dreb is an open-source terminal coding agent, forked from [pi-mono](https://github.com/badlogic/pi-mono) (itself derived from Claude Code). It has *fewer* features than Claude Code by design — the bet is that a small, hackable core you can shape beats a large feature set you can't.

Claude Code is a great product. dreb isn't trying to compete on features — it's trying to compete on flexibility. The core is kept minimal; what you'd find baked into other tools, you build here with [skills](#skills) (markdown workflows), [extensions](#extensions) (TypeScript), or install from third-party [packages](#packages).

Concretely, dreb ships *without* things Claude Code has — and that's intentional:

- **No MCP.** Build CLI tools with READMEs (see [Skills](#skills)), or build an extension that adds MCP support.
- **No permission popups.** Run in a container, or build your own confirmation flow with [extensions](#extensions).
- **No plan mode.** Write plans to files, or build it with extensions, or install a package.
- **No background bash in the main agent.** The main agent runs commands synchronously. For parallel work, use the `subagent` tool — each subagent runs as an independent process with its own tools.

What you get in exchange: a skill system, an extension API, custom agent definitions, custom provider support (route through any proxy, use any API-compatible backend), and a subagent system for parallel work. From those primitives, you build what you need — and share it with others via git or npm.

## Table of Contents

- [Quick Start](#quick-start)
- [Providers & Models](#providers--models)
- [Interactive Mode](#interactive-mode)
  - [Editor](#editor)
  - [Commands](#commands)
  - [Keyboard Shortcuts](#keyboard-shortcuts)
  - [Message Queue](#message-queue)
- [Sessions](#sessions)
  - [Branching](#branching)
  - [Compaction](#compaction)
  - [Tab Title](#tab-title)
- [Settings](#settings)
- [Context Files](#context-files)
- [Memory](#memory)
- [Task Tracking](#task-tracking)
- [Subagents](#subagents)
- [Semantic Search](#semantic-search)
- [Customization](#customization)
  - [Prompt Templates](#prompt-templates)
  - [Skills](#skills)
  - [Extensions](#extensions)
  - [Themes](#themes)
  - [Packages](#packages)
- [Programmatic Usage](#programmatic-usage)
- [CLI Reference](#cli-reference)

---

## Quick Start

> **Node.js 22 LTS is required.** dreb relies on SSE streaming behavior that is stable in Node 22 LTS. Node 24 and Node 26 are known to break provider streaming due to changes in ReadableStream buffering, which causes every provider to fail with **"request ended without sending any chunks"**. If you see that error, switch to Node 22 LTS.

### Building from source (recommended)

```bash
git clone https://github.com/aebrer/dreb.git
cd dreb
npm install
npm run build
npm link -w packages/coding-agent
```

---

### Installing from npm

```bash
npm install -g @dreb/coding-agent
```

Authenticate with an API key:

```bash
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
dreb
```

Or use your existing subscription:

```bash
dreb
/login  # Then select provider
```

Or use a custom provider (corporate proxy, Bedrock, etc.) — see [Custom providers & models](#providers--models).

Then just talk to dreb. All 11 built-in tools are enabled by default: `read`, `write`, `edit`, `bash`, `grep`, `find`, `ls`, `web_search`, `web_fetch`, `subagent`, and `wait`. Use `--tools` to restrict to a subset (e.g., `--tools read,grep,find,ls` for read-only). Three additional tools — `search`, `skill`, and `tasks_update` — are always active regardless of `--tools`. `suggest_next` is active by default but excluded when `--tools` is specified. The model uses these to fulfill your requests. Add capabilities via [skills](#skills), [prompt templates](#prompt-templates), [extensions](#extensions), or [packages](#packages).

**Also available:** [`@dreb/telegram`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@dreb/telegram) — run dreb as a Telegram bot with live tool status and visible results for user-facing tools (`npm install -g @dreb/telegram`).

