TARS

Tactical Automated Response System — AI-powered CLI agent that reads, edits, and executes across your codebase via natural language.

npm install -g tars-ai-cli

Overview

Point TARS at any project directory and it operates autonomously — analyzing structure, planning changes, executing them, and verifying results.

$ tars
✓ Started in AGENT mode

❯ Add error handling to the readFile function

Features

• Autonomous loop — Plans, executes, and verifies changes end-to-end
• Full file control — Read, edit, and create files with codebase context
• Code search — Glob pattern and regex search across the project
• Shell integration — Run any command through the assistant
• Three modes — agent (execute), ask (read-only Q&A), planning (plan without changes)
• File pinning — Inject specific files into every prompt
• Guardrails — Blocks .env, private keys, and sensitive files by default
• Token management — Sliding context window across long sessions

Tech Stack

| | | |---|---| | Language | TypeScript 5 | | Runtime | Node.js v18+ / Bun (dev) | | AI | Google Gemini 2.5 Flash via Vercel AI SDK | | CLI | Commander.js, Chalk, cfonts | | Validation | Zod v4 | | Build | Bun → CJS |

Setup

Prerequisites: Node.js v18+, Google AI API key

npm install -g tars-ai-cli

Create a .env in your project root:

GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Run in any project directory:

tars

Modes & Commands

| Mode | Behavior | |---|---| | agent | Full execution — reads, edits, creates, runs commands | | ask | Read-only — answers questions and explains code | | planning | Analyzes and plans without modifying any files |

| Command | Description | |---|---| | :mode [agent\|ask\|planning] | Switch mode | | :pin <file> | Pin file into every prompt | | :unpin <file> | Unpin file | | :clear | Clear the screen | | :help | List all commands | | :exit | Quit |

Configuration

Optional .tars.json in your project root:

{
  "llm": {
    "model": "gemini-2.5-flash",
    "temperature": 0.2
  },
  "features": {
    "maxContextTokens": 20000,
    "confirmEdits": false
  },
  "guardrails": {
    "blockReadPatterns": [".env", ".env.*", "*.pem", "*.key", ".npmrc"]
  }
}

License

MIT — see LICENSE.