Max

AI orchestrator powered by Copilot SDK — control multiple Copilot CLI sessions from Telegram or a local terminal.

Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/burkeholland/max/main/install.sh | bash

Or install directly with npm:

npm install -g heymax

Quick Start

1. Run setup

max setup

This creates ~/.max/ and walks you through configuration (Telegram bot token, etc.). Telegram is optional — you can use Max with just the terminal UI.

2. Make sure Copilot CLI is authenticated

copilot login

3. Start Max

max start

4. Connect via terminal

In a separate terminal:

max tui

5. Talk to Max

From Telegram or the TUI, just send natural language:

• "Start working on the auth bug in ~/dev/myapp"
• "What sessions are running?"
• "Check on the api-tests session"
• "Kill the auth-fix session"
• "What's the capital of France?"

Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | max start | Start the Max daemon | | max tui | Connect to the daemon via terminal | | max setup | Interactive first-run configuration | | max update | Check for and install updates | | max help | Show available commands |

Flags

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | --self-edit | Allow Max to modify his own source code (use with max start) |

TUI commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | /model [name] | Show or switch the current model | | /memory | Show stored memories | | /skills | List installed skills | | /workers | List active worker sessions | | /copy | Copy last response to clipboard | | /status | Daemon health check | | /restart | Restart the daemon | | /cancel | Cancel the current in-flight message | | /clear | Clear the screen | | /help | Show help | | /quit | Exit the TUI | | Escape | Cancel a running response |

How it Works

Max runs a persistent orchestrator Copilot session — an always-on AI brain that receives your messages and decides how to handle them. For coding tasks, it spawns worker Copilot sessions in specific directories. For simple questions, it answers directly.

You can talk to Max from:

• Telegram — remote access from your phone (authenticated by user ID)
• TUI — local terminal client (no auth needed)

Architecture

Telegram ──→ Max Daemon ←── TUI
                │
          Orchestrator Session (Copilot SDK)
                │
      ┌─────────┼─────────┐
   Worker 1  Worker 2  Worker N

• Daemon (max start) — persistent service running Copilot SDK + Telegram bot + HTTP API
• TUI (max tui) — lightweight terminal client connecting to the daemon
• Orchestrator — long-running Copilot session with custom tools for session management
• Workers — child Copilot sessions for specific coding tasks

Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/burkeholland/max.git
cd max
npm install

# Watch mode
npm run dev

# Build TypeScript
npm run build