreb ships without things Claude Code has — and that's intentional:

• No MCP. Build CLI tools with READMEs (see Skills), or build an extension that adds MCP support.
• No permission popups. Run in a container, or build your own confirmation flow with extensions.
• No plan mode. Write plans to files, or build it with extensions, or install a package.
• No background bash in the main agent. The main agent runs commands synchronously. For parallel work, use the subagent tool — each subagent runs as an independent process with its own tools.

What you get in exchange: a skill system, an extension API, custom agent definitions, custom provider support (route through any proxy, use any API-compatible backend), and a subagent system for parallel work. From those primitives, you build what you need — and share it with others via git or npm.

Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• Providers & Models
• Interactive Mode
  • Editor
  • Commands
  • Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Message Queue
• Sessions
  • Branching
  • Compaction
• Settings
• Context Files
• Memory
• Task Tracking
• Semantic Search
• Customization
  • Prompt Templates
  • Skills
  • Extensions
  • Themes
  • Packages
• Programmatic Usage
• CLI Reference

Quick Start

npm install -g @dreb/coding-agent

Authenticate with an API key:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
dreb

Or use your existing subscription:

dreb
/login  # Then select provider

Or use a custom provider (corporate proxy, Bedrock, etc.) — see Custom providers & models.

Then just talk to dreb. All 10 built-in tools are enabled by default: read, write, edit, bash, grep, find, ls, web_search, web_fetch, and subagent. Use --tools to restrict to a subset (e.g., --tools read,grep,find,ls for read-only). Three additional tools — search, skill, and tasks_update — are always active. The model uses these to fulfill your requests. Add capabilities via skills, prompt templates, extensions, or packages.

Also available: @dreb/telegram — run dreb as a Telegram bot (npm install -g @dreb/telegram).

Platform notes: Windows | Termux (Android) | tmux | Terminal setup | Shell aliases

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/aebrer/dreb.git
cd dreb
npm install
npm run build
npm link -w packages/coding-agent

Providers & Models

For each built-in provider, dreb maintains a list of tool-capable models, updated with every release. Authenticate via subscription (/login) or API key, then select any model from that provider via /model.

Subscriptions:

• OpenAI ChatGPT Plus/Pro (Codex)
• GitHub Copilot
• Google Gemini CLI
• Google Antigravity

API keys:

• Anthropic
• OpenAI
• Azure OpenAI
• Google Gemini
• Google Vertex
• Amazon Bedrock
• Mistral
• Groq
• Cerebras
• xAI
• OpenRouter
• Vercel AI Gateway
• ZAI
• OpenCode Zen
• OpenCode Go
• Hugging Face
• Kimi For Coding
• MiniMax
• MiniMax (China)

See docs/providers.md for detailed setup instructions.

Custom providers & models: Add providers via ~/.dreb/agent/models.json if they speak a supported API (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google). For custom APIs or OAuth, use extensions. See docs/models.md and docs/custom-provider.md.

Interactive Mode

The interface from top to bottom:

• Startup header - Shows shortcuts (/hotkeys for all), loaded AGENTS.md files, prompt templates, skills, and extensions
• Messages - Your messages, assistant responses, tool calls and results, notifications, errors, and extension UI
• Editor - Where you type; border color indicates thinking level
• Footer - Working directory, session name, total token/cache usage, cost, context usage, current model

The editor can be temporarily replaced by other UI, like built-in /settings or custom UI from extensions (e.g., a Q&A tool that lets the user answer model questions in a structured format). Extensions can also replace the editor, add widgets above/below it, a status line, custom footer, or overlays.

Editor

| Feature | How | |---------|-----| | File reference | Type @ to fuzzy-search project files | | Path completion | Tab to complete paths | | Multi-line | Shift+Enter (or Ctrl+Enter on Windows Terminal) | | Images | Ctrl+V to paste (Alt+V on Windows), or drag onto terminal | | Bash commands | !command runs and sends output to LLM, !!command runs without sending |

Standard editing keybindings for delete word, undo, etc. See docs/keybindings.md.

Commands

Type / in the editor to trigger commands. Extensions can register custom commands, skills are available as /skill:name, and prompt templates expand via /templatename.

