Termly CLI

Access your AI coding assistants from any device. Works with Claude Code, Aider, GitHub Copilot, and any terminal-based AI tool.

What's New in v1.9

• 🎯 Pi Coding Agent - Support for minimal AI coding agent with extensions and 15+ LLM providers
• 🚀 Kilo Code CLI - Full TUI support for agentic engineering CLI with 500+ models
• 🖥️ Enhanced TUI - Improved TUI mode for Kilo Code with alternate screen buffer

Previous versions:

• v1.8 - Added Pi Coding Agent and Kilo Code CLI support
• v1.7 - TUI mode support, OpenCode integration, smarter reconnection
• v1.5 - Push notifications support, improved session stability
• v1.3 - Prebuilt binaries, improved Windows support, fast installation
• v1.2 - Windows output deduplication and PowerShell optimization
• v1.0 - Stable release with session management and E2EE

Features

• 🚀 Universal AI Tool Support - Works with any terminal-based AI coding assistant
• 📱 Mobile Access - Control your AI tools from phone or tablet
• 🔒 End-to-End Encryption - AES-256-GCM + DH-2048 key exchange with fingerprint verification
• 🔄 Session Resume - Automatic reconnection with state synchronization
• 💻 Multiple Sessions - Run multiple AI tools simultaneously
• 🎯 Auto-Detection - Automatically finds installed AI tools
• ⚡ Zero-Knowledge Server - Server never sees your unencrypted data
• 🌍 Multiple Environments - Production, Development, and Local modes
• 🔄 Auto-Update Check - Ensures you're always running a supported version

Installation

Quick Install

Termly CLI includes prebuilt binaries for all platforms - no compilation required!

All Platforms:

npm install -g @termly-dev/cli

After installation, the termly command is available globally.

That's it! Works out-of-the-box on:

• ✅ macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon)
• ✅ Linux (x64 & ARM64)
• ✅ Windows 10+ (x64 & ARM64)

Development (Beta Testing)

For beta testers and development:

npm install -g @termly-dev/cli-dev

This installs the termly-dev command which connects to the development environment.

System Requirements

Node.js 18+ - That's all you need!

Termly CLI uses @lydell/node-pty with prebuilt binaries for all platforms:

• No Visual Studio required on Windows
• No Xcode CLI tools required on macOS
• No build-essential required on Linux
• Fast installation (no compilation)

Installation typically completes in 10-30 seconds.

Environments

Termly CLI supports three environments:

Environment	Package	Command	Server URL	Use Case
Production	@termly-dev/cli	termly	wss://api.termly.dev	End users
Development	@termly-dev/cli-dev	termly-dev	wss://dev-api.termly.dev	Beta testers
Local	Run from source	TERMLY_ENV=local termly	ws://localhost:3000	Developers only

Note: Server URLs are hardcoded per environment and cannot be changed by users.

Quick Start

Production

cd /path/to/your/project
termly start

Development

cd /path/to/your/project
termly-dev start

Local Development

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/termly-dev/termly-cli
cd termly-cli
npm install

# Run with local environment
TERMLY_ENV=local node bin/cli.js start

Multiple Sessions

Run multiple sessions simultaneously:

# Terminal 1
cd ~/frontend
termly start

# Terminal 2 (new window)
cd ~/backend
termly start

Each session:

• Independent AI tool instance
• Own WebSocket connection
• Can connect one mobile device

Manage sessions:

termly status        # Show all sessions
termly stop abc-123  # Stop specific session
termly list          # Quick list

Supported AI Tools

Termly CLI supports 22+ interactive terminal-based AI coding assistants:

Official Tools from Major Companies

• Claude Code (Anthropic) - AI coding assistant
• GitHub Copilot CLI (Microsoft) - Command line AI
• Cursor CLI (Cursor) - AI coding assistant CLI
• Cody CLI (Sourcegraph) - AI assistant (Beta)
• Amazon Q Developer (AWS) - Free tier available
• Google Gemini CLI (Google) - 1M token context window
• Grok CLI (xAI) - X.AI's coding assistant
• OpenAI Codex CLI (OpenAI) - Code generation model

Popular Open-Source Tools

• Aider - AI pair programming (35k+ stars)
• OpenCode - TUI-based AI coding agent with LSP integration (full TUI support!)
• Kilo Code CLI - Agentic engineering CLI with 500+ models and parallel mode (full TUI support!)
• Pi Coding Agent - Minimal AI agent with extensions, skills, and 15+ LLM providers
• Continue CLI - Modular architecture
• OpenHands - Open-source Devin alternative
• Mentat - Git integration
• ChatGPT CLI - ChatGPT in terminal
• ShellGPT - Shell command assistant
• Ollama - Run LLMs locally (CodeLlama, etc)
• Blackbox AI - Debugging & file editing

Experimental/Future Support

• Devin CLI - When released
• Any other terminal-based AI tool

And more... - Works with any terminal-based AI tool that supports interactive TTY mode

Commands

All commands work the same way in both termly (production) and termly-dev (development).

Setup

termly setup

Interactive configuration setup (optional - sets default AI tool preference).

Start

termly start [directory] [options]

Start a new session with AI tool.