**Platform notes:** [Windows](docs/windows.md) | [Termux (Android)](docs/termux.md) | [tmux](docs/tmux.md) | [Terminal setup](docs/terminal-setup.md) | [Shell aliases](docs/shell-aliases.md)

**Bun users:** Bun's lockfile can cache stale `@dreb/*` versions after upgrades, causing missing-export errors. Fix with `bun pm cache rm && bunx --force dreb`.

### Troubleshooting

- **"request ended without sending any chunks" on every provider** — Your Node version is likely too new. Switch to **Node.js 22 LTS**. Node 26 in particular changed ReadableStream buffering in a way that breaks the Anthropic and OpenAI SDK stream parsers dreb uses.

---

## Providers & Models

For each built-in provider, dreb maintains a list of tool-capable models, updated with every release. Authenticate via subscription (`/login`) or API key, then select any model from that provider via `/model`.

**Subscriptions:**
- OpenAI ChatGPT Plus/Pro (Codex)
- GitHub Copilot
- Google Gemini CLI
- Google Antigravity
- Kimi For Coding

**API keys:**
- Anthropic
- OpenAI
- Azure OpenAI
- Google Gemini
- Google Vertex
- Amazon Bedrock
- Mistral
- Groq
- Cerebras
- xAI
- OpenRouter
- Vercel AI Gateway
- ZAI
- OpenCode Zen
- OpenCode Go
- Hugging Face
- Kimi For Coding
- MiniMax
- MiniMax (China)

See [docs/providers.md](docs/providers.md) for detailed setup instructions, including Kimi For Coding notes that distinguish OAuth, API-key, first-party CLI, and Moonshot Open Platform vision support.

**Custom providers & models:** Add providers via `~/.dreb/agent/models.json` if they speak a supported API (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google). For custom APIs or OAuth, use extensions. See [docs/models.md](docs/models.md) and [docs/custom-provider.md](docs/custom-provider.md).

---

## Interactive Mode

<p align="center"><img src="docs/images/interactive-mode.png" alt="Interactive Mode" width="600"></p>

The interface from top to bottom:

- **Startup header** - Shows shortcuts (`/hotkeys` for all), loaded AGENTS.md files, prompt templates, skills, and extensions
- **Messages** - Your messages, assistant responses, tool calls and results, notifications, errors, and extension UI
- **Editor** - Where you type; border color indicates thinking level
- **Footer** - Working directory, session name, total token/cache usage, cost, context usage, current model, and rolling tokens-per-second (median TPS with long-term delta)

The editor can be temporarily replaced by other UI, like built-in `/settings` or custom UI from extensions (e.g., a Q&A tool that lets the user answer model questions in a structured format). [Extensions](#extensions) can also replace the editor, add widgets above/below it, a status line, custom footer, or overlays.

### Editor

| Feature | How |
|---------|-----|
| File reference | Type `@` to fuzzy-search project files |
| Path completion | Tab to complete paths |
| Multi-line | Shift+Enter (or Ctrl+Enter on Windows Terminal) |
| Images | Ctrl+V to paste (Alt+V on Windows), or drag onto terminal |
| Bash commands | `!command` runs and sends output to LLM, `!!command` runs without sending |

Standard editing keybindings for delete word, undo, etc. See [docs/keybindings.md](docs/keybindings.md).

### Commands

Type `/` in the editor to trigger commands. [Extensions](#extensions) can register custom commands, [skills](#skills) are available as `/skill:name`, and [prompt templates](#prompt-templates) expand via `/templatename`.