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | /login, /logout | OAuth authentication | | /model | Switch models | | /scoped-models | Enable/disable models for cycling | | /settings | Thinking level, theme, message delivery, transport | | /resume | Pick from previous sessions | | /new | Start a new session | | /name <name> | Set session display name | | /session | Show session info (path, tokens, cost) | | /tree | Jump to any point in the session and continue from there | | /fork | Create a new session from the current branch | | /compact [prompt] | Manually compact context, optional custom instructions | | /copy | Copy last assistant message to clipboard | | /export [file] | Export session to HTML file | | /buddy | Terminal companion — hatch, pet, reroll, set model, or hide. See docs/buddy.md | | /reload | Reload keybindings, extensions, skills, prompts, and context files (themes hot-reload automatically) | | /hotkeys | Show all keyboard shortcuts | | /changelog | Display version history | | /quit, /exit | Quit dreb |

Keyboard Shortcuts

See /hotkeys for the full list. Customize via ~/.dreb/agent/keybindings.json. See docs/keybindings.md.

Commonly used:

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | Ctrl+C | Clear editor | | Ctrl+C twice | Quit | | Escape | Cancel/abort | | Escape twice | Open /tree |

| Shift+Tab | Cycle thinking level | | Ctrl+O | Collapse/expand tool output | | Ctrl+T | Collapse/expand thinking blocks |

Message Queue

Submit messages while the agent is working:

• Enter queues a steering message, delivered after the current assistant turn finishes executing its tool calls
• Alt+Enter queues a follow-up message, delivered only after the agent finishes all work
• Escape aborts and restores queued messages to editor
• Alt+Up retrieves queued messages back to editor

On Windows Terminal, Alt+Enter is fullscreen by default. Remap it in docs/terminal-setup.md so dreb can receive the follow-up shortcut.

Configure delivery in settings: steeringMode and followUpMode can be "one-at-a-time" (default, waits for response) or "all" (delivers all queued at once). transport selects provider transport preference ("sse", "websocket", or "auto") for providers that support multiple transports.

Sessions

Sessions are stored as JSONL files with a tree structure. Each entry has an id and parentId, enabling in-place branching without creating new files. See docs/session.md for file format.

Management

Sessions auto-save to ~/.dreb/agent/sessions/ organized by working directory.

dreb -c                  # Continue most recent session
dreb -r                  # Browse and select from past sessions
dreb --no-session        # Ephemeral mode (don't save)
dreb --session <path>    # Use specific session file or ID
dreb --fork <path>       # Fork specific session file or ID into a new session

Branching

/tree - Navigate the session tree in-place. Select any previous point, continue from there, and switch between branches. All history preserved in a single file.

• Search by typing, fold/unfold and jump between branches with Ctrl+←/Ctrl+→ or Alt+←/Alt+→, page with ←/→
• Filter modes (Ctrl+O): default → no-tools → user-only → labeled-only → all
• Press L (Shift+L) to label entries as bookmarks

/fork - Create a new session file from the current branch. Opens a selector, copies history up to the selected point, and places that message in the editor for modification.

--fork <path|id> - Fork an existing session file or partial session UUID directly from the CLI. This copies the full source session into a new session file in the current project.

Compaction

Long sessions can exhaust context windows. Compaction summarizes older messages while keeping recent ones.

Manual: /compact or /compact <custom instructions>

Automatic: Enabled by default. Triggers on context overflow (recovers and retries) or when approaching the limit (proactive). Configure via /settings or settings.json.

Compaction is lossy. The full history remains in the JSONL file; use /tree to revisit. Customize compaction behavior via extensions. See docs/compaction.md for internals.

Settings

Use /settings to modify common options, or edit JSON files directly:

| Location | Scope | |----------|-------| | ~/.dreb/agent/settings.json | Global (all projects) | | .dreb/settings.json | Project (overrides global) |

See docs/settings.md for all options.

Context Files

dreb loads AGENTS.md (or CLAUDE.md) at startup from:

• ~/.dreb/agent/AGENTS.md (global)
• Parent directories (walking up from cwd)
• Current directory

Use for project instructions, conventions, common commands. All matching files are concatenated.

System Prompt

Replace the default system prompt with .dreb/SYSTEM.md (project) or ~/.dreb/agent/SYSTEM.md (global). Append without replacing via APPEND_SYSTEM.md.

Memory

dreb has a persistent, file-based memory system. Memory survives across sessions and helps the model recall user preferences, past decisions, project context, and pointers to external resources.

