Golem

Golem is a terminal-native coding agent for real repositories. It launches in your shell, understands repo context before the first prompt, and keeps sessions, memory, and durable mission state on your machine.

It is built for developers who want an agent that feels like part of the terminal workflow instead of a browser-heavy IDE.

Why Golem

Golem front-loads the things that matter in day-to-day repository work:

• Terminal-native by default — launch a TUI, type prompts, use slash commands, and stay in the shell.
• Repo-aware on startup — Golem loads git state, saved sessions, project instructions, and local memory before helping.
• Local-first state — auth, sessions, memory, missions, and automation config live under ~/.golem/.
• Recover prior work — use /resume, /search <query>, /replay, and /rewind to find and restore earlier sessions.
• Durable mission workflows — create longer-running work with /mission ... in the main TUI and inspect it in Mission Control with golem dashboard.
• Operator-friendly UX — /help, /doctor, runtime summaries, model switching, cost tracking, verification state, and explicit mission controls are shipped surfaces.

What you can do today

With the currently shipped CLI and TUI, you can:

• work interactively in a repository with an agent that can read, search, edit, write, list, and run commands,
• start the app with an initial prompt from the shell,
• check setup and runtime quickly with golem status, golem runtime, and /doctor,
• search earlier saved sessions with /search <query> and recover work with /resume, /replay, and /rewind,
• run durable mission workflows from the main TUI with /mission ... and inspect them in Mission Control with golem dashboard,
• configure local automation workflows with golem automations ....

First successful session

This is the shortest path from clone to a useful first run.

1. Install

Prerequisites

• Go 1.26+
• a git repository you want to work in
• one supported model provider configured with credentials

go install github.com/fugue-labs/golem@latest
# or build from source
go build -o golem .

Prefer a prebuilt binary? Download the macOS Apple Silicon (darwin-arm64) or Linux x86_64 (linux-amd64) archive from this repository's GitHub Releases page.

2. Authenticate

Fastest path:

golem login

You can also choose a specific shipped login flow:

golem login chatgpt
golem login anthropic
golem login openai
golem login xai

What those flows do:

• chatgpt uses browser-based OAuth and saves credentials in ~/.golem/auth.json
• anthropic, openai, and xai prompt for an API key and save it in ~/.golem/credentials.json
• successful login saves your provider preference in ~/.golem/config.json

If you prefer environment variables, Golem also auto-detects runtime configuration.

Runtime provider	What to set
Anthropic	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=...
OpenAI	OPENAI_API_KEY=...
OpenAI-compatible / xAI-style endpoint	GOLEM_PROVIDER=openai_compatible, GOLEM_API_KEY=..., GOLEM_BASE_URL=...
Vertex AI	GOLEM_PROVIDER=vertexai, VERTEX_PROJECT=...
Vertex AI Anthropic	GOLEM_PROVIDER=vertexai_anthropic, VERTEX_PROJECT=...

Optional overrides include GOLEM_MODEL, VERTEX_REGION, GOLEM_TIMEOUT, and GOLEM_PERMISSION_MODE.

3. Sanity-check the runtime

golem status
golem runtime

Need machine-readable output?

golem status --json
golem runtime --json

4. Launch inside a repository

cd path/to/repo
golem

Or start with an initial prompt:

golem "summarize this repository and suggest the next three tasks"

5. Inside the app, hit the success path

Start with these shipped slash commands:

/help
/doctor
/search <query>
/mission new improve onboarding docs

What to expect:

• /help shows the current command surface and keybindings.
• /doctor checks setup and helps explain configuration problems.
• /search <query> searches across saved sessions; on a brand-new install it is still a good way to learn the search surface before you have history.
• /mission new <goal> creates a durable mission you can inspect with /mission status, /mission tasks, and golem dashboard.

Core command surfaces

CLI

Command	What it does
golem	Launch the main TUI
golem "<prompt>"	Launch the TUI with an initial prompt
golem login [chatgpt|anthropic|openai|xai]	Run a shipped login flow
golem logout	Remove saved login/config files under ~/.golem/
golem status [--json]	Show runtime readiness and configuration summary
golem runtime [--json]	Show the effective runtime profile
golem dashboard	Open Mission Control
golem automations list	List configured automations
golem automations start	Start the automations daemon
golem automations status	Show automation runtime status
golem automations init	Print an example automations config

In-app slash commands

Common starting points inside the TUI:

Command	What it does
/help	Show available commands and keys
/doctor	Diagnose setup issues
/search <query>	Search across all saved sessions
/resume	Restore the last saved session
/replay [file|list]	Replay a recorded session trace
/rewind [N]	Rewind to an earlier checkpoint
/model [name]	Show or switch the active model
/cost	Show session cost breakdown
/runtime	Show the effective runtime profile
/diff	Show git diff stats for uncommitted changes
/undo [path]	Revert one unstaged tracked-file change
/mission [new|status|tasks|plan|approve|start|pause|cancel|retry [task-id]|list]	Operate the durable mission workflow
/clear	Clear the current transcript
/quit	Exit the app

For the full shipped command and keybinding reference, see docs/command-reference.md.

Supported workflows

Interactive repo work

Use Golem as a local coding partner that starts with repo context instead of a blank chat box. It detects git state, loads project instructions, and works directly against your current checkout.

Session recovery and search

Saved sessions are searchable and replayable. Use /search <query> to find prior work, /resume to continue the last session, /replay to inspect earlier traces, and /rewind to return to a checkpoint.

Durable missions

For longer-running work, create a mission from the main TUI:

/mission new ship the onboarding docs refresh

Then continue with:

/mission status
/mission tasks
/mission plan
/mission approve
/mission start

Mission Control is available at:

golem dashboard

The dashboard shows mission status plus Tasks, Workers, Evidence, and Events panes.

Local automations

Use golem automations list, golem automations init, golem automations status, and golem automations start to inspect and run local automation workflows.

Local-first state

Golem keeps its operator state under ~/.golem/, including:

• authentication data,
• saved sessions,
• project memory,
• durable mission state,
• automation configuration.

That local-first model is a big part of the product: you can close the app, come back later, search prior work, and continue from durable state.

Where to go next

• Getting started — full onboarding, provider setup, and first-run details
• Command reference — authoritative CLI, slash-command, mission, and keybinding reference
• Configuration — environment variables, config, permissions, and runtime tuning
• Features — deeper product and UX surface documentation

If you want a quick health check before doing real work, start with golem status, launch golem, run /help, and then use /doctor, /search <query>, or /mission new depending on what you want to do next.