Scalix Coder

AI-powered coding agent for the terminal and VS Code — built by Scalix World.

Scalix Coder is a full-featured AI coding assistant that runs in your terminal and in your editor — the extension is live on the VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX (Cursor/Windsurf/VSCodium). It connects to the Scalix API (or your own compatible endpoint) and gives AI direct access to your codebase through 40 built-in tools — file editing, shell execution, search, git, web access, browser automation, vision, voice input, and more.

One agent for your whole cloud

With a Scalix account, the agent is more than a coder: on start it fetches your account's platform tool catalog and registers every tool your API key's scopes unlock — databases, deployments (Scalix Run), storage, functions, cron, domains, and more. "Deploy this app", "create a table and seed it", "upload dist/ to a bucket" become plain prompts.

• Tools reflect your key's scopes — the catalog is filtered server-side, and mutating tools are refused for read-only keys
• /cloud shows your connection, plan, and available tools; /cloud refresh re-fetches the catalog
• No account (or catalog unreachable)? The agent says so once and runs in local-only mode with the built-in tools — nothing is faked

Bring your own key (BYOK)

Scalix is the zero-config default, but the agent also runs against any OpenAI-compatible endpoint with your own key — OpenAI, OpenRouter, Ollama, LM Studio, Together, vLLM, LiteLLM, and friends. Pick "OpenAI-compatible endpoint" in the setup wizard (scalix → provider step, or /setup), or configure via env:

export SCALIX_PROVIDER=openai
export OPENAI_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434   # with or without /v1
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
export SCALIX_MODEL=llama3
scalix

Notes:

• There is no default third-party endpoint — BYOK is fully opt-in and the endpoint URL is always yours.
• Scalix Cloud platform tools (database, deploys, storage, ...) are Scalix-only and are skipped on BYOK providers.
• On BYOK endpoints the agent streams every turn (tool calls included) and lets the server govern output limits; model context/output specs come from your customModels config when you want exact windows.
• Credentials are stored per provider (OS keychain / 0600 config), never shared between providers.
• Anthropic, Vertex, and Bedrock native adapters are specced follow-ups (see MULTI-PROVIDER-ADAPTER-SPEC.md).

Features

• Terminal UI — Rich React/Ink interface with magenta-themed prompt, scrollable chat, streaming responses, and keyboard shortcuts
• VS Code Extension — Sidebar chat panel with inline diffs, tab completion, inline chat (Cmd+I), codebase search, model picker, checkpoints, and session history
• 40 Built-in Tools — Shell, file read/write/edit, search (ripgrep), git, web fetch/search, directory tree, notebooks, browser automation, vision, voice input, sub-agents, task board
• Security Sandbox — Path traversal prevention, symlink detection, command blocklist, injection detection, SSRF protection
• 4 Permission Modes — plan (read-only) / default (ask) / auto (auto-approve) / yolo (full autonomy)
• Context Management — Auto-compression, sliding window, per-model context limits
• Dynamic Model Registry — Models fetched from your Scalix account; context windows applied when the platform supplies them (sensible defaults otherwise, or set exact limits per model in config)
• Session Persistence — Save, load, and resume conversations
• Project Intelligence — Auto-detects tech stack, conventions, git context
• Plugin System — Custom tools via .scalix/plugins/
• Custom Commands — Reusable prompts in .scalix/commands/*.md
• Model Routing — Multi-model support with complexity-based routing and fallback
• Cost Tracking — Token usage and budget limits per session/day/month
• Sub-agents — Delegate tasks with isolated tool access
• Git Checkpoints — Create and undo agent-made changes
• Auto-Verification — Automatic build/lint checks after file modifications
• Lifecycle Hooks — Pre/post tool-use hooks via .scalix/hooks.json
• IPC Server — Bridge mode for VS Code extension integration
• Browser Automation — Navigate, click, type, screenshot, and evaluate JS in headless browsers

Quick Start

Install

npm install -g scalix

Requires Node 18 or newer. If npm install -g needs sudo on your machine, that is a sign npm's global prefix points somewhere root-owned — point it at your home directory (npm config set prefix ~/.npm-global) rather than installing as root.

The repository is private; you need access before this will clone.

git clone https://github.com/scalixworld/scalix-coder.git && cd scalix-coder
npm install
npm run build
npm link

Run

scalix

First launch opens a setup wizard to configure your Scalix API key, endpoint, and models.

