Pythinker Code

Think first, then code. Your terminal-native AI engineering agent.

An intelligent agent that reads your codebase, edits files, runs shell commands, searches the web, and iterates until the job is done.
Powered by Pythinker models — compatible with other LLM providers. All from the shell you already live in.

Website  · 
Quick Start  · 
Features  · 
IDE Integration  · 
MCP  · 
Architecture  · 
Development

What is Pythinker?

Pythinker Codeis an open-source AI engineering agent that lives in your terminal. Give it a task — refactor a module, trace a bug, scaffold a feature — and it plans, executes tools, observes results, and keeps going until you are satisfied. It runs against your repo, the shell, the web, and MCP tools, with the model of your choice.

It ships with first-class subagents for focused work — coder for scoped edits, explore for codebase reconnaissance, and plan for implementation design — all dispatched in parallel, isolated contexts from a single iterative loop.

It speaks the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), so it slots cleanly into ACP-aware editors like Zed and JetBrains. It loads Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, so the same tools your other agents use just work. And it's hackable: subagents, skills, hooks, and plugins are all first-class extension points.

**Plan · Execute · Verify · Iterate.**One agent, one shell, one workflow. No tab-switching. No context loss. No magic.

Features

Quick Start

Pythinker ships native installers— no Node.js prerequisite. Pick the row that matches your OS:

Platform	Recommended install	Source
macOS / Linux	curl -fsSL https://code.pythinker.com/pythinker-code/install.sh | bash	code.pythinker.com
Homebrew	brew install pythoughts-labs/tap/pythinker-code	Homebrew
Windows (PowerShell)	irm https://code.pythinker.com/pythinker-code/install.ps1 | iex	code.pythinker.com
Nix	nix run github:Pythoughts-labs/pythinker-code	flake
npm / pnpm fallback	npm install -g @pythoughts/pythinker-code	requires Node.js ≥ 26.4.0

[!NOTE]
**Windows:**install Git for Windows before first launch — Pythinker Code uses the bundled Git Bash as its shell. For a custom Git Bash location, set PYTHINKER_SHELL_PATH to the absolute path of bash.exe.

After install, open a new shell:

pythinker --version            # confirm install

Authenticate

cd your-project
pythinker

On first launch, run /login and choose **Pythinker Code OAuth**or an API key from the console.

Try it out

Take a look at this project and explain its main directories.

Find where authentication is handled and add a unit test for the token refresh path.

Refactor the error handling in src/api/ to use a shared Result type — keep the diff minimal.

For upgrade, uninstall, headless/automation usage, and platform-specific notes, see the Getting Started guide.

IDE Integration via ACP

Pythinker speaks Agent Client Protocol natively. Log in once via the CLI, then point your ACP-compatible editor at pythinker acp for a full agent session inside your IDE.

Add to ~/.config/zed/settings.json:

{
  "agent_servers": {
    "Pythinker Code": {
      "type": "custom",
      "command": "pythinker",
      "args": ["acp"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Open a new conversation in Zed's Agent panel. For JetBrains setup, troubleshooting, and the full capability matrix, see Using in IDEs and the pythinker acp reference.

MCP Tooling

Pythinker loads Model Context Protocol tools so the same servers your other agents use just work — stdio and HTTP transports, OAuth-backed servers, persistent config.

Inside a session, /mcp-config manages everything conversationally:

/mcp-config              # add, authenticate, test, and remove MCP servers

See the configuration docs for config-file based setup.

Architecture

Pythinker Code is a pnpm monorepo. The CLI consumes capabilities through the SDK and never depends directly on internal engine packages.

flowchart LR
  subgraph Apps
    CLI["pythinker-code<br/>(CLI / TUI)"]
    WEB["pythinker-web<br/>(Browser UI)"]
    DASH["dashboard<br/>(Session replay)"]
  end

  subgraph Packages
    SDK["node-sdk"]
    CORE["agent-core"]
    ANYLLM["Any LLM<br/>(provider abstraction)"]
    KAOS["kaos<br/>(Execution env)"]
    SERVER["server<br/>(REST + WebSocket)"]
  end

  CLI --> SDK
  WEB --> SERVER
  DASH --> SERVER
  SDK --> CORE
  SERVER --> CORE
  CORE --> ANYLLM
  CORE --> KAOS

Extensibility

Pythinker is a small, extensible runtime — not a monolith. Build on it.

Documentation

Development

Prepare the workspace

**Requirements:**Node.js ≥ 26.4.0 · pnpm 10.34.3 · Git

git clone https://github.com/Pythoughts-labs/pythinker-code.git
cd pythinker-code
pnpm install

Common commands

pnpm dev:cli              # CLI in dev mode
pnpm dev:web              # browser UI
pnpm dev:server           # agent server
pnpm dashboard            # session dashboard

pnpm test                 # test suite (Vitest)
pnpm typecheck            # TypeScript check
pnpm lint                 # lint with oxlint
pnpm build                # build all packages

Project Layout

pythinker-code/
├──  apps/
│   ├── pythinker-code/        CLI · TUI · ACP · the primary entry point
│   ├── pythinker-web/         Companion browser UI (Vue 3)
│   └── dashboard/             Session replay & debugging
├──  packages/
│   ├── agent-core/            Unified agent engine: sessions · tools · skills · permissions
│   ├── kosong/                "Any LLM" provider abstraction
│   ├── kaos/                  Execution environment & file/process abstractions
│   ├── server/                REST + WebSocket session host (/api/v1)
│   └── node-sdk/              Public TypeScript SDK
└──  per-package test suites (Vitest)

Contributing

Contributions are warmly welcome — bug reports, PRs, plugins, skills, and docs all help.

• Start with CONTRIBUTING.md
• See SECURITY.md for responsible disclosure
• Discuss firstfor new features, large refactors, or API changes — open an issue before coding
• Follow Conventional Commits(feat:, fix:, docs:, …) and include a changeset (pnpm changeset) when your PR affects release artifacts
• Understand your diff— AI-assisted PRs are held to the same standard as hand-written ones

If Pythinker helps you, a on GitHub goes a long way.

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for the full text.

Our TUI is built on pi-tui — thank you to the authors for their excellent work.