| Command | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| `/login`, `/logout` | OAuth authentication |
| `/model` | Switch models |
| `/scoped-models` | Enable/disable models for cycling |
| `/settings` | Thinking level, thinking summaries (adaptive Claude models), theme, message delivery, transport |
| `/resume` | Pick from previous sessions |
| `/new` | Start a new session |
| `/name <name>` | Set session display name |
| `/session` | Show session info (path, tokens, cost) |
| `/tree` | Jump to any point in the session and continue from there |
| `/fork` | Create a new session from the current branch |
| `/compact [prompt]` | Manually compact context, optional custom instructions |
| `/copy` | Open multi-select message picker to copy any messages to clipboard |
| `/dream` | Consolidate and prune memories — backs up, merges duplicates, scans sessions for patterns |
| `/export [file]` | Export session to HTML file |
| `/buddy` | Terminal companion — hatch, pet, reroll, set model, or hide. See [docs/buddy.md](docs/buddy.md) |
| `/reload` | Reload keybindings, extensions, skills, prompts, and context files (themes hot-reload automatically) |
| `/hotkeys` | Show all keyboard shortcuts |
| `/changelog` | Display version history |
| `/quit`, `/exit` | Quit dreb |

### Keyboard Shortcuts

See `/hotkeys` for the full list. Customize via `~/.dreb/agent/keybindings.json`. See [docs/keybindings.md](docs/keybindings.md).

**Commonly used:**

| Key | Action |
|-----|--------|
| Ctrl+C | Clear editor |
| Ctrl+C twice | Quit |
| Escape | Cancel/abort |
| Escape twice | Open `/tree` |

| Shift+Tab | Cycle thinking level |
| Ctrl+O | Collapse/expand tool output |
| Ctrl+T | Collapse/expand thinking blocks |

### Message Queue

Submit messages while the agent is working:

- **Enter** queues a *steering* message, delivered after the current assistant turn finishes executing its tool calls
- **Alt+Enter** queues a *follow-up* message, delivered only after the agent finishes all work
- **Escape** aborts and restores queued messages to editor
- **Alt+Up** retrieves queued messages back to editor

On Windows Terminal, `Alt+Enter` is fullscreen by default. Remap it in [docs/terminal-setup.md](docs/terminal-setup.md) so dreb can receive the follow-up shortcut.

Configure delivery in [settings](docs/settings.md): `steeringMode` and `followUpMode` can be `"one-at-a-time"` (default, waits for response) or `"all"` (delivers all queued at once). `transport` selects provider transport preference (`"sse"`, `"websocket"`, or `"auto"`) for providers that support multiple transports.

---

## Sessions

Sessions are stored as JSONL files with a tree structure. Each entry has an `id` and `parentId`, enabling in-place branching without creating new files. See [docs/session.md](docs/session.md) for file format.

### Management

Sessions auto-save to `~/.dreb/agent/sessions/` organized by working directory.

```bash
dreb -c                  # Continue most recent session
dreb -r                  # Browse and select from past sessions
dreb --no-session        # Ephemeral mode (don't save)
dreb --session <path>    # Use specific session file or ID
dreb --fork <path>       # Fork specific session file or ID into a new session
```

### Branching

**`/tree`** - Navigate the session tree in-place. Select any previous point, continue from there, and switch between branches. All history preserved in a single file.

<p align="center"><img src="docs/images/tree-view.png" alt="Tree View" width="600"></p>

- Search by typing, fold/unfold and jump between branches with Ctrl+←/Ctrl+→ or Alt+←/Alt+→, page with ←/→
- Filter modes (Ctrl+O): default → no-tools → user-only → labeled-only → all
- Press `L` (Shift+L) to label entries as bookmarks

**`/fork`** - Create a new session file from the current branch. Opens a selector, copies history up to the selected point, and places that message in the editor for modification.

**`--fork <path|id>`** - Fork an existing session file or partial session UUID directly from the CLI. This copies the full source session into a new session file in the current project.

### Compaction

Long sessions can exhaust context windows. Compaction summarizes older messages while keeping recent ones.

**Manual:** `/compact` or `/compact <custom instructions>`

**Automatic:** Enabled by default. Triggers on context overflow (recovers and retries) or when approaching the limit (proactive). Configure via `/settings` or `settings.json`.

