Grip

New issues and PRs from new contributors are auto-closed by default. Maintainers review auto-closed issues daily. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Grip is a minimal terminal coding harness. Adapt Grip to your workflows without forking and modifying its internals. Extend it with TypeScript Extensions, Skills, Rules, Prompt Templates, and Themes. Bundle those resources into Grip Packages to share through npm or git.

Grip ships with powerful defaults and built-in isolated job delegation, while leaving broader workflows such as plan mode to extensions and packages.

Grip runs in four modes: interactive, print or JSON, RPC for process integration, and an SDK for embedding in your own apps. The linked openclaw/openclaw is an upstream Pi SDK integration, not a verified Grip integration.

Upstream session sharing (historical reference)

The following upstream Pi sharing workflow is retained for attribution; pi-share-hf is not a verified Grip integration. If you use Pi for open source work, please share your coding agent sessions.

Public OSS session data helps improve models, prompts, tools, and evaluations using real development workflows.

For the full explanation, see this post on X.

To publish sessions, use badlogic/pi-share-hf. Read its README.md for setup instructions. All you need is a Hugging Face account, the Hugging Face CLI, and pi-share-hf.

You can also watch this video, where I show how I publish my pi-mono sessions.

I regularly publish my own pi-mono work sessions here:

• badlogicgames/pi-mono on Hugging Face

Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• Providers & Models
• Interactive Mode
  • Editor
  • Commands
  • Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Message Queue
• Sessions
  • Branching
  • Compaction
• Settings
• Remote Daemon
• Lima Sandbox
• Customization
  • Prompt Templates
  • Skills
  • Rules
  • Extensions
  • Themes
  • Grip Packages
• Programmatic Usage
• Philosophy
• CLI Reference

Quick Start

Install the single Grip executable from a published, checksummed GitHub release; no npm or Bun is required on the destination machine:

# macOS/Linux (inspect the installer first)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/greppleai/grip/main/install.sh | sh

# Windows PowerShell
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/greppleai/grip/main/install.ps1 | iex

These URLs become active only after the scripts and release assets are published. Rerun the installer to update; set GRIP_VERSION=vX.Y.Z to pin a release. The old https://pi.dev/install.sh installs upstream Pi, not Grip. See manual migration when replacing an existing Pi installation.

For extension or SDK development with Node.js, npm releases also include @greppleai/grip, @greppleai/grip-ai, @greppleai/grip-agent-core, and @greppleai/grip-tui. Install the CLI with npm install -g @greppleai/grip if you prefer npm over the standalone binary.

Authenticate with an API key:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
grip

Or use your existing subscription:

grip
/login  # Then select provider

Then just talk to Grip. By default, Grip gives the model file and shell tools plus the job tool for bounded jobs; see job usage. Disable job delegation via /settings or "enableJobs": false in settings.json if you prefer. The model uses enabled tools to fulfill your requests. Add capabilities via skills, prompt templates, extensions, or packages.

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

Providers & Models

Grip generates built-in model catalogs from upstream metadata on first startup and caches them in ~/.grip/agent/ (or GRIP_CODING_AGENT_DIR). Once you sign in to Codex, Grip separately discovers the models listed for your ChatGPT account and caches them per account. With an OpenRouter key, Grip filters its model list using OpenRouter's user-specific endpoint and caches eligible IDs per key. First use requires network access; subsequent starts reuse the caches and check for updates. Run /model --refresh to fetch immediately, including account-filtered models; --offline uses cached catalogs without making startup requests. Authenticate via subscription (/login) or API key, then open /model (or Ctrl+L) to choose a provider and model. The provider screen always appears, even with only one provider. See model selection and extension migration for navigation, scoped/all switching, and direct or cross-provider search.

Subscriptions:

• Anthropic Claude Pro/Max
• OpenAI ChatGPT Plus/Pro (Codex)
• GitHub Copilot

API keys:

• Anthropic
• OpenAI
• Azure OpenAI
• DeepSeek
• Google Gemini
• Google Vertex
• Amazon Bedrock
• Mistral
• Groq
• Cerebras
• Cloudflare AI Gateway
• Cloudflare Workers AI
• xAI
• OpenRouter
• Vercel AI Gateway
• ZAI
• OpenCode Zen
• OpenCode Go
• Hugging Face
• Fireworks
• Together AI
• Kimi For Coding
• MiniMax
• Xiaomi MiMo
• Xiaomi MiMo Token Plan (China)
• Xiaomi MiMo Token Plan (Amsterdam)
• Xiaomi MiMo Token Plan (Singapore)

See docs/providers.md for detailed setup instructions.