Options:

• --ai <tool> - Specify AI tool to use
• --ai-args <args> - Additional arguments for AI tool
• --no-auto-detect - Disable auto-detection
• --debug - Enable debug logging

Examples:

# Auto-detect and start
termly start

# Use Aider explicitly
termly start --ai aider

# Use Claude Code with custom directory
termly start /path/to/project --ai "claude code"

# Pass arguments to AI tool
termly start --ai aider --ai-args "--model gpt-4"

# Continue previous Claude Code session (restore context after restart)
termly start --ai claude-code --ai-args "--continue"

Status

termly status [--all]

Show all active sessions with detailed information.

Stop

termly stop [session-id] [--all]

Stop one or all sessions.

List

termly list

Quick list of active sessions with encryption fingerprints for verification.

Tools

termly tools list           # List available AI tools
termly tools detect         # Detect installed tools
termly tools info <tool>    # Show tool information

Config

termly config               # Show current configuration
termly config get <key>     # Get config value
termly config set <key> <value>  # Set config value

Examples:

termly config set defaultAI aider
termly config get defaultAI

Note: Server URL is determined by environment and cannot be changed via config.

Cleanup

termly cleanup

Remove stale sessions (processes that are no longer running).

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• At least one AI coding assistant installed (see Supported AI Tools section)
• Mobile app (iOS/Android) - coming soon

Troubleshooting

Installation Issues

Installation usually works flawlessly thanks to prebuilt binaries.

If you encounter issues:

"Cannot find module 'node-pty'"

Reinstall the package:

npm uninstall -g @termly-dev/cli
npm cache clean --force
npm install -g @termly-dev/cli

Permission errors on macOS/Linux

Use sudo or fix npm permissions:

# Option 1: Use sudo
sudo npm install -g @termly-dev/cli

# Option 2: Fix npm permissions (recommended)
mkdir ~/.npm-global
npm config set prefix '~/.npm-global'
echo 'export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
npm install -g @termly-dev/cli

Windows: "EPERM: operation not permitted"

This is usually a warning, not a fatal error. Check if installation succeeded:

termly --version

If the command works, installation was successful.

Usage Issues

No AI tools detected?

termly tools list  # Check what's installed

Install an AI tool:

• Claude Code: https://docs.claude.com
• Aider: pip install aider-chat
• GitHub Copilot: gh extension install github/gh-copilot

Session already running?

termly status       # Find session ID
termly stop abc-123 # Stop it

Check your environment:

termly config  # Shows current environment and server URL

Logs: ~/.termly/logs/cli.log

For issues: https://github.com/termly-dev/termly-cli/issues

Security

• End-to-end encryption (AES-256-GCM)
• Diffie-Hellman key exchange (2048-bit)
• Fingerprint verification - Compare encryption keys between CLI and mobile app
• Zero-knowledge server - Server cannot decrypt your data
• One mobile device per session
• Environment isolation - Production and development separated
• Version enforcement - Automatic check for minimum supported version
• Open source - Audit the code yourself

Architecture

Termly CLI uses a PTY (pseudo-terminal) to spawn AI tools locally and streams I/O through WebSocket with end-to-end encryption.

Mobile App <--[encrypted]--> WebSocket Server <--[encrypted]--> CLI <--[local]--> PTY <--> AI Tool

Key features:

• Circular buffer - Stores last 100KB for session resume
• Platform-specific optimizations - Windows output deduplication and escape sequence normalization
• Batch catchup - Sends missed messages in 100-message batches with 10ms delay

For detailed architecture diagrams and data flow, see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run production mode
node bin/cli.js start

# Run development mode
node bin/cli-dev.js start

# Run local mode (custom server)
TERMLY_ENV=local node bin/cli.js start

# Debug mode
DEBUG=1 node bin/cli.js start --debug

# View logs
tail -f ~/.termly/logs/cli.log  # macOS/Linux
Get-Content $env:USERPROFILE\.termly\logs\cli.log -Wait -Tail 50  # Windows

Publishing

Production Release

# Update version in package.json and package.dev.json
npm version patch  # or minor, or major

# Publish production package
npm publish

Development Release

# Use the publish script
./scripts/publish-dev.sh

# Or manually:
cp package.dev.json package.json
npm publish
git checkout package.json

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Before contributing:

• Read CLAUDE.md for project structure and implementation details
• Check docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for architecture overview
• Run the CLI locally to test your changes

Documentation

• CLAUDE.md - Project overview and implementation guide for AI assistants
• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md - Detailed architecture with data flow diagrams
• CRYPTO_SPEC.md - End-to-end encryption specification
• COMMUNICATION_PROTOCOL.md - WebSocket protocol documentation
• WINDOWS_DEBUG.md - Windows debugging instructions
• MIGRATION_TO_ESM.md - Future ESM migration plan

License

MIT - See LICENSE for details

Support

• Issues: https://github.com/termly-dev/termly-cli/issues
• Discussions: https://github.com/termly-dev/termly-cli/discussions
• Website: https://termly.dev
• Documentation: https://termly.dev/docs

Links

• 🌐 Website: https://termly.dev
• 🔧 Development: https://dev.termly.dev
• 📚 Documentation: https://termly.dev/docs
• 💻 GitHub: https://github.com/termly-dev/termly-cli
• 🐛 Issues: https://github.com/termly-dev/termly-cli/issues
• ☕ Support us: https://ko-fi.com/termly

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Made with ❤️ by the Termly Team