Nami

An agentic coding CLI powered by LLMs. Think, plan, and execute code changes from your terminal.

Nami combines a terminal UI, a Go-based execution engine, first-class artifacts, and bounded child agents so you can inspect code, plan work, edit safely, and verify results without leaving the terminal.

Why Nami

• Agentic terminal workflow — chat with your codebase, run tools, and edit files in one place.
• Two operating modes — use plan mode for review-first workflows or fast mode for direct execution.
• First-class artifacts — implementation plans, task lists, walkthroughs, and search reports persist as reviewable outputs.
• Bounded child agents — delegate exploration, code search, or terminal-heavy work to specialized subagents.
• Permission gating — risky or sensitive actions require explicit approval.
• Multi-provider model support — works with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, Groq, Mistral, Ollama, and GitHub Copilot.

Architecture & Vision

Nami is built on three core pillars:

1. TUI (Silvery) — interactive terminal UX with streaming output, tool transcripts, progress, background task visibility, and artifact panels.
2. Go Engine — high-performance backend for the agent loop, tool execution, provider integration, session persistence, and permission gating.
3. Artifacts — durable structured outputs that can be reviewed, revised, and resumed across turns.

Architecture Docs

• Lean Retrieval Architecture
• Silvery Guide for Nami

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• macOS, Linux, or Windows 11
• One supported JavaScript runtime to run the nami launcher: Node.js, Bun, or Deno. The Windows installer can bootstrap a local Node.js runtime automatically if none is already available.
• One configured model provider: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, Groq, Mistral, Ollama, or GitHub Copilot
• Go 1.26+ only if building from source or rebuilding nami-engine

Install

macOS / Linux (one command)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/channyeintun/nami/main/nami/install.sh | sh

This downloads prebuilt nami and nami-engine release assets from GitHub Releases. It does not build from source.

Current releases install a launcher shim, a portable nami.js bundle, and the Go engine.

You need one of these runtimes on your PATH to run the installed launcher:

• node
• bun
• deno

The installer chooses a writable directory automatically:

• /usr/local/bin if writable
• ~/.local/bin otherwise

After install, verify:

command -v nami

If needed, add the install dir to your PATH:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Windows (PowerShell)

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process Bypass -Force; irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/channyeintun/nami/main/nami/install.ps1 | iex

This runs in your current PowerShell session, downloads the Windows release archive, installs nami.cmd, nami.js, and nami-engine.exe, and adds the install directory to your user PATH.

If node, bun, or deno is already on your PATH, the installer reuses it. If not, it downloads a local Node.js runtime automatically and wires nami to use it.

Current Windows releases install into:

• %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\nami\bin

If the installer had to bootstrap Node.js, it stores it here:

• %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\nami\runtime\node

After install in the same PowerShell window, verify:

nami --help

Manual install

On Windows, download nami-windows-amd64.zip or nami-windows-arm64.zip from GitHub Releases, extract it, then copy these files into a directory on your PATH:

• nami.cmd
• nami.js
• nami-engine.exe

You also need one supported runtime on your PATH: node, bun, or deno.

If you already have local Unix launcher assets and engine binaries:

sudo install -m 755 nami /usr/local/bin/nami
sudo install -m 755 nami.js /usr/local/bin/nami.js
sudo install -m 755 nami-engine /usr/local/bin/nami-engine

Without sudo:

mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/bin"
install -m 755 nami "$HOME/.local/bin/nami"
install -m 755 nami.js "$HOME/.local/bin/nami.js"
install -m 755 nami-engine "$HOME/.local/bin/nami-engine"
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

If installing from a local clone:

cd nami/tui
make release-local
mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/bin"
install -m 755 release/nami "$HOME/.local/bin/nami"
install -m 755 release/nami.js "$HOME/.local/bin/nami.js"
install -m 755 release/nami-engine "$HOME/.local/bin/nami-engine"
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

To build Windows release assets from source:

cd nami/tui
make release

The release target now emits Windows archives and direct assets alongside the macOS and Linux artifacts.