Custom providers & models: Add providers via ~/.grip/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, active profile

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) | | Clipboard | Ctrl+V to paste an image or text (Alt+V on Windows), or drag images 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 | Manage model-provider credentials | | /websearch login | Choose a web search engine and configure its API key | | /model | Switch models | | /image [show\|clear\|model-id] | Show, reset, or set the Codex image-generation model for the active profile (global without a profile) | | /job model show, /job model set --model <provider/model-id>, /job model clear | Inspect, set, or clear the active profile's job model (global without a profile) | | /profile list, /profile create <name>, /profile use <name> | List, snapshot, or switch named settings profiles (switching is session-only) | | /profile directory <name> <absolute-path>, /profile directory clear <absolute-path> | Assign or remove a directory-prefix profile rule | | /profile sandbox <name> --name <vm> [--autoconnect on\|off] | Choose an existing VM with name completion and set startup auto-connection in one command; options also work separately | | /scoped-models | Enable/disable models for Ctrl+P cycling | | /settings | Thinking level, theme, message delivery, transport | | /resume | Pick from previous sessions | | /new | Start a new session; keep the currently connected sandbox if any | | /name <name> | Set session display name | | /session | Show session info (file, ID, messages, tokens, cost) | | /tree | Jump to any point in the session and continue from there | | /fork | Create a new session from a previous user message | | /clone | Duplicate the current active branch into a new session | | /compact [prompt] | Manually compact context, optional custom instructions | | /context-compression [on\|off] | Show or change agent-initiated compression for this session (default: off) | | /compress-detection [on\|off] | Show or change background detection for this session (default: off); enabling also enables compression | | /compress-detection-model [provider/model-id\|clear] | Choose a detector model and enable detection for this session, or clear it | | /copy | Copy last assistant message to clipboard | | /export [file] | Export session to HTML file | | /share | Upload as private GitHub gist with shareable HTML link | | /reload | Reload keybindings, hooks, extensions, skills, rules, prompts, and context files (themes hot-reload automatically) | | /hotkeys | Show all keyboard shortcuts | | /changelog | Display version history | | /quit | Quit Grip |

Keyboard Shortcuts

See /hotkeys for the full list. Customize via ~/.grip/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 | | Ctrl+L | Open model selector | | Ctrl+P / Shift+Ctrl+P | Cycle scoped models forward/backward | | Shift+Tab | Cycle thinking level | | Ctrl+O | Collapse/expand tool output | | Ctrl+T | Collapse/expand thinking blocks | | Ctrl+X | Copy the last assistant message |

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 Grip 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-format.md for file format.

Management

Sessions auto-save to ~/.grip/agent/sessions/ organized by working directory. Existing sessions under ~/.pi/agent/sessions/ are not discovered automatically; see manual migration.

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

Use `/session` in interactive mode to see the current session ID before reusing it with `--session <id>` or `--fork <id>`.

### 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.

<p align="center"><img src="docs/images/tree-view.png" alt="Historical upstream Pi tree-view screenshot; Grip paths and branding differ" width="600"></p>

- 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 Ctrl+X to copy the selected entry
- Press Shift+L to label entries as bookmarks and Shift+T to toggle label timestamps

**`/fork`** - Create a new session file from a previous user message on the active branch. Opens a selector, copies the active path up to that point, and places the selected prompt in the editor for modification.

**`/clone`** - Duplicate the current active branch into a new session file at the current position. The new session keeps the full active-path history and opens with an empty editor.

**`--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, but the full history remains in the JSONL file. The model can use `session_search` to locate finalized entries omitted from context and `session_entry_get` to retrieve one exact model-visible entry; `/tree` remains available for interactive navigation. The `compress_context` tool uses context metadata entry IDs to replace a tail—or an earlier bounded range via `endEntryId`—with a summary while retaining later messages and archiving the originals on another branch. Customize compaction behavior via [extensions](#extensions). See [docs/compaction.md](docs/compaction.md) for internals.

---

## Settings

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

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

See [docs/settings.md](docs/settings.md) for all options.

