@zensation/cli

ZenAI CLI Agent — a terminal AI assistant with filesystem tools and, optionally, ZenAI's persistent memory and knowledge graph.

zenai is a terminal agent in the spirit of Claude Code: it runs an agentic loop over Claude with a set of filesystem tools, so you can read, search, and reason over a project from the command line. When pointed at a running ZenAI backend it additionally gains persistent memory and knowledge-graph tools; without one, it runs in local-only mode.

Install

npm install -g @zensation/cli

Or run it without installing:

npx @zensation/cli "summarize the TypeScript files in this folder"

Quick start

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...      # required

# Interactive REPL
zenai

# One-shot question
zenai "what does src/index.ts do?"

Usage

zenai                     Interactive REPL mode
zenai "your question"     One-shot mode
zenai --help              Show help
zenai --version           Show version

In the REPL:

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | /status | Show backend connection, tool count, project, and session | | /clear | Clear the conversation history | | /exit (or exit) | Exit |

Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables:

| Variable | Required | Default | Description | |----------|:--------:|---------|-------------| | ANTHROPIC_API_KEY | yes | — | Claude API key | | ZENAI_MODEL | no | claude-sonnet-4-20250514 | Claude model to use | | ZENAI_MAX_TOKENS | no | 4096 | Maximum response tokens | | ZENAI_MAX_ITERATIONS | no | 25 | Maximum agent-loop iterations | | ZENAI_BACKEND_URL | no | — | ZenAI backend URL (enables memory + knowledge-graph tools) | | ZENAI_BACKEND_API_KEY | no | — | ZenAI backend API key |

Memory & knowledge graph (optional)

Set ZENAI_BACKEND_URL (and ZENAI_BACKEND_API_KEY) to connect to a running ZenAI backend. The agent then gains tools backed by ZenAI's 7-layer memory and knowledge graph, so context persists across sessions. If no backend is reachable, zenai reports local-only mode and runs with the filesystem tools alone.

Part of ZenAI

This CLI lives in the ZenAI monorepo and builds on the same neuroscience-inspired memory system published as @zensation/core and @zensation/algorithms.

License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.