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Introduction

Introduction

Section titled “Introduction”

clido is an AI coding agent for your terminal. Give it a task in plain English and it will read your codebase, write code, run tests, fix errors, and report back — all inside a single conversation.

It is built in Rust and ships as a single statically-linked binary with no runtime dependencies.

What clido does

Section titled “What clido does”

clido connects a large language model to a set of tools that can interact with your filesystem and shell:

ToolWhat it does
BashRuns shell commands with timeout and sandboxing support
ReadReads file contents with optional line-range slicing
WriteCreates or overwrites files
EditApplies precise string replacements to existing files
GlobFinds files matching a pattern
GrepSearches file content with regex
SemanticSearchSearches your indexed repository by symbol or concept

The agent loops autonomously — it calls tools, observes results, and continues until it completes the task, hits a turn limit, or exceeds a cost budget.

Key capabilities

Section titled “Key capabilities”
  • Interactive TUI — a Ratatui-based terminal UI with a chat pane, real-time tool progress, permission prompts, and a cost/token status strip
  • Persistent sessions — every conversation is stored as a JSONL file; resume any session with --continue or --resume <id>
  • Long-term memory — facts extracted from sessions are stored in SQLite and injected into future conversations automatically
  • Repository index — build a file and symbol index to enable fast semantic search across large codebases
  • Workflows — declare multi-step agent pipelines in YAML with dynamic parameters and parallel steps
  • MCP servers — connect external tools over the Model Context Protocol
  • Multiple providers — Anthropic, OpenAI-compatible endpoints, OpenRouter, and local Ollama models
  • Audit log — every tool call is logged with inputs, outputs, and timing for review

Why clido

Section titled “Why clido”
  • Provider-agnostic — use any LLM provider (16+ supported) or local models via Ollama
  • Single binary — no runtime, no package manager, one curl and you’re running
  • Persistent sessions — pick up where you left off, with full history and context
  • YAML workflows — automate multi-step agent tasks declaratively
  • MCP support — extend the agent with external tools via the Model Context Protocol
  • Built for CI/CD — embed in pipelines and scripts with --non-interactive mode

A first look

Section titled “A first look”

Start a session in the current directory:

Terminal window
$ clido "refactor the parse() function in src/parser.rs to return Result<T, ParseError>"

clido reads the file, plans the change, applies it with the Edit tool, runs cargo check, and summarises what changed:

[Turn 1] Reading src/parser.rs...
[Turn 2] Applying edit to src/parser.rs...
[Turn 3] Running cargo check...
[Turn 4] All checks pass. Refactor complete.


  Modified: src/parser.rs
  Cost: $0.0021  Turns: 4  Time: 8.3s

Or open the interactive TUI:

Terminal window
$ clido
╭─ clido ──────────────────────────── claude-3-5-sonnet ─╮
│                                                         │
│  Hello! I'm ready to help with your Rust project.      │
│  What would you like to work on?                        │
│                                                         │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
> _

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”