Codewhale

One runtime. Every model. Your machine.

Codewhale is a coding agent for your terminal. It works with any model; open models first. Give it a provider, a model, and a task: it reads your code, edits files, runs commands, checks its work, and stops when the job is done or it needs you. Switch models mid-task with /model. Use the TUI for interactive work, codewhale exec for scripts and CI. Rust, MIT, runs on your machine.

Why Codewhale:

• No lock-in. DeepSeek, Claude, GPT, Kimi, GLM, 30+ providers, and your own vLLM, SGLang, or Ollama — no key required — run through one runtime and one toolset. Context budgets and prices come from the real route. An unknown price shows as unknown, never as $0.
• Safe by construction. Plan mode is read-only. Approvals gate every risky call. The OS sandbox holds — Seatbelt, Landlock, seccomp, bwrap. A repo's constitution.json compiles into write holds that even Full Access cannot skip.
• Work that survives. Fleets record every step in an append-only ledger; fleet resume picks up where you stopped. Every turn leaves a receipt you can inspect.

Born as deepseek-tui. Its community needed more providers, so we built one where the model is a component, not the product.

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Install

npm install -g codewhale

Cargo, Docker, Nix, Scoop, prebuilt archives, Android/Termux, and a CNB mirror for users who cannot reach GitHub are covered in docs/INSTALL.md. Coming from deepseek-tui? Your config and sessions carry over — see docs/REBRAND.md.

Use

codewhale auth set --provider deepseek   # or export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, etc.
codewhale                                # open the TUI
codewhale exec "fix the failing test"    # headless
codewhale web                            # local browser client on 127.0.0.1

In the TUI: /model switches provider and model together, /fleet runs a team of workers, /restore undoes a turn, Tab cycles Plan / Act / Operate, Shift+Tab cycles the Ask / Auto-Review / Full Access approval posture, and ! runs a shell command through the normal approval path.

Learn more

• docs/PROVIDERS.md — every provider route: hosted, gateway, and local
• docs/FLEET.md — fleets, the ledger, and resume
• docs/CONFIGURATION.md — config.toml, hooks, and the constitution
• docs/WEB.md — the loopback-only embedded browser client and its one-time authentication boundary

Everything else — modes, keybindings, sandbox details, MCP, the runtime API, architecture — is in docs and on codewhale.net.

Contributing

All feedback is a gift. Issues, PRs, repro steps, logs, feature requests, and first contributions are all real project work here. When a PR can't merge as-is, maintainers harvest what works and the author stays credited — in the commit, the changelog, and docs/CONTRIBUTORS.md. If a model or provider you use is missing, or something breaks on your machine, telling us is the most useful thing you can do.

• Open issues — good first contributions live here
• CONTRIBUTING.md — dev setup and PR flow
• docs/CONTRIBUTORS.md — everyone who has shaped this
• Buy me a coffee

Thanks to DeepSeek for the models and support that started the project, DataWhale 🐋 for welcoming us into the Whale Brother family, and OpenWarp and Open Design for collaborating on the terminal-agent experience.

License

MIT. Independent community project; not affiliated with any model provider.