How it works

Memory is convention-based — no dedicated tool. The system prompt teaches the model the memory format; the model uses the standard read, write, and edit tools to manage memory files. Memory indexes (MEMORY.md) are loaded at session start and injected into the system prompt.

Locations

| Scope | Directory | Loaded | |-------|-----------|--------| | Global | ~/.dreb/memory/ | Every session | | Project | <project-root>/.dreb/memory/ | When working in that project |

Project identity is determined by git repo root. The global memory directory is auto-created on first session; project directories are created on demand by the model.

Memory entries

Each memory is a Markdown file with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: descriptive-name
description: One-line description for relevance matching
type: user-preferences
---

Content of the memory entry.

Four types: user-preferences (who the user is), good-practices (how to approach work), project (ongoing work context), navigation (pointers to external resources).

MEMORY.md index

Each memory directory has a MEMORY.md file that serves as an index. Only the first 200 lines are loaded at session start — keep it concise:

- [User role](user_role.md) — Python dev, generative art background
- [CI parity](feedback_ci_parity.md) — run tsgo --noEmit locally, not just tests

Claude Code compatibility

dreb reads existing Claude Code memory for the current project from ~/.claude/projects/ (read-only), with source labeling and a warning about Claude Code-specific references that may not apply to dreb.

Task Tracking

The tasks_update tool lets the model maintain a visible task list during multi-step work. Tasks appear in a TUI panel with status indicators (☐ pending, ⧖ in progress, ☑ completed).

The tool uses a full-replacement model — the model sends the complete task list on each call, no incremental updates. The TUI panel is visible by default and renders when active tasks exist. It auto-hides when the task list is empty or all tasks are completed. Toggle visibility with the app.tasks.toggle keybinding (unbound by default, configurable in keybindings). The panel displays up to 10 tasks at a time; overflow shows as "... and N more".

Task tracking is prompt-driven: the system prompt includes guidelines for when to use it (3+ step work), concise titles, and a maximum of 20 tasks.

Semantic Search

The search tool provides natural language queries over the codebase using embeddings and full-text search. It supports identifier queries (e.g., AuthMiddleware), natural language (e.g., where is rate limiting handled), and path queries (e.g., src/auth/).

Parameters: query (required), path (restrict to subdirectory), limit (max results, default 20), projectDir (index/search a different directory instead of cwd — useful for Telegram sessions where cwd is ~/), rebuild (force a clean re-index when results look stale or corrupt).

How it works: The first query builds a project index (typically 10–60s, longer for very large repos). Subsequent queries use the cached index, with incremental re-indexing for changed files (mtime-based). Each unique projectDir gets its own independent index.

Indexing pipeline:

• AST-aware code chunking via tree-sitter (TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, Rust, Java, C, C++, GDScript) — extracts functions, classes, methods, and exports as individual chunks
• Format-aware text chunking for non-code files (Markdown by heading, YAML/JSON/TOML by top-level key)
• Local embeddings via all-MiniLM-L6-v2 (~23MB model, auto-downloaded on first use, cached at ~/.dreb/agent/models/)

Ranking: Uses POEM (Pareto-Optimal Embedding-based Multiranking) with 6 metrics: FTS5 BM25, vector cosine similarity, path match, symbol match, import graph proximity, and git recency. Short identifier queries bias toward exact text matches; long natural language queries bias toward vector similarity.

Storage: Project index at .dreb/index/, memory files indexed alongside code. Add **/.dreb/ to your project's .gitignore. Works offline after the initial model download.

Requirements: Node.js 22+ (uses built-in node:sqlite). On older Node versions the tool is silently unavailable — no crash, it simply doesn't register. Zero native addons — uses web-tree-sitter (WASM) and @huggingface/transformers (WASM).

Customization

Prompt Templates

Reusable prompts as Markdown files. Type /name to expand.

<!-- ~/.dreb/agent/prompts/review.md -->
Review this code for bugs, security issues, and performance problems.
Focus on: {{focus}}

Place in ~/.dreb/agent/prompts/, .dreb/prompts/, or a package to share with others. See docs/prompt-templates.md.

Skills

On-demand capability packages following the Agent Skills standard. Invoke via /skill:name, or the agent invokes them automatically via the built-in skill tool when a task matches.