Compaction is lossy. The full history remains in the JSONL file; use `/tree` to revisit. Customize compaction behavior via [extensions](#extensions). See [docs/compaction.md](docs/compaction.md) for internals.

### Tab Title

After a few tool calls, dreb auto-generates a short terminal tab title describing the session's task. Useful when multiple tabs are open. Fires once per session via a background LLM call; failures are silent.

Disable or adjust the trigger threshold in [settings](docs/settings.md):

```json
{ "tabTitle": { "enabled": false } }
```

---

## Settings

Use `/settings` to modify common options, or edit JSON files directly:

| Location | Scope |
|----------|-------|
| `~/.dreb/agent/settings.json` | Global (all projects) |
| `.dreb/settings.json` | Project (overrides global) |

See [docs/settings.md](docs/settings.md) for all options.

---

## Context Files

dreb loads `AGENTS.md` (or `CLAUDE.md`) at startup from:
- `~/.dreb/agent/AGENTS.md` (global)
- Parent directories (walking up from cwd)
- Current directory

Use for project instructions, conventions, common commands. All matching files are concatenated.

### System Prompt

Replace the default system prompt with `.dreb/SYSTEM.md` (project) or `~/.dreb/agent/SYSTEM.md` (global). Append without replacing via `APPEND_SYSTEM.md`.

---

## Memory

dreb has a persistent, file-based memory system. Memory survives across sessions and helps the model recall user preferences, past decisions, project context, and pointers to external resources.

### How it works

Memory is convention-based — no dedicated tool. The system prompt teaches the model the memory format; the model uses the standard `read`, `write`, and `edit` tools to manage memory files. Memory indexes (`MEMORY.md`) are loaded at session start and injected into the system prompt.

### Locations

| Scope | Directory | Loaded |
|-------|-----------|--------|
| Global | `~/.dreb/memory/` | Every session |
| Project | `<project-root>/.dreb/memory/` | When working in that project |

Project identity is determined by git repo root. The global memory directory is auto-created on first session; project directories are created on demand by the model.

### Memory entries

Each memory is a Markdown file with YAML frontmatter:

```markdown
---
name: descriptive-name
description: One-line description for relevance matching
type: user-preferences
---

Content of the memory entry.
```

Four types: `user-preferences` (who the user is), `good-practices` (how to approach work), `project` (ongoing work context), `navigation` (pointers to external resources).

### MEMORY.md index

Each memory directory has a `MEMORY.md` file that serves as an index. Only the first 200 lines are loaded at session start — keep it concise:

```markdown
- [User role](user_role.md) — Python dev, generative art background
- [CI parity](feedback_ci_parity.md) — run tsgo --noEmit locally, not just tests
```

### Claude Code compatibility

dreb reads existing Claude Code memory for the current project from `~/.claude/projects/` (read-only), with source labeling and a warning about Claude Code-specific references that may not apply to dreb.

---

## Task Tracking

The `tasks_update` tool lets the model maintain a visible task list during multi-step work. Tasks appear in a TUI panel with status indicators (☐ pending, ⧖ in progress, ☑ completed).

The tool uses a full-replacement model — the model sends the complete task list on each call, no incremental updates. The TUI panel is visible by default and renders when active tasks exist. It auto-hides when the task list is empty or all tasks are completed. Toggle visibility with the `app.tasks.toggle` keybinding (unbound by default, configurable in [keybindings](docs/keybindings.md)). The panel displays up to 10 tasks at a time; overflow shows as "... and N more".

Task tracking is prompt-driven: the system prompt includes guidelines for when to use it (3+ step work), concise titles, and a maximum of 20 tasks.

---

## Subagents

The `subagent` tool delegates tasks to independent child agent processes. Each subagent runs in its own process with its own context window, and notifies the parent when complete.

