# Zero: The AI Coding Agent for Your Local Terminal

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Zero is an innovative AI coding agent designed for your local terminal, offering powerful capabilities to inspect repositories, edit files, run commands, and utilize browser/terminal helpers. It provides durable local sessions while giving users full control over the AI model and permission levels. This tool empowers developers with a customizable and secure AI assistant directly within their development environment.

GitHub: https://github.com/Gitlawb/zero
OSRepos URL: https://osrepos.com/repo/gitlawb-zero

## Summary

Zero is an innovative AI coding agent designed for your local terminal, offering powerful capabilities to inspect repositories, edit files, run commands, and utilize browser/terminal helpers. It provides durable local sessions while giving users full control over the AI model and permission levels. This tool empowers developers with a customizable and secure AI assistant directly within their development environment.

## Topics

- ai
- ai-agent
- cli
- code-assistant
- developer-tools
- llm
- Go
- development

## Repository Information

Last analyzed by OSRepos: Mon Jul 06 2026 12:33:47 GMT+0100 (Western European Summer Time)
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GitHub clicks: 1

## Safety Notice

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## Content

## Introduction

Zero is a sophisticated AI coding agent built for your local terminal, putting you in command of your development workflow. It allows you to inspect codebases, modify files, execute commands, and leverage browser/terminal utilities, all while maintaining persistent local sessions. With Zero, you choose your preferred AI model and define the permission levels, ensuring a secure and tailored experience. It's designed to be a powerful, extensible, and privacy-focused assistant for developers.

## Installation

Getting started with Zero is straightforward. Here are the most common installation methods:

### npm

The npm package provides a convenient wrapper that installs the appropriate Zero binary for your platform (Linux, macOS, Windows on x64 and arm64).

bash
npm install -g @gitlawb/zero
zero


### Install Scripts

For Linux/macOS, you can use a simple curl command:

bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Gitlawb/zero/main/scripts/install.sh | bash


Windows users can install via PowerShell:

powershell
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Gitlawb/zero/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex


### From Source

If you prefer to build from source, Go 1.25+ is required:

bash
git clone https://github.com/Gitlawb/zero.git
cd zero
go run ./cmd/zero


For more detailed installation instructions, refer to the official documentation.

## Examples

Zero offers both an interactive TUI (Terminal User Interface) and a headless `exec` mode for scripting.

### Interactive TUI

Simply run `zero` to start the TUI. A setup wizard will guide you through selecting a provider and model.

bash
zero


Common slash commands within the TUI include:

*   `/model`, `/provider`: Switch the active model or provider.
*   `/spec`, `/plan`: Draft and review a plan before building.
*   `/image`: Attach an image for vision-capable models.
*   `/resume`, `/rewind`: Continue or roll back local sessions.

### Headless `exec`

For one-shot commands or scripting, use `zero exec`:

bash
zero exec "explain internal/agent/loop.go"
zero exec --model claude-sonnet-4.5 "refactor the config loader"
zero exec --use-spec "add rate limiting to the API client"


Zero also supports stream-JSON for programmatic input/output, making it suitable for CI/CD pipelines.

## Why Use Zero

Zero stands out for several compelling reasons:

*   **Model Flexibility**: Use your preferred AI model, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Mistral, xAI, Qwen, Kimi, GitHub Models, Ollama, LM Studio, or any OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible endpoint.
*   **Full Control**: Maintain complete control over file writes, shell commands, network access, and out-of-workspace writes through Zero's robust permission and sandbox policy.
*   **Terminal-Native Experience**: The TUI provides a rich interactive experience with model/provider pickers, image input, slash commands, live plan/tool rendering, scrollback, themes, and session management.
*   **Scriptability**: The `zero exec` command is highly scriptable, supporting text/JSON/stream-JSON I/O, isolated worktrees, spec-first runs, and meaningful exit codes for CI environments.
*   **Local Context**: All sessions are stored locally on disk, are searchable, resumable, and never uploaded as telemetry, ensuring your privacy.
*   **Extensibility**: Extend Zero's capabilities with MCP servers, skills, plugins, hooks, and specialist subagents, all accessible from the same CLI.

## Links

*   **GitHub Repository**: [https://github.com/Gitlawb/zero](https://github.com/Gitlawb/zero){:target="_blank"}
*   **Installation Documentation**: [docs/INSTALL.md](https://github.com/Gitlawb/zero/blob/main/docs/INSTALL.md){:target="_blank"}
*   **Stream-JSON Protocol**: [docs/STREAM_JSON_PROTOCOL.md](https://github.com/Gitlawb/zero/blob/main/docs/STREAM_JSON_PROTOCOL.md){:target="_blank"}