nil

A minimal coding agent for the terminal. Works with any OpenAI-compatible API (OpenAI, OpenRouter, Ollama, ...).

pnpm install && npm link    # uninstall: npm unlink -g nil

Set up the environment:

NIL_API_KEY=sk-...                         # required
NIL_BASE_URL=https://openrouter.ai/api/v1  # default: https://api.openai.com/v1
NIL_MODEL=qwen/qwen3.8-27b:free            # default: gpt-5.4-nano

NIL_BASE_URL must be an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, without the trailing /chat/completions. Pick a model that supports tool calling.

Then:

nil                   new session (prints its id)
nil --resume          continue the last session
nil --resume <id>     continue a specific session (id prefix works)
nil --auto            don't ask before running tools

By default nil asks before it writes files or runs commands. Sessions live in ./.nil/. /help lists commands, like /model to switch models.