### Telemetry and update checks

Grip has two separate startup features:

- **Update check:** fetches npm metadata for `@greppleai/grip` to check for a newer version when that package is available. Disable it with `GRIP_SKIP_VERSION_CHECK=1`. Disabling update checks only turns off this check.
- **Install/update telemetry:** after first install or a changelog-detected update, the current implementation sends an anonymous version ping to the upstream `https://pi.dev/api/report-install` endpoint. This is not a verified Grip service. Opt out by setting `enableInstallTelemetry` to `false` in `settings.json`, or by setting `GRIP_TELEMETRY=0`. This does not disable update checks; Grip may still contact the npm registry unless update checks are disabled or offline mode is enabled.

Use `--offline` or `GRIP_OFFLINE=1` to disable all startup network operations described here, including update checks, package update checks, and install/update telemetry.

---

## Remote Daemon

`grip --daemon` starts an integrated remote workspace daemon from the `@greppleai/grip` package. The local Grip process remains the orchestrator for model calls, credentials, sessions, prompts, extensions, jobs, RPC, and UI; the daemon owns one confined workspace for canonical tools, project resources, file transfer, and optional process execution.

Start a daemon:

```bash
GRIP_DAEMON_TOKEN='replace-with-a-random-token-at-least-32-bytes-long' grip --daemon --daemon-cwd /workspace --daemon-port 8787

Connect from a local Grip process:

GRIP_REMOTE_TOKEN='replace-with-a-random-token-at-least-32-bytes-long' grip --remote ws://127.0.0.1:8787/grip/workspace

There is no separate Grip daemon package or executable. See docs/daemon.md for topology, security, configuration, Docker, resources/extensions behavior, troubleshooting, and migration.

Lima Sandbox

Interactive /sandbox manages workspace backends through Lima VMs or attaches to existing sandbox daemons. The command is user-only and hidden from model-visible catalogs. Local Grip keeps model/session/UI orchestration while workspace tools run in the selected backend. See docs/sandbox.md for VM commands, configuration, troubleshooting, and security limits.

Context Files

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

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

If a directory contains AGENTS.override.md, Grip loads it instead of AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md from that directory. Context files from other directories still layer normally, including when project instructions come from a daemon tool backend.

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

Disable context file loading with --no-context-files (or -nc).

System Prompt

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

Customization

Prompt Templates

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

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

Place in ~/.grip/agent/prompts/, .grip/prompts/, or a Grip 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 let the agent load them automatically.

<!-- ~/.grip/agent/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md -->
# My Skill
Use this skill when the user asks about X.

## Steps
1. Do this
2. Then that

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

Rules

On-demand mandatory constraints and policies. Invoke via /rule:name or let the agent load them automatically when the task or files match the rule description.

<!-- ~/.grip/agent/rules/typescript/RULES.md -->
---
name: typescript
description: Mandatory TypeScript rules. Load before editing *.ts or *.tsx files.
---

# TypeScript Rules

- No `any` unless absolutely necessary.
- Use top-level imports only.

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

Extensions

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

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

The default export can also be async. Grip waits for async extension factories before startup continues, which is useful for one-time initialization such as fetching remote model lists before calling grip.registerProvider().

What's possible:

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

Place in ~/.grip/agent/extensions/, .grip/extensions/, or a Grip 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 Grip immediately applies changes.

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

Grip Packages

Bundle and share extensions, skills, rules, prompts, and themes via npm or git. The upstream Pi package keyword and upstream Pi community are historical discovery links, not a verified Grip registry or community.

Security: Grip packages run with full system access. Extensions execute arbitrary code, and skills can instruct the model to perform any action including running executables. Review source code before installing third-party packages.

grip install npm:@foo/grip-tools              # illustrative package name, not a verified npm listing
grip install npm:@foo/[email protected]        # pinned version
grip install git:github.com/user/repo
grip install git:github.com/user/repo@v1      # tag or commit
grip install git:[email protected]:user/repo
grip install git:[email protected]:user/repo@v1  # tag or commit
grip install https://github.com/user/repo