Environment Variables

| Variable | Description | | ----------------- | -------------------------------- | | SCALIX_API_KEY | API key (overrides saved config) | | SCALIX_MODEL | Comma-separated model IDs | | SCALIX_BASE_URL | API base URL | | SCALIX_PROJECT | Project ID for org-wide keys (sent as x-scalix-project on platform tool calls) | | BRAVE_API_KEY | Brave Search API key | | TAVILY_API_KEY | Tavily Search API key |

Headless Mode

scalix run "explain src/agent.ts"

echo "list all TODO comments" | scalix --pipe

scalix run "generate a migration" --output migration.sql --format patch

Commands

| Command | Description | | ------------------ | ---------------------------- | | /help | Show all commands | | /shortcuts | Keyboard shortcuts | | /clear | Reset conversation | | /models | List active models | | /model | Switch model | | /mode | Set permission mode | | /compact | Compress context | | /cost | Token usage & cost | | /budget | Budget status | | /save [name] | Save session | | /load | Resume session | | /index | Scan project files | | /git | Git context | | /memory | Project memory | | /remember <note> | Save a project note | | /replay | Session timeline | | /plugins | Loaded plugins | | /settings | Configure limits | | /cloud | Scalix Cloud status, platform tools & refresh | | /login | Link your Scalix account | | /setup | Reconfigure API key & models | | /delegate <task> | Run with sub-agent | | /checkpoint | Create git checkpoint | | /undo | Undo last checkpoint | | !<cmd> | Run shell command |

Keyboard Shortcuts

| Key | Action | | ----------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | | Ctrl+C | Interrupt / clear / double-press to quit | | Ctrl+D | Exit (empty input) | | Ctrl+L | Clear screen | | Ctrl+U | Clear input line | | Ctrl+W | Delete last word | | Ctrl+S | Stash/restore prompt | | Tab | Autocomplete commands | | Up/Down | Input history | | Shift+Up / PageUp | Scroll chat up | | Shift+Down / PageDown | Scroll chat down | | Esc | Quit |

Tools

Core

| Tool | Description | | ------------------ | ------------------------------------ | | get_current_time | Current date/time with timezone | | calculate | Safe math expression evaluator | | run_command | Shell execution with security checks | | read_file | File reading with line numbers | | read_file_lines | Read specific line ranges | | write_file | File creation/overwrite | | list_files | Directory listing with glob support |

Code

| Tool | Description | | -------------- | ------------------------------------ | | edit_file | Precise string replacement with diff | | search_files | Regex search via ripgrep | | find_files | Glob-based file finding | | tree | Directory tree visualization |

Git

| Tool | Description | | ------------ | ------------------------------- | | git_status | Branch, changes, recent commits | | git_diff | Staged/unstaged diffs | | git_commit | Stage and commit |

Web

| Tool | Description | | ------------ | --------------------------------------- | | web_fetch | Fetch URLs with SSRF protection | | web_search | Search via Brave, Tavily, or DuckDuckGo |

Browser

| Tool | Description | | -------------------- | ------------------------------------- | | browser_navigate | Navigate to a URL in headless browser | | browser_screenshot | Capture browser page screenshot | | browser_click | Click elements on page | | browser_type | Type text into page elements | | browser_eval | Execute JavaScript in browser context | | browser_get_text | Extract text content from page | | browser_close | Close browser session |

Vision & Voice

| Tool | Description | | ------------- | --------------------------------- | | read_image | Analyze images with vision models | | screenshot | Capture desktop screenshots | | voice_input | Voice-to-text input |

Advanced

| Tool | Description | | ---------------- | --------------------------- | | todo_write | Task tracking | | notebook_edit | Jupyter notebook operations | | monitor | Background process output | | agent | Spawn sub-agents | | add_mcp_server | Register MCP servers |

Configuration

Config is stored in ~/.scalix-coder/config.json.

Limits

| Setting | Default | Description | | ---------------------- | --------- | --------------------------------------------- | | maxSteps | 500 | Tool-call rounds per request | | maxMessages | 500 | History size | | maxContextTokens | 1,000,000 | Context window (tokens) | | compressionThreshold | 0.80 | Auto-compress when context exceeds this ratio | | maxToolResultTokens | 50,000 | Truncate tool results (tokens) | | commandTimeoutMs | 120,000 | Shell command timeout (ms) | | bgCleanupMs | 600,000 | Background process auto-cleanup (10 min) | | readFileMaxSize | 50 MB | Max file size for read operations |

Project Files

| Path | Purpose | | ----------------------- | ----------------------------- | | AGENT.md | Project-specific instructions | | .scalix/memory.json | Conventions & notes | | .scalix/plugins/ | Custom tool plugins | | .scalix/commands/*.md | Custom slash commands | | .scalix/hooks.json | Lifecycle hooks | | .scalix/rules/*.md | Scoped rules | | mcp-services.json | MCP server config |