**Modes:**
- **Single** (`task`): One background agent
- **Parallel** (`tasks`): Up to 8 concurrent agents (max 4 at a time)
- **Chain** (`chain`): Sequential pipeline where each step can reference the previous step's output via `{previous}`

**Agent type inheritance:** The top-level `agent` parameter is inherited by parallel tasks and chain steps that don't specify their own. Precedence: per-task `agent` > top-level `agent` > default (`"Explore"`). The `model` parameter follows the same inheritance.

**Agent definitions** live in `~/.dreb/agents/` (global) and `.dreb/agents/` (project). Each is a markdown file with YAML frontmatter specifying `name`, `model` (with provider fallback list), and optional `systemPrompt`. Built-in agents include `Explore` (read-only codebase exploration), `Sandbox` (restricted to `/tmp`), `feature-dev` (strong-tier coding), and several review agents.

**Model availability probes:** When an agent definition specifies a fallback list (comma-separated models), each model is verified with a lightweight API call via the same `streamSimple` path the agent loop uses before the subagent is spawned. The probe uses normal coding-agent thinking defaults and does not pass a synthetic `maxTokens` override, which keeps the request shape representative for reasoning models as well as non-reasoning models. Models that fail the probe (rate limit, quota exhaustion, auth failure, timeout) are skipped with a loud log line, and the next fallback is tried. If all configured models fail, the parent session's model is used as a last resort. Per-invocation model overrides and single-model configs skip probing entirely.

**Per-agent model overrides:** The model used by each agent type can be overridden via the `agentModels.models` setting (a map of agent name → ordered fallback list) without copying or editing the agent definition `.md` files. Configure it in `settings.json` or via `/settings` → **Agent Models**. Resolution order: per-invocation `model` override → `agentModels` setting → agent definition `model` → parent session model. See [docs/agent-models.md](docs/agent-models.md).

**Model identity in system prompt:** The parent session's running model is exposed in its own system prompt as `You are running on: provider/id`. This lets the model make self-aware routing decisions (e.g. delegate vision tasks to a multimodal subagent, or use a differently-architected model as a critic). The line updates automatically on mid-session model switches.

**Session metadata:** Each child process records its agent type in the session JSONL header (`agentType` field), providing an audit trail of which agent definition executed the work.

---

## Semantic Search

The `search` tool provides natural language queries over the codebase using embeddings and full-text search. It supports identifier queries (e.g., `AuthMiddleware`), natural language (e.g., `where is rate limiting handled`), and path queries (e.g., `src/auth/`).

**Parameters:** `query` (required), `searchDir` (directory to index and search — each unique value gets its own independent index; defaults to cwd, but should be set explicitly in Telegram sessions where cwd is `~/`), `restrictToDir` (filter results to files under this subdirectory within the already-built index — does not affect which files are indexed), `limit` (max results, default 20), `rebuild` (force a clean re-index when results look stale or corrupt).

**How it works:** The first query builds a project index (typically 10–60s, longer for very large repos). Subsequent queries use the cached index, with incremental re-indexing for changed files (mtime-based). Each unique `searchDir` gets its own independent index.

**Indexing pipeline:**
- AST-aware code chunking via tree-sitter (TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, Rust, Java, C, C++, GDScript) — extracts functions, classes, methods, and exports as individual chunks
- Format-aware text chunking for non-code files (Markdown by heading, YAML/JSON/TOML by top-level key)
- Local embeddings via all-MiniLM-L6-v2 (~23MB model, auto-downloaded on first use, cached at `~/.dreb/agent/models/`)

**Ranking:** Uses POEM (Pareto-Optimal Embedding-based Multiranking) with 6 metrics: FTS5 BM25, vector cosine similarity, path match, symbol match, import graph proximity, and git recency. Short identifier queries bias toward exact text matches; long natural language queries bias toward vector similarity.

**Storage:** Project index at `.dreb/index/`, memory files indexed alongside code. Add `**/.dreb/` to your project's `.gitignore`. Works offline after the initial model download.

**Requirements:** Node.js 22+ (uses built-in `node:sqlite`). On older Node versions the tool is silently unavailable — no crash, it simply doesn't register. Zero native addons — uses `web-tree-sitter` (WASM) and `@huggingface/transformers` (WASM).