grip install https://github.com/user/repo@v1      # tag or commit
grip install ssh://[email protected]/user/repo
grip install ssh://[email protected]/user/repo@v1    # tag or commit
grip remove npm:@foo/grip-tools
grip uninstall npm:@foo/grip-tools          # alias for remove
grip list
grip update                               # update Grip and packages (skips pinned packages)
grip update --extensions                  # update packages only
grip update --self                        # update Grip only
grip update --self --force                # reinstall Grip even if current
grip update npm:@foo/grip-tools             # update one package
grip config                               # enable/disable extensions, skills, rules, prompts, themes

Packages install to ~/.grip/agent/git/ (git) or ~/.grip/agent/npm/ (npm). Use -l for project-local installs (.grip/git/, .grip/npm/). Git @ref values are pinned tags or commits; pinned packages are skipped by grip update, so use grip install git:host/user/repo@new-ref to move an existing package to a new ref. Git packages install dependencies with npm install --omit=dev by default, so runtime deps must be listed under dependencies; when npmCommand is configured, git packages use plain install for compatibility with wrappers. 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 grip key to package.json:

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

Without a grip manifest, Grip auto-discovers from conventional directories (extensions/, skills/, rules/, prompts/, themes/). The grip-package keyword above is illustrative metadata, not required by the loader.

See docs/packages.md.

Programmatic Usage

SDK

import { AuthStorage, InMemorySessionManager, ModelRegistry, GripAgent } from "@greppleai/grip";

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

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

For advanced multi-session flows, use GripAgent methods such as newSession(), switchSession(), fork(), and importFromJsonl().

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

RPC Mode

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

grip --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.

Philosophy

Grip is aggressively extensible so it does not have to dictate your workflow. Features that other tools bake in can be built with extensions, skills, or installed from third-party Grip packages. This keeps the core minimal while letting you shape Grip to fit how you work.

No MCP. Build CLI tools with READMEs (see Skills), or build an extension that adds MCP support. Why?

Focused jobs. The built-in job tool is enabled by default and offloads bounded tasks to fresh in-memory sessions with isolated conversations and shared authentication. Each child uses the main agent's normal prompt builder, including current project instructions and available skills, with a bounded-job overlay; the parent verifies results and owns the final answer. Pass task for one job, tasks for independent parallel jobs, or chain for sequential jobs with {previous} handoff. Each task can specify tools, skills, cwd, and responseFormat. Run /job model set --model provider/model-id to set a job model for the active profile (or globally when no profile is active); /job model clear restores GRIP_DEFAULT_JOB_MODEL, then the parent model. Extensions and packages can provide other orchestration models.

No permission popups. Run in a container, or build your own confirmation flow with extensions inline with your environment and security requirements.

No plan mode. Write plans to files, or build it with extensions, or install a package.

No built-in to-dos. They confuse models. Use a TODO.md file, or build your own with extensions.

No background bash. Use tmux. Full observability, direct interaction.

Read the blog post for the full rationale.

CLI Reference

grip [options] [@files...] [messages...]

Package Commands

grip install <source> [-l]     # Install package, -l for project-local
grip remove <source> [-l]      # Remove package
grip uninstall <source> [-l]   # Alias for remove
grip update [source|self|grip] # Update Grip and packages (skips pinned packages)
grip update --extensions       # Update packages only
grip update --self             # Update Grip only
grip update --self --force     # Reinstall Grip even if current
grip update --extension <src>  # Update one package
grip list                      # List installed packages
grip 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, Grip also reads piped stdin and merges it into the initial prompt:

