friday

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⬡‿⬡ ready

a terminal AI coding agent, self-contained binary, OSS

What this is

A terminal-based AI coding agent. You type a task, it reads files, runs shell, edits the working tree, reports back. Self-contained binary, no Node at runtime, no system OpenGL. Bun 1.3+ for source build. The TUI is built on OpenTUI/Solid and has a mood-ring mascot in the status strip.

In the same family as opencode, aider, and cline. Written from scratch in this repo, not a fork.

Why this exists

The major paid coding tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, Cursor CLI, and a handful of others) ship a polished, well-designed feature set. The OSS CLI agent space is younger and ships most of it, but not all, and not always with the same depth.

friday is an attempt to ship a complete CLI coding agent in OSS, written from scratch, with the features the paid tools have. The approach is reverse engineering: study the design choices, understand why they work, implement them here. Not a fork, not a wrapper, not a thin re-skin. Same conceptual surface, independent implementation, MIT-licensed source. A contribution to the OSS community.

Install

Pick your OS. Each command installs the friday binary and puts it on your PATH.

macOS / Linux — Homebrew (recommended)

brew tap katipally/tap
brew trust katipally/tap   # one-time: recent Homebrew requires trusting third-party taps
brew install friday

Later: brew upgrade friday. (Apple Silicon, Intel, and Linux x64/arm64 are all covered.)

The brew trust step is a one-time, per-machine Homebrew security prompt for any third-party tap — it's not specific to Friday. If you skip it, brew install errors with “Refusing to load formula … from untrusted tap.”

Windows — Scoop (recommended)

scoop bucket add katipally https://github.com/katipally/scoop-bucket
scoop install friday

Later: scoop update friday.

Any OS — npm (works wherever Node 18+ is installed)

npm install -g friday-code

The friday-code launcher auto-detects your platform (including Linux musl vs glibc) and pulls the right binary. Later: npm update -g friday-code — or just run /update inside friday.

macOS / Linux — one-line script (no package manager)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/katipally/friday-code/main/install.sh | sh

Lands in ~/.friday/bin; the script prints the export PATH=… line to add to your shell rc.

Other ways

• Direct download: grab the binary for your platform from the Releases page (friday-<os>-<arch>), verify against SHASUMS256.txt, chmod +x, and run.
• Docker / Alpine: RUN npm i -g friday-code — the musl binary is selected automatically.
• From source: git clone https://github.com/katipally/friday-code && cd friday-code && bun install && bun run friday (needs Bun 1.3+).

Verify any install with friday --version. friday checks for new versions on its own and will offer to update from inside the app.

On first run, the splash shows up and /model lets you pick a provider. The picker validates the key against the provider before saving it, so a typo fails fast.

Usage

friday                        # launch the interactive TUI
friday -c, --continue         # resume the most recent session
friday -s, --session <id>     # resume a specific session
friday run "<prompt>"         # headless: one turn, print result, exit
friday run "<prompt>" --json  # headless, emit JSON (for CI)
friday -v, --version
friday -h, --help

friday run is the CI mode: auto-approves tools, prints the model's response, exits. Pipe it, redirect it, wrap it in a GitHub Action.

Key	Action
Enter	send message
Shift+Enter	newline in composer
Shift+Tab	cycle mode (plan → default → yolo)
Ctrl+B	toggle context panel
Ctrl+Space	steer the running agent & add context
Ctrl+Y	session history
/	slash command autocomplete
@	file or image mention
? or F1	full guide: slash commands · keyboard · modes
Esc	close overlay
Esc Esc	rewind last change
Ctrl+C	quit (press twice to confirm)

Mouse works too. Drag panel borders, click buttons, select to copy.

Modes

Shift+Tab cycles. Each mode recolors the whole frame and gates every tool call.

Glyph	Mode	What it does
◐	plan	read-only. Investigates, then shows a card with the full plan for you to review and run.
◈	default	asks before edits and commands.
⚡	yolo	full auto. No prompts.

Mascot

⬡‿⬡ lives above the composer. It changes expression: ⬡‿⬡ idle, ⬡⌄⬡ thinking, [>‿<] streaming, ⬡▰⬡ working, \⬡‿⬡/ done, ⬡_⬡ error, ⬡⊙⬡ waiting. The mood also tints the color: green for done, red for error, amber for waiting, mode accent for everything else. You can tell what's happening from across the room.