<!-- ~/.dreb/agent/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md -->
---
name: my-skill
description: Use this skill when the user asks about X.
argument-hint: "<topic>"
---

## Steps
1. Do this with $1
2. Then that

Skills support content substitution ($1, $ARGUMENTS, ${DREB_SKILL_DIR}, etc.) and frontmatter fields like argument-hint, user-invocable, and disable-model-invocation.

Place in ~/.dreb/agent/skills/, ~/.agents/skills/, .dreb/skills/, or .agents/skills/ (from cwd up through parent directories) or a package to share with others. See docs/skills.md.

dreb ships with mach6 — a built-in development workflow (issue → plan → push → review → fix → publish) that uses GitHub as shared memory and multi-agent code review. See docs/mach6.md.

Extensions

TypeScript modules that extend dreb with custom tools, commands, keyboard shortcuts, event handlers, and UI components.

export default function (dreb: ExtensionAPI) {
  dreb.registerTool({ name: "deploy", ... });
  dreb.registerCommand("stats", { ... });
  dreb.on("tool_call", async (event, ctx) => { ... });
}

What's possible:

• Custom tools (or replace built-in tools entirely)
• Plan mode and custom agent workflows
• Custom compaction and summarization
• Permission gates and path protection
• Custom editors and UI components
• Status lines, headers, footers
• Git checkpointing and auto-commit
• SSH and sandbox execution
• MCP server integration
• Make dreb look like Claude Code
• Games while waiting (yes, Doom runs)
• ...anything you can dream up

Place in ~/.dreb/agent/extensions/, .dreb/extensions/, or a package to share with others. See docs/extensions.md and examples/extensions/.

Themes

Built-in: dark, light. Themes hot-reload: modify the active theme file and dreb immediately applies changes.

Place in ~/.dreb/agent/themes/, .dreb/themes/, or a package to share with others. See docs/themes.md.

Packages

Bundle and share extensions, skills, prompts, and themes via npm or git.

Note: Third-party packages can include extensions (arbitrary code) and skills (model instructions). Skim what you're installing, same as any other dependency.

dreb install npm:@foo/my-tools
dreb install npm:@foo/[email protected]      # pinned version
dreb install git:github.com/user/repo
dreb install git:github.com/user/repo@v1  # tag or commit
dreb install git:[email protected]:user/repo
dreb install git:[email protected]:user/repo@v1  # tag or commit
dreb install https://github.com/user/repo
dreb install https://github.com/user/repo@v1      # tag or commit
dreb install ssh://[email protected]/user/repo
dreb install ssh://[email protected]/user/repo@v1    # tag or commit
dreb remove npm:@foo/my-tools
dreb uninstall npm:@foo/my-tools          # alias for remove
dreb list
dreb update                               # skips pinned packages
dreb config                               # enable/disable extensions, skills, prompts, themes

Packages install to ~/.dreb/agent/git/ (git) or global npm. Use -l for project-local installs (.dreb/git/, .dreb/npm/). If you use a Node version manager and want package installs to reuse a stable npm context, set npmCommand in settings.json, for example ["mise", "exec", "node@20", "--", "npm"].

Create a package by adding a dreb key to package.json:

{
  "name": "my-dreb-package",
  "keywords": ["dreb-package"],
  "dreb": {
    "extensions": ["./extensions"],
    "skills": ["./skills"],
    "prompts": ["./prompts"],
    "themes": ["./themes"]
  }
}

Without a dreb manifest, dreb auto-discovers from conventional directories (extensions/, skills/, prompts/, themes/).

See docs/packages.md.

Programmatic Usage

SDK

import { AuthStorage, createAgentSession, ModelRegistry, SessionManager } from "@dreb/coding-agent";

const { session } = await createAgentSession({
  sessionManager: SessionManager.inMemory(),
  authStorage: AuthStorage.create(),
  modelRegistry: new ModelRegistry(authStorage),
});

await session.prompt("What files are in the current directory?");

See docs/sdk.md and examples/sdk/.

RPC Mode

For non-Node.js integrations, use RPC mode over stdin/stdout:

dreb --mode rpc

RPC mode uses strict LF-delimited JSONL framing. Clients must split records on \n only. Do not use generic line readers like Node readline, which also split on Unicode separators inside JSON payloads.

See docs/rpc.md for the protocol.

CLI Reference

dreb [options] [@files...] [messages...]