---

## Customization

### Prompt Templates

Reusable prompts as Markdown files. Type `/name` to expand.

```markdown
<!-- ~/.dreb/agent/prompts/review.md -->
Review this code for bugs, security issues, and performance problems.
Focus on: {{focus}}
```

Place in `~/.dreb/agent/prompts/`, `.dreb/prompts/`, or a [package](#packages) to share with others. See [docs/prompt-templates.md](docs/prompt-templates.md).

### Skills

On-demand capability packages following the [Agent Skills standard](https://agentskills.io). Invoke via `/skill:name`, or the agent invokes them automatically via the built-in `skill` tool when a task matches.

```markdown
<!-- ~/.dreb/agent/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md -->
---
name: my-skill
description: Use this skill when the user asks about X.
argument-hint: "<topic>"
---

## Steps
1. Do this with $1
2. Then that
```

Skills support [content substitution](docs/skills.md#content-substitution) (`$1`, `$ARGUMENTS`, `${DREB_SKILL_DIR}`, etc.) and frontmatter fields like `argument-hint`, `user-invocable`, and `disable-model-invocation`.

Place in `~/.dreb/agent/skills/`, `~/.agents/skills/`, `.dreb/skills/`, or `.agents/skills/` (from `cwd` up through parent directories) or a [package](#packages) to share with others. See [docs/skills.md](docs/skills.md).

dreb ships with **mach6** — a built-in development workflow (issue → plan → push → review → fix → publish) that uses GitHub as shared memory and multi-agent code review. See [docs/mach6.md](docs/mach6.md).

### Extensions

<p align="center"><img src="docs/images/doom-extension.png" alt="Doom Extension" width="600"></p>

TypeScript modules that extend dreb with custom tools, commands, keyboard shortcuts, event handlers, and UI components.

```typescript
export default function (dreb: ExtensionAPI) {
  dreb.registerTool({ name: "deploy", ... });
  dreb.registerCommand("stats", { ... });
  dreb.on("tool_call", async (event, ctx) => { ... });
}
```

**What's possible:**
- Custom tools (or replace built-in tools entirely)
- Plan mode and custom agent workflows
- Custom compaction and summarization
- Permission gates and path protection
- Custom editors and UI components
- Status lines, headers, footers
- Git checkpointing and auto-commit
- SSH and sandbox execution
- MCP server integration
- Make dreb look like Claude Code
- Games while waiting (yes, Doom runs)
- ...anything you can dream up

Place in `~/.dreb/agent/extensions/`, `.dreb/extensions/`, or a [package](#packages) to share with others. See [docs/extensions.md](docs/extensions.md) and [examples/extensions/](examples/extensions/).

### Themes

Built-in: `dark`, `light`. Themes hot-reload: modify the active theme file and dreb immediately applies changes.

Place in `~/.dreb/agent/themes/`, `.dreb/themes/`, or a [package](#packages) to share with others. See [docs/themes.md](docs/themes.md).

### Packages

Bundle and share extensions, skills, prompts, and themes via npm or git.

> **Note:** Third-party packages can include extensions (arbitrary code) and skills (model instructions). Skim what you're installing, same as any other dependency.

```bash
dreb install npm:@foo/my-tools
dreb install npm:@foo/my-tools@1.2.3      # pinned version
dreb install git:github.com/user/repo
dreb install git:github.com/user/repo@v1  # tag or commit
dreb install git:git@github.com:user/repo
dreb install git:git@github.com:user/repo@v1  # tag or commit
dreb install https://github.com/user/repo
dreb install https://github.com/user/repo@v1      # tag or commit
dreb install ssh://git@github.com/user/repo
dreb install ssh://git@github.com/user/repo@v1    # tag or commit
dreb remove npm:@foo/my-tools
dreb uninstall npm:@foo/my-tools          # alias for remove
dreb list
dreb update                               # skips pinned packages
dreb config                               # enable/disable extensions, skills, prompts, themes
```

Packages install to `~/.dreb/agent/git/` (git) or global npm. Use `-l` for project-local installs (`.dreb/git/`, `.dreb/npm/`). If you use a Node version manager and want package installs to reuse a stable npm context, set `npmCommand` in `settings.json`, for example `["mise", "exec", "node@20", "--", "npm"]`.