Steer

Agents go wrong when they guess at something you knew and then build on the guess. /steer is how you catch it mid-flight. Type /steer (or press Ctrl+Space) while Friday is working and it soft-interrupts the current generation and opens a composer. Write what it missed, press Enter, and your note folds in so the agent course-corrects right now.

/steer
→ "we are keeping the old auth API, do not rewrite it"

Full reference, including the cost model and the composer's @file mentions, in docs/steer.md. Every slash command is listed in docs/commands.md.

Features

What's actually in main, no aspirational claims.

Engine. Streaming everywhere, tool-calling loop, auto-compaction at ~80% (or /compact), 8 hook events (PreToolUse, PostToolUse, UserPromptSubmit, Stop, SessionStart, SubagentStop, PreCompact, Notification), read-only sub-agents, checkpoints + rewind (including files bash created), bash safety with allow/deny lists and risky-command detection, LSP grounding (typescript-language-server, pyright, gopls, rust-analyzer, auto-detected).

Tools. read, write, edit, multiEdit, applyPatch, ls, glob, grep, bash, webfetch, websearch, askUser, skill, delegate / task (read-only sub-agent), task_create / task_list / task_status / task_stop / send_to_task, todo_write, exit_plan, lsp_hover / lsp_definition / lsp_symbols, tool_search, memory, notebook_edit, cron_create / cron_list / cron_delete, enter_worktree / exit_worktree / worktree_list, opt-in browser_* and computer_*. MCP client (stdio + streamable-http).

TUI. Animated mascot (7 states, defined in packages/shared/src/mascot.ts), animated FRIDAY wordmark drawn from half-block subpixels in the TUI itself, 3-mode visual system with per-mode glyph + accent, responsive layout with auto-collapsing panels, motion layer with FRIDAY_REDUCED_MOTION=1 accessibility fallback, context panel with plans/todos/files/context plus separate MCP and skills surfaces, on-device speech-to-text mic with input-device select + live transcription (Ctrl+R), inline slash command + @ mention autocomplete, markdown skills in ~/.friday/skills/.

Providers (19). Anthropic and Google Gemini ship dedicated adapters. 17 more (OpenAI, OpenRouter, OpenCode Zen, Groq, Moonshot/Kimi, DeepSeek, xAI, Mistral, Perplexity, Together, Cerebras, DeepInfra, Fireworks, Azure OpenAI, MiniMax, Ollama, llama.cpp / LM Studio) go through one OpenAI-compat adapter. Ollama and llama.cpp are keyless. Model catalog from models.dev with an offline snapshot fallback. Reasoning effort via /effort slider.

Headless / CI. friday run "<prompt>" [--json], -c continue, -s <id> resume. Idempotent publish script: if a package@version is already on npm, it's skipped.

Configuration

Everything under ~/.friday/ (override with FRIDAY_HOME):

auth.json     provider keys (written 0600 by the /model modal)
config.json   model, effort, mode, mcp, hooks, bash allow/deny
memory/       user-level persistent memory
skills/       user-level markdown skills
sessions/     bun:sqlite session state
logs/         when something goes wrong, look here

API keys can also come from env vars (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY, GROQ_API_KEY, etc.). Env wins on conflict.

{
  "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5",
  "effort": "medium",
  "mode": "default",
  "mcp": {
    "my-server": { "type": "stdio", "command": ["my-mcp-server"] },
    "remote":    { "type": "http",  "url": "https://example.com/mcp" }
  },
  "hooks": {
    "PreToolUse":  [{ "matcher": "bash", "command": "./gate.sh" }],
    "PostToolUse": [{ "matcher": "write|edit", "command": "prettier --write ." }]
  },
  "bash": { "deny": ["rm -rf", "git push"], "allow": ["npm test", "ls"] }
}

For project context that ships with the repo, drop a FRIDAY.md in the project root. Symlink your existing AGENTS.md if you have one. Friday reads both at the start of every session.

