1. Install
Prebuilt binaries do not require Go. If you already have Go 1.26.3+ installed:
go install github.com/keakon/chord/cmd/chord@latestIf not, download a prebuilt binary from GitHub Releases, extract it, and put chord on your PATH.
Chord
Calm AI coding in your terminal — stable long sessions, model setups you can swap at runtime, and remote operation when you cannot be at the keyboard.
Three-step setup
Section titled “Three-step setup”2. Run setup once
Run chord in an interactive terminal:
chordIf config.yaml is missing, Chord launches a one-time setup wizard. The wizard creates the minimal config.yaml and, when needed, auth.yaml.
Prefer to write YAML manually or need a different provider/model setup? See Quickstart.
3. Run from your project
cd my-projectchordOn first run in a project, Chord creates .chord/ as needed.
Find docs by task
Section titled “Find docs by task”Start quickly
Install, initialize a provider, run chord doctor models, and send the first task.
Open →
Configure models
Provider/auth schema plus copy-paste examples for common setups. Config → · Examples →
Remote control
Use chord headless and chord-gateway safely from another surface.
Open →
Long tasks
Use /loop and Done for multi-step implementation work.
Open →
Extend and customize
Agents, skills, MCP, hooks, and custom slash commands. Customize → · Hooks →
Troubleshoot
Startup, auth, model, TUI, context, and integration symptoms. Open →
Why Chord
Section titled “Why Chord”Long sessions use less context
Chord trims stale tool output at request time, keeps typed summaries for large results, and compacts earlier turns before context pressure breaks the flow.
Stays out of the way
Loads sessions with thousands of messages almost instantly, exits without a shutdown wait, keeps memory low, and unloads idle LSP/MCP resources.
You see the network state
Precise request status and elapsed wait time during model calls. Never wonder if it’s stuck again.
Hot-swap model setups
Group models into reusable pools (fast, thinking, cheap) and switch
them at runtime via /models or Ctrl+P. The runtime falls back through
the ordered list automatically.
More capabilities
Section titled “More capabilities”Keyboard-first, Vim-style
Built for keyboard-heavy workflows: Insert / Normal modes, Vim-flavoured navigation, and message search.
Project context
LSP diagnostics, definition/reference/implementation lookups, Git status,
and @ file completion.
Images and PDFs
Paste images, attach image/PDF files when supported, preview images in
supported terminals, and use view_image for local PNG/JPEG files.
Remote control
chord headless exposes a stdio JSON control plane; pair with
chord-gateway to operate Chord
from chat surfaces.
Import existing sessions
Migrate Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode sessions into resumable Chord sessions.
Performance
Section titled “Performance”These measurements are scenario-specific proof points, not universal guarantees. They show where Chord’s context trimming, low-overhead TUI, and predictable shutdown behavior matter most.
Real-world coding task
Section titled “Real-world coding task”We benchmarked Chord v0.6.3 against Codex-CLI v0.136.0 on a real-world database system task: implementing durability wait APIs in Pebble. Far from simple CRUD, the task requires understanding commit/WAL sync and concurrency semantics, reasoning across write paths, event listeners, and DB lifecycle subsystems.
| Metric | Chord v0.6.3 | Codex-CLI v0.136.0 | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time | 46m21s | 61m18s | 24% faster |
| LLM calls | 93 | 118 | 21% fewer |
| Input tokens | 6.86M | 18.47M | 63% fewer |
| Output tokens | 25K | 74K | 66% fewer |
| Cache read tokens | 6.55M | 17.64M | 63% fewer |
| Cost | $5.58 | $15.15 | 63% cheaper |
Notes:
- Both runs used GPT-5.5 (xhigh).
- Time excludes environment setup and final wrap-up, but includes model interaction, code changes, and test execution.
- The task’s reference solution spans 8 files and 670 changed lines; actual model output may be larger or smaller depending on tests, comments, and implementation choices.
App startup and memory
Section titled “App startup and memory”We also measured the interactive app shell: time from launch to accepting input, normal exit time, and memory with an empty session and after loading 200 messages.
| App | Startup to input | Normal exit | Empty session memory | 200-message memory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chord v0.6.3 | <1s | <1s | 31.6MB | ~40MB |
| Codex-CLI v0.136.0 | <1s | ~20s | 35.8MB | ~80MB |
| Claude Code v2.1.163 | 32s | ~2s | 156.3MB | >300MB |
Notes:
- Codex-CLI waits for shutdown wrap-up and exits after about a 20-second timeout.
- Claude Code waits on startup and becomes ready for input after about a 30-second timeout.
- Memory use varies by session content and environment, so these numbers are only estimates for this measured scenario.
Where to next
Section titled “Where to next”CLI reference
Every command, subcommand, and flag — including chord cleanup, worktrees, and headless.
Open →
Configuration & Auth
Provider, model pool, LSP, MCP, hooks — full schema in one cheatsheet. Open →
Examples
Copy-paste-ready config.yaml for the four most common setups.
Open →
Headless integration
Build bots, gateways, or scripts on top of Chord. Open →