CodeNaut

AI-powered terminal coding assistant.

Chat with AI in your terminal. Read/write/edit files, run commands, search code — all through natural language.

Install

npm install -g codenaut

Or use without installing:

npx codenaut chat

Quick Start

# Start a chat session
codenaut chat

# Start with TUI interface
codenaut chat --tui

# Use a specific model
codenaut chat -p custom --base-url https://api.deepseek.com/v1 --api-key YOUR_KEY -m deepseek-chat

# Use with a custom provider name
codenaut chat -p custom --provider-name "DeepSeek" --base-url https://api.deepseek.com/v1 --api-key YOUR_KEY -m deepseek-chat

# Resume a previous session
codenaut chat -s sess-abc123

Configuration

Config file

Create ~/.codenaut/config.json:

{
  "provider": {
    "type": "custom",
    "apiKey": "your-api-key",
    "model": "glm-5.1",
    "baseURL": "https://open.bigmodel.cn/api/coding/paas/v4",
    "providerName": "My Provider",
    "temperature": 0.7,
    "maxTokens": 4096
  }
}

Environment variables

| Variable | Description | Example | |----------|-------------|---------| | CODENAUT_API_KEY | API key | sk-xxx | | CODENAUT_PROVIDER_TYPE | Provider type (openai, anthropic, custom) | custom | | CODENAUT_MODEL | Model name | gpt-4o | | CODENAUT_BASE_URL | Custom API base URL | https://api.openai.com/v1 | | CODENAUT_PROVIDER_NAME | Display name for custom provider | My Provider | | CODENAUT_TEMPERATURE | Response randomness (0-2) | 0.7 | | CODENAUT_MAX_TOKENS | Max response tokens | 4096 | | CODENAUT_THEME | TUI theme (dark, light) | dark |

Config priority (latter overrides former)

1. Built-in defaults
2. Global config: ~/.codenaut/config.json
3. Project config: .codenaut/config.json
4. Environment variables: CODENAUT_*
5. CLI arguments: --model, --provider, etc.

Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | codenaut chat | Start interactive chat | | codenaut chat --tui | Start with TUI interface | | codenaut chat -m <model> | Use specific model | | codenaut chat -p <provider> | Use specific provider | | codenaut chat --base-url <url> | Use custom API endpoint | | codenaut chat --provider-name <name> | Set custom provider display name | | codenaut chat -s <session-id> | Resume a saved session | | codenaut chat --temperature <n> | Set temperature | | codenaut chat --max-tokens <n> | Set max tokens | | codenaut chat -v | Enable verbose logging | | codenaut config list | Show current config |

In-chat commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | /help | Show available commands | | /clear | Clear chat history | | /model | Show current model info | | /sessions | List saved sessions | | /resume <id> | Resume a saved session | | /exit | Save and quit |

Sessions

Conversations are automatically saved to ~/.codenaut/sessions/. Each session gets a unique ID (e.g. sess-m5x7k2-abc123).

# Resume via CLI flag
codenaut chat -s sess-m5x7k2-abc123

# Or list and resume from within a chat
codenaut chat
> /sessions
> /resume sess-m5x7k2-abc123

Provider Types

| Type | Description | Notes | |------|-------------|-------| | openai | OpenAI GPT models | Native SDK support | | anthropic | Anthropic Claude models | Native SDK with tool support | | custom | Any OpenAI-compatible API | DeepSeek, Qwen, Ollama, etc. |

For custom providers, use --base-url to point to the API endpoint and --provider-name to set a display name shown in the UI.

Built-in Tools

| Tool | Description | Needs approval | |------|-------------|----------------| | file_read | Read file contents | No | | file_write | Create/overwrite files | Yes | | file_edit | Edit files (string replace) | Yes | | shell | Execute shell commands | Configurable (safe commands auto-approved) | | glob | Search files by pattern | No | | grep | Search file contents | No |

Tech Stack

• Node.js + TypeScript + ESM
• ink (React for CLI) — TUI mode
• Commander — CLI parsing
• OpenAI SDK / Anthropic SDK
• Zod — Config validation
• tsup — Bundling

Development

git clone https://github.com/your-repo/codenaut.git
cd codenaut
npm install
npm run build
npm link    # makes `codenaut` available globally
npm test    # run tests

License

MIT