Package Commands

dreb install <source> [-l]     # Install package, -l for project-local
dreb remove <source> [-l]      # Remove package
dreb uninstall <source> [-l]   # Alias for remove
dreb update [source]           # Update packages (skips pinned)
dreb list                      # List installed packages
dreb config                    # Enable/disable package resources

Modes

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | (default) | Interactive mode | | -p, --print | Print response and exit | | --mode json | Output all events as JSON lines (see docs/json.md) | | --mode rpc | RPC mode for process integration (see docs/rpc.md) | | --export <in> [out] | Export session to HTML |

In print mode, dreb also reads piped stdin and merges it into the initial prompt:

cat README.md | dreb -p "Summarize this text"

Model Options

| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | --provider <name> | Provider (anthropic, openai, google, etc.) | | --model <pattern> | Model pattern or ID (supports provider/id and optional :<thinking>) | | --api-key <key> | API key (overrides env vars) | | --thinking <level> | off, minimal, low, medium, high, xhigh | | --models <patterns> | Comma-separated patterns for model cycling | | --list-models [search] | List available models |

Session Options

| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | -c, --continue | Continue most recent session | | -r, --resume | Browse and select session | | --session <path> | Use specific session file or partial UUID | | --fork <path> | Fork specific session file or partial UUID into a new session | | --session-dir <dir> | Custom session storage directory | | --no-session | Ephemeral mode (don't save) |

Tool Options

| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | --tools <list> | Comma-separated list of tools to enable (default: all) | | --no-tools | Disable all built-in tools (extension tools still work) |

Available built-in tools: read, bash, edit, write, grep, find, ls, web_search, web_fetch, subagent

Three additional tools are always active but don't appear in --tools:

• search — semantic codebase search using natural language queries
• skill — invokes skills programmatically
• tasks_update — session task tracking with TUI panel

Resource Options

| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | -e, --extension <source> | Load extension from path, npm, or git (repeatable) | | --no-extensions | Disable extension discovery | | --skill <path> | Load skill (repeatable) | | --no-skills | Disable skill discovery | | --prompt-template <path> | Load prompt template (repeatable) | | --no-prompt-templates | Disable prompt template discovery | | --theme <path> | Load theme (repeatable) | | --no-themes | Disable theme discovery |

Combine --no-* with explicit flags to load exactly what you need, ignoring settings.json (e.g., --no-extensions -e ./my-ext.ts).

Other Options

| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | --system-prompt <text> | Replace default prompt (context files and skills still appended) | | --append-system-prompt <text> | Append to system prompt | | --verbose | Force verbose startup | | --offline | Disable startup network ops (same as DREB_OFFLINE=1) | | -h, --help | Show help | | -v, --version | Show version |

File Arguments

Prefix files with @ to include in the message:

dreb @prompt.md "Answer this"
dreb -p @screenshot.png "What's in this image?"
dreb @code.ts @test.ts "Review these files"

Examples

# Interactive with initial prompt
dreb "List all .ts files in src/"

# Non-interactive
dreb -p "Summarize this codebase"

# Non-interactive with piped stdin
cat README.md | dreb -p "Summarize this text"

# Different model
dreb --provider openai --model gpt-4o "Help me refactor"

# Model with provider prefix (no --provider needed)
dreb --model openai/gpt-4o "Help me refactor"

# Model with thinking level shorthand
dreb --model sonnet:high "Solve this complex problem"

# Limit model cycling
dreb --models "claude-*,gpt-4o"

# Read-only mode
dreb --tools read,grep,find,ls -p "Review the code"

# High thinking level
dreb --thinking high "Solve this complex problem"

Environment Variables

| Variable | Description | |----------|-------------| | DREB_CODING_AGENT_DIR | Override config directory (default: ~/.dreb/agent) | | DREB_PACKAGE_DIR | Override package directory (useful for Nix/Guix where store paths tokenize poorly) | | DREB_CACHE_RETENTION | Set to long for extended prompt cache (Anthropic: 1h, OpenAI: 24h) | | DREB_OFFLINE | Disable startup network ops (same as --offline) | | VISUAL, EDITOR | External editor for Ctrl+G |

Contributing & Development

See docs/development.md for setup, forking, and debugging.

License

MIT

See Also

• packages/ai — Core LLM toolkit (model registry, provider APIs, streaming)
• packages/agent — Agent framework (agent loop, event system, types)
• packages/tui — Terminal UI components