cat README.md | grip -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 Ctrl+P 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\|id> | Use specific session file or partial UUID | | --fork <path\|id> | 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>, -t <list> | Allowlist specific tool names across built-in, extension, and custom tools | | --no-builtin-tools, -nbt | Disable built-in tools by default but keep extension/custom tools enabled | | --no-tools, -nt | Disable all tools by default | | --remote <url> | Run built-in workspace tools through a grip --daemon WebSocket backend | | --remote-deferred | Start with a deferred daemon backend and connect later with /sandbox --attach <ws://url> | | --remote-cwd <path> | Stable daemon workspace cwd for deferred remote mode | | --daemon | Start the integrated remote workspace daemon instead of a normal Grip session | Available built-in tools include read_image, read, bash, edit, write, grep, find, ls, websearch, session_search, session_entry_get, compress_context, and job. By default read_image, bash, write, websearch, session_search, session_entry_get, and job are active; read, edit, grep, find, and ls remain available through explicit tool selection. Context compression is opt-in via /context-compression on, GRIP_CONTEXT_COMPRESSION=1, or an explicit --tools allowlist. Background detection is separately opt-in via /compress-detection on or GRIP_CONTEXT_COMPRESSION_DETECTION=1 and requires a configured detector model. Disable job delegation with /settings or "enableJobs": false; an explicit --tools allowlist can still select job independently. An explicit parent tool allowlist also limits tools available to its jobs; --no-tools and --no-builtin-tools remain authoritative.

The built-in read_image tool accepts image files only and returns an image payload for model input; it rejects text files without exposing their contents. The separate text-file read tool remains opt-in and must be selected explicitly (for example, --tools read). Large images may be resized, and image size/format limits and vision support depend on the selected model/provider.

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 | | --rule <path> | Load rule (repeatable) | | --no-rules | Disable rule 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 | | --no-context-files, -nc | Disable AGENTS.override.md, AGENTS.md, and CLAUDE.md context file 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 | | --tui-mode <mode> | TUI mode: regular (default) or experimental fullscreen | | --verbose | Force verbose startup | | -h, --help | Show help | | -v, --version | Show version |

fullscreen keeps the transcript in an application-owned viewport above a fixed status/editor/footer dock. regular retains the main screen and terminal-owned scrollback. Set TUI mode in /settings for future sessions or use --tui-mode for one startup.

File Arguments

Prefix files with @ to include in the message:

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

Examples

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

# Start an integrated remote workspace daemon
GRIP_DAEMON_TOKEN='replace-with-a-random-token-at-least-32-bytes-long' grip --daemon --daemon-cwd /workspace --daemon-port 8787

# Connect to that daemon from the orchestrating Grip
GRIP_REMOTE_TOKEN='replace-with-a-random-token-at-least-32-bytes-long' grip --remote ws://127.0.0.1:8787/grip/workspace
# Start with a deferred daemon backend for later RPC or /sandbox attachment
grip --remote-deferred --remote-cwd /workspace --mode rpc

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

Environment Variables

| Variable | Description | |----------|-------------| | GRIP_CODING_AGENT_DIR | Override config directory (default: ~/.grip/agent) | | GRIP_CODING_AGENT_SESSION_DIR | Override session storage directory (overridden by --session-dir) | | GRIP_REMOTE_TOKEN | Bearer token sent by the Grip remote-workspace client to grip --daemon | | GRIP_REMOTE_SESSION_BASE_URL | Remote session service URL (overridden by --remote-session-base-url) | | GRIP_REMOTE_SESSION_TOKEN | Bearer token for remote session service (overridden by --remote-session-token) | | GRIP_REMOTE_PROJECT_ID | Project id sent to remote session service (overridden by --remote-project-id) | | GRIP_PACKAGE_DIR | Override package directory (useful for Nix/Guix where store paths tokenize poorly) | | GRIP_OFFLINE | Disable startup network operations, including update checks, package update checks, and install/update telemetry | | GRIP_SKIP_VERSION_CHECK | Skip the Grip version update check at startup. This prevents the npm metadata request | | GRIP_TELEMETRY | Override install/update telemetry. Use 1/true/yes to enable or 0/false/no to disable. This does not disable update checks | | GRIP_CONTEXT_COMPRESSION | Set to 1 to enable compress_context by default for all agents. Detection remains off | | GRIP_CONTEXT_COMPRESSION_DETECTION | Set to 1 to enable background detection and compress_context for all agents. Requires a configured compressionDetectionModel | | GRIP_CACHE_RETENTION | Set to long for extended prompt cache (Anthropic: 1h, OpenAI: 24h) | | GRIP_DEFAULT_JOB_MODEL | Optional provider/model-id used for built-in jobs unless trusted global or profile jobModel is set; unset inherits the parent model. An invalid/unavailable model fails the job rather than silently falling back | | VISUAL, EDITOR | External editor for Ctrl+G | | GRIP_DAEMON_HOST, GRIP_DAEMON_PORT, GRIP_DAEMON_CWD, GRIP_DAEMON_TOKEN | Integrated daemon bind address, port, workspace root, and bearer token | | GRIP_DAEMON_TEMP_ROOT | Optional additional confined daemon temporary root; the default sandbox image uses /tmp |

Contributing & Development

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

License

MIT

See Also

• @greppleai/grip-ai: Core LLM toolkit
• @greppleai/grip-agent-core: Agent framework
• @greppleai/grip-tui: Terminal UI components