MCP servers

Servers listed in mcp-services.json (project root, or .scalix/ as a fallback) are connected at startup and their tools are offered to the model as mcp__<server>__<tool>. Both transports are supported:

{
  "mcpServers": [
    { "serverLabel": "github", "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"],
      "env": { "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_…" } },
    { "serverLabel": "docs", "serverUrl": "https://docs.example.com/mcp", "authorizationEnv": "DOCS_TOKEN" }
  ]
}

The Claude Desktop / VS Code object-map dialect ("mcpServers": {"github": {…}}) is accepted too, so an existing config can be dropped in unchanged.

• disabled: true skips an entry without deleting it; allowedTools.toolNames registers only the named tools from that server.
• A server that fails to start is logged and skipped — it never takes the run down with it. /mcp lists the status of each.
• Command (stdio) servers only start in a trusted workspace, because spawning one runs arbitrary local code. They get a clean environment, not the agent's, so they cannot read its API keys.
• MCP tools are external, so they require confirmation under the default permission mode.

VS Code Extension

Install from the VS Code Marketplace — or from Open VSX if you use Cursor, Windsurf, or VSCodium:

code --install-extension scalix.scalix

Or build from source with the steps below.

Full-featured sidebar assistant with streaming chat, tab completion, inline chat, inline diffs, codebase search, and checkpoints.

See vscode-extension/README.md for setup and usage.

cd vscode-extension
npm install
npm run build
npm run package    # Creates .vsix file

Development

npm run start        # Run CLI
npm run dev          # Watch mode
npm run test         # Vitest
npm run typecheck    # Type-check
npm run lint         # ESLint
npm run check        # All checks

Architecture

src/
  cli.tsx              Terminal UI (React/Ink)
  headless.ts          Headless/REPL mode
  agent.ts             Core agent loop
  constants.ts         All defaults and configuration constants
  settings.ts          Config management and validation
  sandbox.ts           Security sandbox (path, command, injection)
  context-manager.ts   Token counting & compression
  context-builder.ts   System prompt assembly
  token-counter.ts     Token estimation engine
  tools.ts             Core tools (shell, file, time, calc)
  tools-extra.ts       Code tools (edit, search, find, git)
  tools-web.ts         Web tools (fetch, search, tree, read_file_lines)
  tools-advanced.ts    Advanced tools (todo, notebook, sub-agent, monitor)
  tools-browser.ts     Browser automation (navigate, click, type, eval)
  tools-vision.ts      Vision tools (read_image, screenshot)
  tools-voice.ts       Voice input tool
  tool-helper.ts       Tool definition helper
  tool-selector.ts     Dynamic tool selection
  model-router.ts      Multi-model complexity routing
  cost-tracker.ts      Token/cost tracking with budgets
  sessions.ts          Session persistence
  project-index.ts     Project file scanning & symbol extraction
  project-memory.ts    Convention memory system
  plugins.ts           Plugin auto-discovery and loading
  sub-agent.ts         Sub-agent spawning
  auto-verify.ts       Post-edit build/lint verification
  change-tracker.ts    File modification tracking
  hooks.ts             Lifecycle hook execution
  scoped-rules.ts      Scoped rules engine
  commands.ts          Custom slash commands
  git-context.ts       Git info collection
  git-undo.ts          Checkpoint/undo system
  agent-replay.ts      Session timeline replay
  diff.ts              LCS diff computation
  markdown.ts          Markdown rendering
  safe-math.ts         Safe expression evaluator
  logger.ts            Structured logging
  mcp.ts               MCP server integration
  ipc-server.ts        IPC bridge for VS Code extension
  config.ts            Config helpers

vscode-extension/
  src/extension.ts          Extension activation & command registration
  src/agent-bridge.ts       Agent implementation (HTTP + IPC modes)
  src/chat-panel.ts         Webview chat UI (HTML/CSS/JS)
  src/status-bar.ts         Status bar integration
  src/diff-viewer.ts        Inline diff viewer
  src/completion-provider.ts  AI-powered tab completion
  src/inline-chat.ts        Inline chat (Cmd+I)
  src/indexer.ts            Codebase symbol indexer
  src/checkpoints.ts        Git checkpoint management
  src/session-store.ts      Session persistence

bin/
  scalix.js            CLI entry point

License

Scalix Coder is proprietary software. See LICENSE for the full EULA.

(c) 2024-2026 Scalix World Private Limited. All rights reserved.