Asimi CLI

The Three Realms (三界)

🧑

人 Ren (Intent)

Your intent, issues, and decisions. The will that drives all work.

The ruler issues and reviews edicts

🌍

地 Di (Earth)

Source code, git commits, and the filesystem. Where work takes shape.

The ruler reviews completed work

⚡

天 Tian (Heaven)

Tests, logs, CI verdicts — immutable truth. The final arbiter.

The ruler is briefed on status and incidents

The Ministers

Chancellor (宰相)

Coordinator — oversees the court and the rituals

Sage (孔子)

Advisor + Censor — sees all, creates edicts, reviews code quality.

Minister of War (兵部)

Plans complex campaigns — creates battle plans for medium and large edicts.

Forge (工部)

Writes code — produces manifests with the implementation details.

Judge (刑部)

Runs tests, validates — renders the binary verdict: pass or fail.

Key Principles

Zhengming (正名) — Never guess; ask 仁 Ren — Benevolence 义 Yi — Righteousness 礼 Li — Propriety 智 Zhi — Wisdom 信 Xin — Trustworthiness

Read the full guide →

Batteries Included

🛠️

DevOps Init

An init command that creates:

A Justfile to hold the project's scripts
A Dockerfile to define the sandbox where the model's shell runs

🎨

Vi Mimicry

Based on the fittest dev tool ever made. If you know ex/vi/vim/neovim, you already know Asimi.

🏝️

Podman Sandboxes

Agent's shell runs in its own container. Your host system stays protected while the models works freely.

🦙

Multiple LLM Providers

Support for Ollama, Claude Pro/Max, and OpenAI API v1 compatible services. Use your preferred model.

⚡

30x+ Faster Shell

Asimi's containerized consistent shell uses subshells to isolate commands. This minimizes overhead and save on slow exec times.

🧹

Less Clutter

All special files live under the .agents directory. TOML-based config keeps it clean and documented.

Quick Start

Get up and running in minutes

System Dependencies

First, install these two great tools:

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install podman just

Or install separately:

Podman - like Docker but safer
Just - to collect all scripts in a Justfile

Install Asimi

# One-line installer
curl -fsSL https://asimi.dev/installer | bash

# Add the tap and install
brew tap afittestide/tap
brew install asimi

# Install with Go 1.25+
go install github.com/afittestide/asimi@latest

# Download from releases
github.com/afittestide/asimi-cli/releases/latest

# Copy to your bin directory
cp asimi /usr/local/bin/
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/asimi

Vi-Style Interface

Keep your fingers on the middle row using the good old modes:

Insert Mode

Type your prompts naturally. Just like editing text in vi.

Normal Mode

Navigate and edit your prompt with familiar keybindings.

Scroll Mode

Never touch that rodent. Press Ctrl-B to enter, then scroll through output with your keys.

Command Mode

Type `:` to enter asimi commands and `:!` for shell commands in the sandbox

Select Mode

Choose sessions to resume, models to connect, and more.

Claim Your Throne