Setup

API key providers

Example:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

Supported providers:

Provider	Environment variable
Anthropic	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
Codex	CODEX_ACCESS_TOKEN or /connect codex
OpenAI	OPENAI_API_KEY
Google	GEMINI_API_KEY
DeepSeek	DEEPSEEK_API_KEY for deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash or deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro
Groq	GROQ_API_KEY
Mistral	MISTRAL_API_KEY
Ollama	none — runs locally
GitHub Copilot	use /connect in Nami

GitHub Copilot setup

GitHub Copilot uses a device-login flow instead of a static API key.

Start Nami, then run:

/connect

Nami will:

• print the GitHub verification URL and device code
• try to open the verification page automatically
• wait for authorization to complete
• save credentials in the platform config file (~/.config/nami/config.json on macOS/Linux)
• switch the main model to github-copilot/gpt-5.4
• set the subagent model to github-copilot/claude-haiku-4.5

For GitHub Enterprise:

/connect github-copilot your-company.example

Codex setup

Codex uses ChatGPT OAuth or a bearer token.

/connect codex
/connect codex headless

For manual token setup:

export CODEX_ACCESS_TOKEN="..."

Then run:

/connect codex env

Use codex/gpt-5.5 to select the Codex provider explicitly. Bare gpt-5.4 stays the default OpenAI model selection, and bare gpt-5.5 remains available as another OpenAI model selection.

DeepSeek defaults to deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash. Use deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro when you want the Pro v4 model explicitly.

Usage

Start the CLI:

nami

Then type what you want, for example:

• summarize this repository
• find dead code and propose a cleanup plan
• add a new flag to this CLI
• debug why this test is flaky

Common flags

nami --model openai/gpt-4o
nami --model deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash
nami --model ollama/gemma3
nami --model ollama/gemma4:e4b
nami --mode fast
nami --auto-mode
nami --help

MCP management

Nami now includes a small MCP management CLI similar to Claude Code's core flow.

nami mcp add my-server -- npx my-mcp-server
nami mcp add --transport http sentry https://mcp.sentry.dev/mcp
nami mcp add-json docs '{"transport":"stdio","command":"uvx","args":["docs-mcp"]}'
nami mcp list
nami mcp get sentry
nami mcp remove sentry

Supported scopes:

• project writes repo-local MCP config to .nami/mcp.json
• user writes user MCP config to the platform config directory (~/.config/nami/config.json on macOS/Linux)

Notes:

• add supports stdio, http, sse, and ws transports
• --env KEY=value applies to stdio servers
• --header 'Key: Value' applies to http, sse, and ws servers
• list and get attempt real MCP connections, so listing a repo-scoped stdio server will spawn it briefly to inspect health and capabilities

Slash commands

Command	Description
/connect	Connect provider auth and switch providers
/plan	Switch to plan mode
/fast	Switch to fast mode
/model [name]	Show or switch the active model
/reasoning [level]	Show or set reasoning effort [low
/compact	Compact conversation to save context
/resume [id]	Resume a previous session
/clear	Clear the conversation and start fresh
/status	Show current session and MCP server status
/sessions	List recent sessions
/debug [subcommand]	Enable debug logging or inspect its path
/help	Show slash-command help

First-Class Outputs

Artifacts are central to Nami's workflow.

• Implementation plans are saved as review artifacts before execution.
• Task lists track multi-step progress across turns.
• Walkthroughs summarize completed work and validation.
• Large web_fetch and git diff outputs are routed into dedicated artifacts so the transcript stays concise.

Artifacts are meant to be reopened, revised, and resumed — not just dumped text.

Permission System

When Nami wants to run a command or change files, it can ask for approval.

╭─ Permission Required ──────────────────────╮
│ bash: git status                           │
│ Risk: execute                              │
│                                            │
│ [y] Allow  [n] Deny  [a] Always Allow      │
│ [s] Allow Safe (This Session)              │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Key	Action
y	Allow this one command
n	Deny this command
a	Always allow this exact command
s	Allow future non-destructive, non-sensitive requests for this session

Use the --auto-mode flag at startup to automatically enable "Allow Safe" for the entire session.

Destructive commands and sensitive edits such as .env, lockfiles, .git, or workspace settings still require explicit approval.

