Kilo Code CLI

Terminal User Interface for Kilo Code

Installation

npm install -g @kilocode/cli

Then, make sure you place your Kilo Code API token in the CLI config:

kilocode config # this opens up your editor

You can find your Kilo Code API token on your profile page at app.kilo.ai, and place it in the kilocodeToken field in the CLI config.

Known Issues

Theme Detection

We don't detect the theme of your terminal, and are aware the the current theme doesn't work well on light mode terminals. Switch to the light theme using using kilocode config.

Outdated dependency warnings

When installing Kilo Code CLI you'll be greeted by some scary looking dependency deprecation warnings. We're aware of the issue and will resolve it shortly.

Windows Support

We've only tested the CLI on Mac and Linux, and are aware that there are some issues on Windows. For now, if you can, we advise you to use a WSL environment to run the CLI.

Usage

Interactive Mode

# Start interactive chat session
kilocode

# Start with a specific mode
kilocode --mode architect

# Start with a specific workspace
kilocode --workspace /path/to/project

# Resume the last conversation from this workspace
kilocode -c
# or
kilocode --continue

Parallel mode

Parallel mode allows multiple Kilo Code instances to work in parallel on the same directory, without conflicts. You can spawn as many Kilo Code instances as you need! Once finished, changes will be available on a separate git branch.

# Prerequisite: must be within a valid git repository

# In interactive mode, changes will be committed on /exit
# Terminal 1
kilocode --parallel "improve xyz"
# Terminal 2
kilocode --parallel "improve abc"

# Pairs great with auto mode 🚀
# Terminal 1
kilocode --parallel --auto "improve xyz"
# Terminal 2
kilocode --parallel --auto "improve abc"

Custom System Prompt

Append custom instructions to the system prompt:

# Inline text
kilocode --append-system-prompt "Always use TypeScript strict mode"

# From a file
kilocode --append-system-prompt-file ./prompts/custom-instructions.md

# Both (inline text first, then file content)
kilocode --append-system-prompt "Context: Production deployment" \
         --append-system-prompt-file ./prompts/deploy-guidelines.md

Autonomous mode (Non-Interactive)

Autonomous mode allows Kilo Code to run in automated environments like CI/CD pipelines without requiring user interaction.

# Run in autonomous mode with a prompt
kilocode --auto "Implement feature X"

# Run in autonomous mode with piped input
echo "Fix the bug in app.ts" | kilocode --auto

# Run in autonomous mode with timeout (in seconds)
kilocode --auto "Run tests" --timeout 300

Task Completion Hook

Use --on-task-completed to send a follow-up prompt to the agent when the main task completes. This is useful for automating post-task actions like creating pull requests.

# Create a PR after the task completes
kilocode --auto "Implement feature X" --on-task-completed "Create a pull request with a descriptive title and body"

# Run tests and report results
kilocode --auto "Fix the failing tests" --on-task-completed "Summarize what was fixed and verify all tests pass"

# Commit changes with a specific message format
kilocode --auto "Refactor the auth module" --on-task-completed "Commit all changes with a conventional commit message"

Requirements:

• Requires --auto mode
• Prompt cannot be empty
• Maximum prompt length: 50,000 characters

Behavior:

• After the main task completes, the prompt is sent to the agent as a follow-up message
• The agent has 90 seconds to complete the follow-up action
• Supports markdown, special characters, and multi-line prompts

Autonomous mode Behavior

When running in Autonomous mode (--auto flag):

1. No User Interaction: All approval requests are handled automatically based on configuration
2. Auto-Approval/Rejection: Operations are approved or rejected based on your auto-approval settings
3. Follow-up Questions: Automatically responded with a message instructing the AI to make autonomous decisions
4. Automatic Exit: The CLI exits automatically when the task completes or times out

Auto-Approval Configuration

Autonomous mode respects your auto-approval configuration. Edit your config file with kilocode config to customize:

{
	"autoApproval": {
		"enabled": true,
		"read": {
			"enabled": true,
			"outside": true
		},
		"write": {
			"enabled": true,
			"outside": false,
			"protected": false
		},
		"execute": {
			"enabled": true,
			"allowed": ["npm", "git", "pnpm"],
			"denied": ["rm -rf", "sudo"]
		},
		"browser": {
			"enabled": false
		},
		"mcp": {
			"enabled": true
		},
		"mode": {
			"enabled": true
		},
		"subtasks": {
			"enabled": true
		},
		"question": {
			"enabled": false,
			"timeout": 60
		},
		"retry": {
			"enabled": true,
			"delay": 10
		},
		"todo": {
			"enabled": true
		}
	}
}

Configuration Options:

• read: Auto-approve file read operations
  • outside: Allow reading files outside workspace
• write: Auto-approve file write operations
  • outside: Allow writing files outside workspace
  • protected: Allow writing to protected files (e.g., package.json)
• execute: Auto-approve command execution
  • allowed: List of allowed command patterns (e.g., ["npm", "git"])
  • denied: List of denied command patterns (takes precedence)
• browser: Auto-approve browser operations
• mcp: Auto-approve MCP tool usage
• mode: Auto-approve mode switching
• subtasks: Auto-approve subtask creation
• question: Auto-approve follow-up questions
• retry: Auto-approve API retry requests
• todo: Auto-approve todo list updates

Context Management Configuration

You can also configure context management settings:

{
	"maxConcurrentFileReads": 5
}

Configuration Options:

• maxConcurrentFileReads: Maximum number of files that can be read in a single read_file request (default: 5, minimum: 1). The AI will be instructed about this limit and requests exceeding it will be rejected. Set to 1 to disable multi-file reads.

Command Approval Patterns

The execute.allowed and execute.denied lists support hierarchical pattern matching:

• Base command: "git" matches any git command (e.g., git status, git commit, git push)
• Command + subcommand: "git status" matches any git status command (e.g., git status --short, git status -v)
• Full command: "git status --short" only matches exactly git status --short

Example:

{
	"execute": {
		"enabled": true,
		"allowed": [
			"npm", // Allows all npm commands
			"git status", // Allows all git status commands
			"ls -la" // Only allows exactly "ls -la"
		],
		"denied": [
			"git push --force" // Denies this specific command even if "git" is allowed
		]
	}
}

Interactive Command Approval

When running in interactive mode, command approval requests now show hierarchical options:

[!] Action Required:
> ✓ Run Command (y)
  ✓ Always run git (1)
  ✓ Always run git status (2)
  ✓ Always run git status --short --branch (3)
  ✗ Reject (n)

Selecting an "Always run" option will:

1. Approve and execute the current command
2. Add the pattern to your execute.allowed list in the config
3. Auto-approve matching commands in the future

This allows you to progressively build your auto-approval rules without manually editing the config file.

Autonomous mode Follow-up Questions

In Autonomous mode, when the AI asks a follow-up question, it receives this response:

"This process is running in non-interactive Autonomous mode. The user cannot make decisions, so you should make the decision autonomously."

This instructs the AI to proceed without user input.

Exit Codes

• 0: Success (task completed)
• 124: Timeout (task exceeded time limit)
• 130: SIGINT interruption (Ctrl+C)
• 143: SIGTERM interruption (system termination)
• 1: Error (initialization or execution failure)

Example CI/CD Integration

# GitHub Actions example
- name: Run Kilo Code
  run: |
      echo "Implement the new feature" | kilocode --auto --timeout 600

Local Development

See Development Guide for setup instructions.