Create a package by adding a `dreb` key to `package.json`:

```json
{
  "name": "my-dreb-package",
  "keywords": ["dreb-package"],
  "dreb": {
    "extensions": ["./extensions"],
    "skills": ["./skills"],
    "prompts": ["./prompts"],
    "themes": ["./themes"]
  }
}
```

Without a `dreb` manifest, dreb auto-discovers from conventional directories (`extensions/`, `skills/`, `prompts/`, `themes/`).

See [docs/packages.md](docs/packages.md).

---

## Programmatic Usage

### SDK

```typescript
import { AuthStorage, createAgentSession, ModelRegistry, SessionManager } from "@dreb/coding-agent";

const { session } = await createAgentSession({
  sessionManager: SessionManager.inMemory(),
  authStorage: AuthStorage.create(),
  modelRegistry: new ModelRegistry(authStorage),
});

await session.prompt("What files are in the current directory?");
```

See [docs/sdk.md](docs/sdk.md) and [examples/sdk/](examples/sdk/).

### RPC Mode

For non-Node.js integrations, use RPC mode over stdin/stdout:

```bash
dreb --mode rpc
```

RPC mode uses strict LF-delimited JSONL framing. Clients must split records on `\n` only. Do not use generic line readers like Node `readline`, which also split on Unicode separators inside JSON payloads.

See [docs/rpc.md](docs/rpc.md) for the protocol.

---

## CLI Reference

```bash
dreb [options] [@files...] [messages...]
```

### Package Commands

```bash
dreb install <source> [-l]     # Install package, -l for project-local
dreb remove <source> [-l]      # Remove package
dreb uninstall <source> [-l]   # Alias for remove
dreb update [source]           # Update packages (skips pinned)
dreb list                      # List installed packages
dreb config                    # Enable/disable package resources
```

### Modes

| Flag | Description |
|------|-------------|
| (default) | Interactive mode |
| `-p`, `--print` | Print response and exit |
| `--mode json` | Output all events as JSON lines (see [docs/json.md](docs/json.md)) |
| `--mode rpc` | RPC mode for process integration (see [docs/rpc.md](docs/rpc.md)) |
| `--export <in> [out]` | Export session to HTML |

In print mode, dreb also reads piped stdin and merges it into the initial prompt:

```bash
cat README.md | dreb -p "Summarize this text"
```

### Model Options

| Option | Description |
|--------|-------------|
| `--provider <name>` | Provider (anthropic, openai, google, etc.) |
| `--model <pattern>` | Model pattern or ID (supports `provider/id` and optional `:<thinking>`) |
| `--api-key <key>` | API key (overrides env vars) |
| `--thinking <level>` | `off`, `minimal`, `low`, `medium`, `high`, `xhigh` |
| `--models <patterns>` | Comma-separated patterns for model cycling |
| `--list-models [search]` | List available models |

### Session Options

| Option | Description |
|--------|-------------|
| `-c`, `--continue` | Continue most recent session |
| `-r`, `--resume` | Browse and select session |
| `--session <path>` | Use specific session file or partial UUID |
| `--fork <path>` | Fork specific session file or partial UUID into a new session |
| `--session-dir <dir>` | Custom session storage directory |
| `--no-session` | Ephemeral mode (don't save) |

### Tool Options

| Option | Description |
|--------|-------------|
| `--tools <list>` | Comma-separated list of tools to enable (default: all) |
| `--no-tools` | Disable all built-in tools (extension tools still work) |

