clifcode 1.7.0

Open-source AI coding agent for your terminal — tool-calling loop, streaming, sessions, any provider
clifcode-1.7.0 is not a library.

Cursor is 400MB. VS Code is 350MB. Zed doesn't do AI.

Clif is ~20MB. A native Rust binary with a 7KB SolidJS frontend. VS Code-quality editing via Monaco. Real terminal via PTY. Git built into the backend. AI when you want it, silence when you don't.

No Electron. No telemetry. No subscription. Open source.

📦 Get It

ClifPad — Desktop IDE

macOS "App can't be opened"? — Run xattr -cr /Applications/ClifPad.app then open normally. Why?

ClifCode — Terminal Agent

cargo install clifcode

Run clifcode in any project directory. That's it.

npm i -g clifcode — coming soon

# Or clone and build locally
git clone https://github.com/DLhugly/Clif-Code.git
cd Clif-Code/clif-code-tui && cargo install --path .

All releases & checksums

🖥️ ClifPad

📝 Monaco Editor — 70+ languages, IntelliSense, multi-cursor, minimap, code folding. Same engine as VS Code.

🖥️ Real Terminal — Native PTY via Rust. Your actual shell with 256-color, resize, 10K scrollback.

🔍 Dev Preview — One-click npm run dev, auto-detects localhost, live iframe preview.

🌿 Git — Branch, status, stage, commit, per-file +/- diff stats, visual commit graph. All Rust.

🤖 AI — OpenRouter (100+ models), Ollama (fully local), Claude Code CLI. Ghost text completions. All opt-in.

🎨 5 Themes — Midnight, Graphite, Dawn, Arctic, Dusk. Editor, terminal, and UI stay in sync.

⌨️ Keys — Ctrl+`` terminal, Ctrl+B sidebar, Ctrl+S save, Ctrl+Shift+P palette.

📊 The Size Flex

Binary Runtime RAM idle
ClifPad ~20MB 7KB ~80MB
Cursor ~400MB ~50MB ~500MB+
VS Code ~350MB ~40MB ~400MB+
Zed ~100MB native ~200MB

Tauri 2 compiles to a single native binary. SolidJS has no virtual DOM overhead. Rust handles file I/O, git, PTY, AI streaming — zero garbage collection.

⚡ ClifCode

Open-source AI coding agent for your terminal. Like Claude Code — but you own it.

   _____ _ _  __ _____          _
  / ____| (_)/ _/ ____|        | |
 | |    | |_| || |     ___   __| | ___
 | |    | | |  _| |    / _ \ / _` |/ _ \
 | |____| | | | | |___| (_) | (_| |  __/
  \_____|_|_|_|  \_____\___/ \__,_|\___|

  AI coding assistant — works anywhere, ships fast

  ◆ Model  anthropic/claude-sonnet-4    ◆ Mode  auto-edit
  ◆ Path   ~/projects/my-app

  Type a task to get started, or /help for commands
  ─────────────────────────────────────────────

  ❯ refactor the auth module to use JWT tokens

  [1/7] ••• thinking
    ▶ read  src/auth/mod.rs
    ▶ read  src/auth/session.rs
    ◇ find  config.toml
    ✎ edit  src/auth/mod.rs  +42 -18
    ✎ edit  src/auth/session.rs  +15 -8
    ▸ run   cargo test
    ✓ All 23 tests passed

  ✦ ClifCode  Refactored auth module to use JWT tokens.
              Replaced session-based auth with stateless JWT
              verification. Added token expiry and refresh logic.

  ∙ 2.1k tokens  ∙ ~$0.0312

What it does: Tool-calling AI agent that reads your codebase, writes code, runs commands, searches files, and auto-commits — all from a TUI.
Agentic loop — up to 7 tool calls per turn Any provider — OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama Parallel tools — concurrent read-only calls
3 autonomy modes — suggest, auto-edit, full-auto Sessions — auto-save, resume, cost tracking 9 built-in tools — read, write, edit, find, search, run, list, cd, submit 
clifcode                                        # interactive mode
clifcode -p "explain this codebase"             # non-interactive
clifcode --backend ollama                       # local models
clifcode --autonomy suggest                     # confirm every write
clifcode --resume                               # resume last session

