RARA

A fast, local-first coding agent for your terminal.

RARA runs directly on your machine — no cloud dependency required. Pick your model, ask it to write code or explore your repo, and watch it work through a rich TUI with live streaming output, syntax highlighting, and side-by-side context.

---

Why RARA

• Runs locally. Your code, your models, your disk. Nothing leaves your machine unless you choose a hosted provider.
• Model freedom. Use Claude, DeepSeek, Gemini, Ollama, any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, or local Candle models — switch providers and models mid-session with /model.
• Full tool suite. Edit files, run shell commands, search code, browse the web, spawn sub-agents, update project memory, and load local skills.
• Sandbox by default. On macOS and Linux, command execution is wrapped in a platform sandbox; you control network and filesystem access per command.
• Session persistence. Every thread is saved, restorable, forkable, and searchable — pick up where you left off.

---

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/linkerdog/rara.git
cd rara
cargo run -- tui

Choose a provider on first launch — OpenAI, DeepSeek, Ollama, or a local Candle model with zero setup.

For RARA_API_KEY, set the environment variable or pass --api-key.

# Start a TUI session with a specific provider
rara --provider deepseek --model deepseek-chat tui

# Ask a one-shot question
rara ask "summarize this repo"

# Resume your last session
rara resume --last

---

TUI

The terminal UI gives you a full development environment:

• Streaming responses — watch the agent think and act in real time.
• Live bash output — stdout/stderr appear as the command runs.
• Syntax highlighting — code blocks, diffs, and inline code are colorized.
• Sidebar context — current-turn token usage, model info, open files, and child sessions at a glance.
• Slash commands — /model to switch providers, /status for runtime state, /context for prompt diagnostics, /help for available commands. All slash commands work during agent rebuild.
• Approval picker — when a shell command needs approval, press Enter on an empty composer to choose Once / Prefix / Always / Suggestion.
• Follow-up queuing — type ahead while the agent is busy; your messages queue and process in order.

---

Providers

Family	Description
codex	OpenAI Codex (GPT-based coding agent)
deepseek	DeepSeek via hosted API
gemini	Google Gemini via hosted API
kimi	Moonshot Kimi via hosted API
openrouter	OpenRouter gateway
openai-compatible	Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (custom base URL)
ollama / ollama-openai	Local Ollama inference
local / local-candle	Hugging Face Candle (local, no server needed)
mock	Deterministic test backend

Provider state includes API key, base URL, model name, reasoning effort, and context window size. OpenAI-compatible providers can be saved as named profiles for quick switching.

---

Tools

RARA gives the agent access to your workspace:

Category	Tools
Shell	bash, background task list / status / stop
PTY	start, read, write, list, status, kill, stop
Files	read, write, edit (replace, replace_lines, apply_patch), list
Search	glob, grep
Web	web_fetch, web_search
Planning	enter_plan_mode, exit_plan_mode
Memory	remember_experience, retrieve_experience, retrieve_session_context, update_project_memory
Skills	skill (local SKILL.md files)
Agents	spawn_agent, explore_agent, plan_agent, team_create

A sidechannel LLM classifier (using a lightweight auxiliary model) evaluates shell and web tool calls before execution — blocking dangerous commands and auto-approving safe ones, following the same pattern as Claude Code's YOLO classifier.

Long tool output is folded in the transcript with a preview and a path to the full result.

---

Sandbox

Command execution is sandboxed by default:

Platform	Method
macOS	sandbox-exec with seatbelt profile
Linux	bubblewrap
Other	Direct execution (no sandbox)

PTY sessions on macOS currently run outside the seatbelt sandbox due to PTY/seatbelt interaction constraints.

---

Where State Lives

• ~/.config/rara/ — config, profiles, auth, access logs
• ~/.cache/rara/ — model downloads, runtime metadata
• ~/.local/share/rara/ — workspace thread logs and session data
• <workspace>/.rara/ — per-project memory and lock files

---

License

Apache 2.0