Available built-in tools: `read`, `bash`, `edit`, `write`, `grep`, `find`, `ls`, `web_search`, `web_fetch`, `subagent`, `wait`, `search`

Three additional tools are always active but don't appear in `--tools`:
- `skill` — invokes [skills](#skills) programmatically
- `tasks_update` — session [task tracking](#task-tracking) with TUI panel
- `suggest_next` — suggests a next command shown as ghost text (Tab to accept)

### Resource Options

| Option | Description |
|--------|-------------|
| `-e`, `--extension <source>` | Load extension from path, npm, or git (repeatable) |
| `--no-extensions` | Disable extension discovery |
| `--skill <path>` | Load skill (repeatable) |
| `--no-skills` | Disable skill discovery |
| `--prompt-template <path>` | Load prompt template (repeatable) |
| `--no-prompt-templates` | Disable prompt template discovery |
| `--theme <path>` | Load theme (repeatable) |
| `--no-themes` | Disable theme discovery |

Combine `--no-*` with explicit flags to load exactly what you need, ignoring settings.json (e.g., `--no-extensions -e ./my-ext.ts`).

### Other Options

| Option | Description |
|--------|-------------|
| `--system-prompt <text>` | Replace default prompt (context files and skills still appended) |
| `--append-system-prompt <text>` | Append to system prompt |
| `--verbose` | Force verbose startup |
| `--offline` | Disable startup network ops (same as `DREB_OFFLINE=1`) |
| `-h`, `--help` | Show help |
| `-v`, `--version` | Show version |

### File Arguments

Prefix files with `@` to include in the message:

```bash
dreb @prompt.md "Answer this"
dreb -p @screenshot.png "What's in this image?"
dreb @code.ts @test.ts "Review these files"
```

### Examples

```bash
# Interactive with initial prompt
dreb "List all .ts files in src/"

# Non-interactive
dreb -p "Summarize this codebase"

# Non-interactive with piped stdin
cat README.md | dreb -p "Summarize this text"

# Different model
dreb --provider openai --model gpt-4o "Help me refactor"

# Model with provider prefix (no --provider needed)
dreb --model openai/gpt-4o "Help me refactor"

# Model with thinking level shorthand
dreb --model sonnet:high "Solve this complex problem"

# Limit model cycling
dreb --models "claude-*,gpt-4o"

# Read-only mode
dreb --tools read,grep,find,ls -p "Review the code"

# High thinking level
dreb --thinking high "Solve this complex problem"
```

### Environment Variables

| Variable | Description |
|----------|-------------|
| `DREB_CODING_AGENT_DIR` | Override config directory (default: `~/.dreb/agent`) |
| `DREB_PACKAGE_DIR` | Override package directory (useful for Nix/Guix where store paths tokenize poorly) |
| `DREB_CACHE_RETENTION` | Set to `long` for extended prompt cache (Anthropic: 1h, OpenAI: 24h) |
| `DREB_OFFLINE` | Disable startup network ops (same as `--offline`) |
| `DREB_SEARCH_BACKEND` | Search backend: `ddg` (default), `searxng`, or `brave` |
| `DREB_SEARXNG_URL` | Base URL for SearXNG backend (default: `http://localhost:8888`) |
| `DREB_BRAVE_API_KEY` | API key for Brave search backend |
| `DREB_WEB_SEARCH_RATE_LIMIT_MS` | Minimum delay between web searches in milliseconds (default: `10000`) |
| `DREB_DEBUG` | Show debug-level messages in the TUI chat feed (default: suppressed) |
| `VISUAL`, `EDITOR` | External editor for Ctrl+G |

---

## Contributing & Development

See [docs/development.md](docs/development.md) for setup, forking, and debugging.

---

## License

MIT

## See Also

- `packages/ai` — Core LLM toolkit (model registry, provider APIs, streaming)
- `packages/agent` — Agent framework (agent loop, event system, types)
- `packages/tui` — Terminal UI components
