Nole Code

AI coding assistant for your terminal. 31 tools, multi-provider, agentic tool loop.

npm i -g nole-code
nole

What it does

You type a task. Nole reads your code, writes files, runs commands, searches the web, and keeps going until it's done. Like Claude Code, but powered by MiniMax (free) with automatic fallback to OpenRouter or OpenAI.

❯ refactor the auth middleware to use JWT

⠹ Thinking... (2s)

I'll read the current auth code, then refactor it.

⠋ Read src/middleware/auth.ts
⠙ Edit src/middleware/auth.ts
  - const session = sessions.get(token)
  + const payload = jwt.verify(token, SECRET)
⠹ Bash npm install jsonwebtoken @types/jsonwebtoken
⠸ RunTests npm test

Refactored auth.ts from session-based to JWT. Installed jsonwebtoken.
All 12 tests pass.

3.2s · ~2400 tokens (2%) · 4 turns

Setup

# Option 1: npm (global)
npm i -g nole-code

# Option 2: from source
git clone https://github.com/vtsochev45-web/nole-code.git
cd nole-code && npm install && npm run build

Set your API key:

export MINIMAX_API_KEY=your_key    # Primary (free at minimaxi.com)
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-   # Fallback (optional)
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-          # Fallback (optional)

Tools (31)

Category	Tools
Files	Read, Write, Edit, MultiEdit, Glob, Grep, LS, Tree, Rename, Delete, Diff, FindReplace
Shell	Bash, Spawn, RunTests
Git	GitStatus, GitDiff, GitCommit
Web	WebSearch, WebFetch, HttpRequest
Tasks	TodoWrite, TaskCreate, TaskList, TaskUpdate, TaskGet, TaskStop
Agents	Agent, TeamCreate, SendMessage
Other	NotebookEdit, Sleep, Exit

Commands

Command	What it does
/context	Session stats — tokens, git branch, model, costs
/settings	View/change model, temperature, maxTokens
/model <name>	Switch LLM model mid-session
/undo	Roll back last turn
/compact	Compress context to save tokens
/fork	Branch off current session
/new	Start fresh session
/plan	Step-by-step approval mode
/commit <msg>	Git add + commit
/diff	Git diff
/status	Git status
/log	Recent commits
/read <file>	Read file with syntax highlighting and line numbers
/grep <pattern>	Search files with regex and colored matches
/test	Run tests (auto-detects jest/vitest/mocha/pytest)
/debug <pid>	Attach to Node.js/Python process for debugging
/multi <prompt>	Best-of-3: run prompt 3x concurrently, pick best
/mcp	MCP server mode (JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdin/stdout)
/doctor	Health check
/help	All commands
! <cmd>	Run shell command inline

Key features

Auto-resume — Reopens your last session for the same directory.

NOLE.md project context — Create a NOLE.md in your project root. It's loaded into every conversation, like Claude Code's CLAUDE.md.

Auto-compact — When context hits 70%, automatically compresses older messages to save tokens.

Background loops — /loop spawns a detached agent process with checkpoint recovery. IPC via JSON lines.

Ctrl+C — Cancels the current LLM call, not the whole process. Double-press to exit.

Multi-provider fallback — If MiniMax is overloaded (529), automatically retries then falls back to OpenRouter (Gemini Flash) or OpenAI.

Best-of-3 — /multi runs the same prompt through the LLM 3 times concurrently and shows differences.

MCP server mode — Run as an MCP server with --mcp flag. Exposes bash, read, write, edit, glob, grep, web_search, web_fetch tools via JSON-RPC 2.0.

Process debugging — /debug <pid> attaches to Node.js (inspector) or Python (py-spy) processes.

Test runner — /test auto-detects your test framework (jest, vitest, mocha, pytest) and runs tests with formatted output.

Colored diffs — Edit tool shows red/green diff of what changed.

Markdown rendering — Bold, code blocks, headers rendered in terminal.

Tab completion — /commands and file paths.

Animated spinner — Shows thinking progress with elapsed time.

MCP client — Connect to Model Context Protocol servers (stdio, SSE, HTTP).

Security — Bash command filtering, path validation (blocks /etc/shadow, .ssh/), interactive permission prompts.

Session memory — Extracts key facts from conversations, loads context on resume.

Configuration

Settings (~/.nole-code/settings.json)

{
  "model": "MiniMax-M2.7",
  "temperature": 0.7,
  "maxTokens": 4096,
  "toolPermissions": "all"
}

Project context (NOLE.md)

Create in your project root — loaded into every conversation:

# My Project
## Tech Stack
- TypeScript, Express, PostgreSQL
## Commands
npm run dev
npm test

MCP servers (~/.nole-code/mcp.json)

[
  {
    "name": "filesystem",
    "transport": "stdio",
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/path"]
  }
]

Architecture

src/
  index.ts           — REPL + agentic loop
  api/llm.ts         — Multi-provider LLM client (MiniMax/OpenRouter/OpenAI)
  tools/registry.ts  — 31 tool definitions + executor
  tools/web.ts       — Web search (DDG HTML) + fetch
  agents/spawner.ts  — Sub-agent process spawning
  agents/team.ts     — Multi-agent coordination
  session/manager.ts — Session persistence/fork/compact
  commands/          — Slash commands (/read, /grep, /test, /debug, /multi, /mcp, etc.)
  loop/              — Background execution with checkpoints and IPC
  permissions/       — Security rules engine
  mcp/client.ts      — MCP protocol client (stdio/SSE/HTTP)
  ui/markdown.ts     — Terminal markdown renderer
  ui/output/         — Spinner, streaming, styles

License

MIT