Tooling

Nami exposes a broad local-tool runtime, including:

Tool	Description
agent	Spawn bounded child agents
agent_status / agent_stop	Inspect or stop background child agents
bash	Run shell commands
think	Scratchpad reasoning with no side effects
read_file / file_write	Read or overwrite files
replace_string_in_file	Exact in-place replacement
multi_replace_string_in_file	Batch exact replacements
apply_patch	Multi-file or structural text edits
create_file	Create a new file
file_search / grep_search	Find files or search contents
go_definition / go_references	Parser-backed Go code navigation
read_project_structure	Inspect the directory tree
project_overview	Summarize repository structure
dependency_overview	Summarize manifest dependencies
web_search / web_fetch	Web research tools
git	Read-only git operations
list_commands / command_status	Inspect background shell sessions
file_history	Snapshot and inspect tracked file history
mcp__<server>__<tool>	Dynamically discovered MCP tools from configured servers

Child agent modes

The agent tool supports three bounded modes:

Mode	Best for
Explore	Broad read-only codebase search and architecture research
general-purpose	Delegated work that doesn't fit a specialized mode
verification	Builds, tests, and validation without file edits

Configuration

Config file:

~/.config/nami/config.json

Example:

{
  "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
  "default_mode": "plan"
}

Environment variables override config:

Variable	Description
NAMI_MODEL	Model to use
NAMI_API_KEY	API key override
NAMI_BASE_URL	Custom API base URL
NAMI_DEBUG	Enable runtime debug logging
NAMI_PERMISSION_MODE	default, autoApprove, or bypassPermissions
NAMI_AUTO_MODE	Set to true to auto-approve non-destructive tools

If you use GitHub Copilot, config may also persist Copilot credentials and a subagent_model.

MCP servers

Nami can load external MCP servers at startup from either ~/.config/nami/config.json or .nami/mcp.json in the current workspace. The workspace file is merged on top of the user config for the current session, so team-local MCP settings can live in the repo without replacing your personal global setup.

Example user config:

{
  "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
  "default_mode": "plan",
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "github": {
        "transport": "stdio",
        "command": "github-mcp-server",
        "args": ["stdio"],
        "env": {
          "GITHUB_TOKEN": "$GITHUB_TOKEN"
        },
        "enabled": true,
        "trust": false,
        "exclude_tools": []
      },
      "docs": {
        "transport": "http",
        "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8787/mcp",
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "Bearer $DOCS_MCP_TOKEN"
        },
        "enabled": true,
        "trust": true,
        "tool_permissions": {
          "search": "read"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Example workspace override in .nami/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "browser": {
      "transport": "ws",
      "url": "ws://127.0.0.1:9000/mcp",
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Supported transport values are stdio, sse, http, and ws.

Permission behavior for MCP tools is conservative by default:

• untrusted servers default to execute-style approval
• trusted servers can map individual tools to read, write, or execute
• exclude_tools hides discovered tools from the model

Discovered MCP tools are exposed with stable names like mcp__github__search_issues. Run /status to see which servers connected, which failed, and how many tools each server exported.

Debug logging

Launch with debug capture:

NAMI_DEBUG=1 nami

Or enable it inside the TUI:

/debug

Debug logs are written to:

~/.config/nami/sessions/<session-id>/debug.log

Inspect manually:

nami debug-view --file ~/.config/nami/sessions/<session-id>/debug.log
tail -F ~/.config/nami/sessions/<session-id>/debug.log | jq .

Repository Layout

nami/    Go engine, CLI, TUI launcher, install script
web/     Project website and docs page assets
docs/    Architecture and integration guides
reference/  Reference material and external notes

Internal Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────┐
│  nami (JS launcher)          │  ← Terminal UI
│    Renders TUI, handles I/O  │
│         │ stdin/stdout NDJSON│
│  ┌──────▼─────────────────┐  │
│  │ nami-engine (Go)       │  │  ← LLM client, tools, agent loop
│  │  Streams events out    │  │
│  │  Reads commands in     │  │
│  └────────────────────────┘  │
└──────────────────────────────┘

The launcher shim, nami.js, and nami-engine should live in the same directory, or nami-engine must be in PATH.

Building from Source

Requires: Go 1.26+, Bun 1.0+ for local builds

cd nami/tui
bun install --frozen-lockfile
bun run setup
bun run start

make release-local
make release
make install

make release writes GitHub-release-ready artifacts under nami/tui/release/.

License

See LICENSE.