  ◆ Session     /new  /sessions  /resume  /cost  /clear  /quit
  ◆ Workspace   /cd   /add       /drop    /context
  ◆ Settings    /mode /backend   /config
  ◆ Git         /status  /undo
Provider Config
OpenRouter (default) CLIFCODE_API_KEY — access to 100+ models
OpenAI --api-url https://api.openai.com/v1
Anthropic Via OpenRouter or compatible proxy
Ollama --backend ollama — fully local, no API key
Any OpenAI-compatible --api-url <your-endpoint>

🛠️ Build & Contribute

# ClifPad — desktop IDE
cd clif-pad-ide
npm install && npm run tauri dev        # dev mode + hot reload
npm run tauri build                     # production binary

# ClifCode — terminal agent
cd clif-code-tui
cargo run --release                     # run directly
cargo install --path .                  # install to PATH

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│             Tauri 2 (Rust)              │
│  File I/O · Git · PTY · AI · Search    │
│                  │                      │
│            IPC (invoke/events)          │
│                  │                      │
│           SolidJS + TypeScript          │
│       Monaco Editor · xterm.js          │
│           Tailwind CSS 4                │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
Layer Tech Size
Backend Tauri 2 + Rust ~20MB compiled
UI SolidJS 7KB runtime
Editor Monaco tree-shaken
Terminal xterm.js + portable-pty real PTY
Styles Tailwind CSS 4 zero runtime
Build Vite 6 <5s HMR
CI/CD Semantic Release auto-versioned

Project Structure

Clif-Code/
├── clif-pad-ide/    🖥️  Desktop IDE — Tauri 2 + SolidJS + Monaco
├── clif-code-tui/   ⚡  Terminal AI agent — pure Rust, any API
└── .github/         🔄  CI/CD (auto-release, npm publish)

clif-pad-ide/
├── src/                     # SolidJS frontend
│   ├── components/          # editor, terminal, layout, explorer
│   ├── stores/              # reactive state (signals + stores)
│   ├── lib/                 # IPC wrappers, keybindings, themes
│   └── types/               # TypeScript interfaces
├── src-tauri/src/           # Rust backend
│   ├── commands/            # fs, git, pty, ai, search, settings
│   └── services/            # file watcher, ai providers
└── www/                     # Landing page (clifcode.io)

clif-code-tui/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs              # CLI, TUI loop, agent orchestration
│   ├── backend.rs           # API backend (OpenRouter, OpenAI, Ollama)
│   ├── tools.rs             # Tool definitions and execution
│   ├── ui.rs                # Terminal UI rendering
│   ├── session.rs           # Session persistence
│   ├── config.rs            # Config (API keys, provider setup)
│   ├── git.rs               # Git integration
│   └── repomap.rs           # Workspace structure analysis
├── npm/                     # npm distribution packages
│   ├── clifcode/            # Main wrapper (npm i -g clifcode)
│   └── @clifcode/cli-*/     # 6 platform-specific binaries
└── scripts/
    └── bump-version.js      # Syncs versions across Cargo.toml + npm

Conventional commits — feat: bumps minor, fix: bumps patch, feat!: bumps major. Semantic release handles the rest.

❓ FAQ

Why does macOS say "App can't be opened"? macOS Gatekeeper blocks apps that aren't signed with a $99/year Apple Developer certificate. ClifPad is open source and safe — run xattr -cr /Applications/ClifPad.app in Terminal to remove the quarantine flag, then open normally.

Is Clif safe? 100% open source. Read every line: github.com/DLhugly/Clif-Code. No telemetry, no network calls unless you enable AI. The xattr command just removes Apple's download flag — it doesn't disable any security.

Why not just pay for code signing? We will. For now, the $99/year Apple Developer fee goes toward more important things. Proper signing + notarization is on the roadmap.

Does it work offline? ClifPad: Yes — AI features are opt-in. Without API keys, it's a fully offline editor with terminal and git. ClifCode: Needs an API provider (but Ollama runs fully local with no internet).

What models does ClifCode support? Any OpenAI-compatible API. Default is anthropic/claude-sonnet-4 via OpenRouter. Also works with GPT-4o, Gemini, Llama, Qwen, Mistral, DeepSeek — anything on OpenRouter or Ollama.

📜 License

MIT — use it however you want.