Churn through your backlog, work with unfamiliar technologies, get unstuck, and spend less time on the boring stuff.
Plandex is a reliable and developer-friendly AI coding agent in your terminal. It can plan out and complete large tasks that span many files and steps.
Designed for real-world use-cases, Plandex can help you build a new app quickly, add new features to an existing codebase, write tests and scripts, understand code, and fix bugs.
curl -sL https://plandex.ai/install.sh | bashManual install
Grab the appropriate binary for your platform from the latest release and put it somewhere in your PATH.
Build from source
git clone https://github.com/plandex-ai/plandex.git
git clone https://github.com/plandex-ai/survey.git
cd plandex/app/cli
go build -ldflags "-X plandex/version.Version=$(cat version.txt)"
mv plandex /usr/local/bin # adapt as needed for your system
Plandex uses OpenAI by default. If you don't have an OpenAI account, first sign up here.
Then generate an API key here and export it.
export OPENAI_API_KEY=...Now cd into your project's directory. Make a new directory first with mkdir your-project-dir if you're starting on a new project.
cd your-project-dirThen start your first plan with plandex new.
plandex newLoad any relevant files, directories, or urls into the LLM's context with plandex load.
plandex load some-file.ts another-file.ts
plandex load src/components -r # load a whole directory
plandex load https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plandex-ai/plandex/main/README.mdNow send your prompt. You can pass it in as a file:
plandex tell -f prompt.txtWrite it in vim:
plandex tell # tell with no arguments opens vim so you can write your prompt thereOr pass it inline (use enter for line breaks):
plandex tell "add a new line chart showing the number of foobars over time to components/charts.tsx"After any plandex command is run, commands that could make sense to run next will be suggested. You can learn to use Plandex quickly by jumping in and following these suggestions.
You can see a list of all commands with plandex help or get help on a specific command with plandex [command] --help.
You can use the pdx alias instead of plandex to type a bit less, and most common commands have their own aliases as well.
Here's a quick overview of the commands and functionality.
⚡️ Changes are accumulated in a protected sandbox so that you can review them before automatically applying them to your project files. Built-in version control allows you to easily go backwards and try a different approach. Branches allow you to try multiple approaches and compare the results.
📑 Manage context efficiently in the terminal. Easily add files or entire directories to context, and keep them updated automatically as you work so that models always have the latest state of your project.
🧠 By default, Plandex relies on the OpenAI API and requires an OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable. You can also use it with a wide range of other models, including Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, Mixtral, Llama and many more via OpenRouter.ai, Together.ai, or any other OpenAI-compatible provider.
✅ Plandex supports Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, and Windows. It runs from a single binary with no dependencies.
🏗️ Go beyond autocomplete to build complex functionality with AI.
🚫 Stop the mouse-centered, copy-pasting madness of coding with ChatGPT.
⚡️ Ensure the model always has the latest versions of files in context.
🪙 Retain granular control over what's in the model's context and how many tokens you're using.
⏪ Rewind, iterate, and retry as needed until you get your prompt just right.
🌱 Explore multiple approaches with branches.
🔀 Run tasks in the background or work on multiple tasks in parallel.
🎛️ Try different models and temperatures, then compare results.
Plandex Cloud is the easiest and most reliable way to use Plandex. You'll be prompted to start an anonymous trial (no email required) when you create your first plan with plandex new. Trial accounts are limited to 10 plans and 10 AI model replies per plan. You can upgrade to an unlimited account with your name and email.
Plandex Cloud accounts are free for now. In the future, they will cost somewhere in the $10-20 per month range.
Self-contained script for easy local mode and self-hosting:
git clone https://github.com/plandex-ai/plandex.git
cd plandex/app
./start_local.shRequires git, docker, and docker-compose.
Read more about self-hosting Plandex here.
Note → while the caveats below still apply to some extent, Plandex's 1.0.0 release that provides gpt-4o support and automatic error-correction is a major step forward in reliability and accuracy, with over 90% reduction in syntax errors and significantly stronger planning capabilities.
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Plandex can provide a significant boost to your productivity, but as with any other AI tool, you shouldn't expect perfect results. Always review a plan before applying changes, especially if security is involved. Plandex is designed to get you 90-95% of the way there rather than 100%.
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Due to the reasoning limitations of LLMs, automatically applied file updates also aren't perfect. While these were significantly improved in the 1.0.0 release, mistakes and errors are still possible. Use the
plandex changescommand to review pending updates in a TUI, orplandex diffsto review them in git diff format. If a file update has mistakes, make those changes yourself with copy-and-paste and reject the file in the changes TUI. -
The more direction and detail you provide, the better the results will be. Working with Plandex often involves giving it a prompt, seeing that the results are a bit off, then using
plandex rewindto go back and iterate on the prompt or add context before trying again. Branches are also useful for expermination. -
If you want to go step-by-step rather than having Plandex attempt do everything at once, use
plandex tellandplandex continuewith the--stop / -sflag, which will prevent it from automatically continuing for multiple responses. Useplandex continueto proceed with the plan once you're ready. -
While it can be tempting to just dump your entire project into context if it fits under the token limit, and that can work just fine, you will tend to see better results (and pay less) by being more selective about what's loaded into context.
Plandex Cloud follows best practices for network and data security. And whether cloud or self-hosted, Plandex protects model provider API keys (like your OpenAI API key). Read more here.
Read about Plandex Cloud's privacy and data retention policies here.
🧠 Support for open source models, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude in addition to OpenAI ✅ released
🤝 Plan sharing and team collaboration
🖼️ Support for multi-modal models—add images and screenshots to context
🖥️ VSCode and JetBrains extensions
📦 Community plugins and modules
🔌 Github integration
🌐 Web dashboard and GUI
🔐 SOC2 compliance
🛩️ Fine-tuned models
This list will grow and be prioritized based on your feedback.
Speaking of feedback, feel free to give yours, ask questions, report a bug, or just hang out:
⭐️ Please star, fork, explore, and contribute to Plandex. There's a lot of work to do and so much that can be improved.
Work on tests, evals, prompts, and bug fixes is especially appreciated.