tau

Tau is a terminal-based AI chat client for working with code.

Install

Tau supports macOS and Linux and requires Node.js 24 or newer.

npm install -g @markusylisiurunen/tau@latest

First run

Provide a credential for the model provider you want to use:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY='sk-ant-...'

Then start Tau in a project:

cd ~/Code/my-project
tau

Documentation

The Tau documentation is the canonical, version-matched product guide. The running host exposes the same files to agents through the intrinsic tau_docs tool, so people and agents work from the same contracts.

Once your first session is running, you can ask Tau itself what it can do:

Using Tau's built-in documentation, briefly explain what Tau can do, covering its core features, built-in tools, optional services, and integrations.

Or go directly to:

• Getting started
• Configuration
• Session protocol
• Node SDK
• Remote sessions
• Security