Develop

Bun 1.3+.

git clone https://github.com/katipally/friday-code.git
cd friday-code
bun install
bun run friday
bun run ci    # typecheck + tests + biome, what CI runs

Optional, for LSP grounding while testing: typescript-language-server, pyright, gopls, or rust-analyzer. Auto-detected, skipped if absent.

To add a tool: implement in packages/tools/src/builtin/, register in packages/tools/src/index.ts, handle the call in packages/core/src/runner.ts. To add a provider: most go through the OpenAI-compat adapter in packages/providers/src/. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full workflow.

Releases

git tag v2.0.9 && git push origin v2.0.9 is the whole release. Versions are derived from the tag, nothing in source is hardcoded. The pipeline:

1. 8 builds run in parallel on native runners (5 stable, 2 musl, 1 best-effort Windows ARM)
2. GitHub Release with all binaries + SHASUMS256.txt
3. Manual approval in the release environment (nothing goes to npm until you click)
4. 9 npm packages publish with provenance (8 platform + 1 launcher)
5. Homebrew tap + Scoop bucket get the new version committed to them automatically

If a stable build fails, the release is blocked. If a musl or Windows ARM build fails, the release still proceeds. The publish script is idempotent: re-run and already-shipped packages are skipped.

Roadmap

Shipped. 3 permission modes with per-mode glyph + accent. 7-state animated mascot in TUI. Animated FRIDAY wordmark in TUI. 8 native binaries + 9 npm packages with launcher auto-resolve. 19 built-in providers (Anthropic, Gemini, OpenAI-compat for 17 more). 8 hook events. Read-only sub-agents (delegate / task). On-device speech-to-text mic with input-device select + live transcription (Ctrl+R). Auto-compaction + manual /compact. Checkpoints + rewind (bash file snapshotting). LSP grounding (4 languages). MCP client. Background tasks, cron, worktree. Opt-in browser + computer-use control. Headless mode with JSON output. FRIDAY.md / AGENTS.md project context. Slash command + @ mention autocomplete.

Not yet. Desktop app, IDE extension (VS Code / JetBrains), web interface, iOS / mobile, cloud-managed scheduled tasks, channel integrations (Slack / Discord / Telegram), plugin system, ACP (Agent Client Protocol) for IDE handoff. These would need a separate initiative. The fastest way to get any of them is to send a PR.

Troubleshooting

⬡_⬡ hmm.

• friday: command not found. npm: check npm config get prefix and the bin dir. curl installer: the install script prints an export PATH=... line, add it to your shell rc. Homebrew: /opt/homebrew/bin should be on PATH (Apple Silicon). Scoop: scoop bucket known should list katipally. Quick check: which friday.
• TUI looks broken or colors are wrong. You need a truecolor terminal (iTerm2, Alacritty, Kitty, WezTerm, Ghostty, GNOME Terminal, Windows Terminal, VS Code integrated terminal). Set COLORTERM=truecolor if needed. For less animation, FRIDAY_REDUCED_MOTION=1.
• Mouse doesn't work. Most terminals enable it by default. tmux needs set -g mouse on (tmux 3.0+).
• npm install fails on Windows. PowerShell execution policy. Run as Administrator: Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned. Or use Scoop.
• Provider rejected the key. The picker validates before saving. If you see "invalid key" after paste, the full key didn't copy. The picker shows the last 4 chars after paste for sanity check. If validation passes but auth errors later, check the env var and ~/.friday/auth.json.
• macOS Gatekeeper. The binary isn't signed. Right-click → Open → confirm. Or xattr -d com.apple.quarantine $(which friday).
• Windows SmartScreen. Click "More info" → "Run anyway". Or use Scoop.
• Something else. ~/.friday/logs/. If logs don't help, open an issue with friday --version and the relevant log lines.

Documentation

Deep dives on every feature live in docs/:

• Slash commands: every command you can type.
• Steer: /steer.
• Configuration: ~/.friday/, keys, hooks, project context, skills, and commands.
• Providers: the 19 providers and reasoning effort.
• Tools: the capabilities the model calls.
• Integrations: browser, computer use, voice, LSP, headless mode.

Contributing, security, license

• CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, tests, and PR workflow.
• SECURITY.md for private vulnerability reports and the security model.
• CHANGELOG.md for per-release notes.
• CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.
• LICENSE. MIT.