Quickstart

Zero to productive in 5 minutes.

What is VibeCody?

VibeCody is an AI-powered developer toolchain built in Rust. It gives you many ways to work: VibeCLI (terminal), VibeUI (desktop editor, 293+ panels), VibeCLI App (desktop chat), VibeMobile (Flutter, 6 platforms), and VibeWatch (native Apple Watch + Wear OS). All surfaces share the same backend crates, supporting 22 AI providers, an autonomous agent loop, code review, multi-agent orchestration, MCP integration, and 711 built-in skills. Start with a local model and zero API keys — and with zero-config mDNS / Tailscale / ngrok connectivity, your phone and watch find your desktop automatically.

Choose Your Surface

Recommendation: Start with VibeCLI. You can add VibeUI later – they share the same config and crates.

Install in 60 Seconds

Pick one method:

Option A: Build from Source

Requires Rust stable (1.75+) and Git.

git clone https://github.com/TuringWorks/vibecody.git
cd vibecody
cargo build --release -p vibecli

The binary lands at ./target/release/vibecli. Optionally copy it to your PATH:

cp target/release/vibecli /usr/local/bin/

Option B: One-Liner Installer

Downloads the latest release binary for your platform (macOS and Linux, x86_64 and ARM):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TuringWorks/vibecody/main/install.sh | sh

The binary is installed to ~/.local/bin/vibecli by default. Override with:

INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TuringWorks/vibecody/main/install.sh | sh

Option C: Docker

Run VibeCLI in a container with Ollama as a sidecar (no host dependencies):

git clone https://github.com/TuringWorks/vibecody.git
cd vibecody
docker-compose up

This starts VibeCLI with a local Ollama instance. No API keys required.

Your First Chat

Launch VibeCLI with no arguments to enter REPL mode:

vibecli

You will see the prompt:

VibeCLI v0.5.5 — AI coding assistant
Provider: ollama (qwen3-coder:480b-cloud)
Type a message or /help for commands.

vibecli>

Type a question:

vibecli> What does the #[derive(Debug)] macro do in Rust?

Expected output (streamed):

The #[derive(Debug)] attribute macro automatically implements the
`Debug` trait for a struct or enum, allowing you to print it with
`{:?}` formatting in println!, dbg!, or format!.

Example:
  #[derive(Debug)]
  struct Point { x: f64, y: f64 }

  let p = Point { x: 1.0, y: 2.0 };
  println!("{:?}", p);  // Point { x: 1.0, y: 2.0 }

That is it – you are chatting with an AI. Press Ctrl+C or type /quit to exit.

Your First Agent Task

The agent loop lets VibeCody autonomously read files, write code, and run commands. Use --agent for interactive mode or --exec for non-interactive (CI) mode:

# Interactive mode (asks for approval on each step)
vibecli --agent "add error handling to main.rs"

# Non-interactive mode (full-auto, JSON output)
vibecli --exec "add error handling to main.rs"

Example output (interactive mode with default suggest policy):

 Agent   add error handling to main.rs
  Policy: suggest (ask before every action)  |  Press Ctrl+C to stop

 ✓ Reading src/main.rs
 ✓ Searching: "error handling"

  bash  Running: cargo check
   Approve? (y/n/a=approve-all): y

 ✓ Running: cargo check
 ✓ Patching src/main.rs (3 hunks)

Agent complete: Added Result<()> return type, wrapped I/O in match blocks.
   Files modified: src/main.rs
   Commands run: 1
   Steps: 4/4 succeeded
   Trace saved: ~/.vibecli/traces/1711234567.jsonl
   Resume with: vibecli --resume 1711234567

In suggest mode (default), the agent asks before shell commands and file writes. Type y to approve, n to reject, or a to auto-approve all remaining steps.

Approval Policies

You can also use /agent <task> from the REPL to start agent tasks interactively, and /plan <task> to review a plan before executing.

Connect a Cloud Provider

Local Ollama works out of the box, but cloud providers give you access to larger models. Here is how to connect Claude as an example.

Step 1: Get an API key from console.anthropic.com.

Step 2: Set the environment variable:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-your-key-here"

Add the line to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc to persist it.

Step 3: Launch with Claude:

vibecli --provider claude

Expected output:

VibeCLI v0.5.5 — AI coding assistant
Provider: claude (claude-sonnet-4-6)

vibecli>

Step 4: Verify it works:

vibecli> Hello, which model am I talking to?

You should see Claude identify itself. Done.

Other providers use the same pattern:

See the Configuration Guide for all 23 providers.

Your First Code Review

Navigate to any Git repository with uncommitted changes and run:

vibecli --review

Or from inside the REPL:

vibecli> /review

Expected output:

[review] Analyzing diff (3 files, +47 -12 lines)...

## Code Review Summary

### src/auth.rs (2 issues)
  [HIGH] Line 34: Unwrap on network call will panic in production.
         Suggestion: Use `?` operator or handle the error explicitly.
  [MED]  Line 51: Password comparison is not constant-time.
         Suggestion: Use `subtle::ConstantTimeEq` to prevent timing attacks.

### src/main.rs (1 issue)
  [LOW]  Line 12: Unused import `std::collections::HashMap`.
         Suggestion: Remove the import.

3 issues found (1 high, 1 medium, 1 low).

You can also review a GitHub PR directly:

vibecli> /review --pr 42

See the Code Review Tutorial for more options.

Next Steps

You are up and running. Here is where to go next:

Common Issues

1. “Connection refused” when using Ollama

Ollama must be running before you launch VibeCLI.

# Start the Ollama server
ollama serve

# In another terminal, pull a model if you have not already
ollama pull qwen3-coder:480b-cloud

# Now launch VibeCLI
vibecli

2. “API key not found” for cloud providers

Make sure the environment variable is exported in your current shell:

# Check if it is set
echo $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

# If empty, export it
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-your-key-here"

To persist the key, add the export line to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc. In VibeUI, you can also store keys securely via the Settings panel, which saves them to the encrypted ProfileStore (~/.vibecli/profile_settings.db).

Security note: Never store API keys in plaintext files such as config.toml or .json files. VibeCody’s encrypted ProfileStore is the only safe persistent storage for secrets.

3. “cargo build” fails with missing dependencies

On Linux, you may need system libraries for TLS and terminal support:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install pkg-config libssl-dev

# Fedora
sudo dnf install openssl-devel

# macOS (if using Homebrew OpenSSL)
brew install openssl

Then retry cargo build --release -p vibecli.