megasthenes-cli

Terminal CLI for megasthenes — ask natural-language questions about any Git repository and get a source-cited, markdown-rendered answer.

megasthenes ask --repo https://github.com/owner/repo --question "What does this project do?"

Full library docs: nilenso.github.io/megasthenes.

Install

Requires Node.js ≥ 18 plus git, ripgrep, and fd on PATH.

# macOS
brew install git ripgrep fd

# Debian / Ubuntu (fd binary may be `fdfind`)
sudo apt install git ripgrep fd-find

The package is published to JSR as @nilenso/megasthenes-cli. JSR exposes packages to npm/bun under the @jsr scope, so first point that scope at JSR's npm registry:

echo "@jsr:registry=https://npm.jsr.io" >> ~/.npmrc

Then install globally with your package manager of choice:

# npm
npm install -g @jsr/nilenso__megasthenes-cli

# bun
bun install -g @jsr/nilenso__megasthenes-cli

Either installs a megasthenes executable on your PATH.

Configure

Export your LLM provider's API key:

Provider	Env var
OpenRouter	OPENROUTER_API_KEY
Anthropic	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
OpenAI	OPENAI_API_KEY
Google	GOOGLE_CLOUD_API_KEY

Pin defaults in ~/.config/megasthenes/config.json (override with the MEGASTHENES_CONFIG env var). Keys are the camelCase form of the CLI flags:

{
  "provider": "openrouter",
  "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6",
  "thinkingEffort": "medium"
}

Precedence: CLI flags > env vars > config file > built-in defaults.

Usage

megasthenes ask --repo <url> --question "<text>" [options]

# Pin to a tag
megasthenes ask --repo https://github.com/owner/repo --question "Summarize the data model." \
  --commitish v2.3.0

# Suppress the activity log — handy for piping
megasthenes ask --repo https://github.com/owner/repo --question "List public APIs." \
  --response-only > apis.md

Run megasthenes ask --help for the full flag reference.

For untrusted repositories, run tool execution in an isolated container via the sandbox worker and point the CLI at it with --sandbox-base-url and --sandbox-secret.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	success
1	internal_error
2	max_iterations (gave up before producing an answer)
3	context_overflow
4	provider_error / network_error / empty_response
64	invalid CLI usage
130	aborted (Ctrl-C)

Development

git clone https://github.com/nilenso/megasthenes-cli
cd megasthenes-cli
npm install
npm test

Published to JSR as @nilenso/megasthenes-cli.

License

MIT © nilenso