ELELEM(1)

Name

elelem — a coding agent you can read

Synopsis

elelem chat -p provider [--model name] [--system-prompt text]
elelem ask -p provider prompt
elelem files
gem install elelem elelem-builtins elelem-ollama

Description

Fast, correct, autonomous. Pick two.

elelem is a coding agent for your terminal. The core is small enough to read in an afternoon: the agent loop, the conversation, the toolbox, slash commands, and the plugin registry. Models, tools, and interfaces are plugins, and every one of them is short enough to read.

Requires Ruby 4.0 or later. See quickstart to run your first session.

Principles

Small enough to read.: You hand an agent your codebase and a shell. You should be able to read the agent.
Everything else is a plugin.: A plugin is a Ruby file that calls Elelem.configure. Drop it in .agents/plugins/; package it as a gem to share it.
Your model, your machine.: Use Claude, OpenAI, or Ollama, or load a GGUF file into the elelem process with llama.cpp. No server, no API key, no network.
Unix at heart.: ask reads stdin and writes stdout, so it fits in a pipe, a git hook, or a Makefile.

Plugins

16 gems. Providers are chosen with -p name; other plugins load from a one-line file in ~/.agents/plugins/.

Core

elelem: The agent loop. Nothing else.
elelem-builtins: Read, write, run.
elelem-tools: More tools. Permission prompts.

Providers

elelem-anthropic: Claude, through the Anthropic API.
elelem-openai: OpenAI chat completions. (alpha)
elelem-ollama: Local models through Ollama.
elelem-llama: llama.cpp, in-process.

Integrations & interfaces

elelem-mcp: MCP servers as tools.
elelem-skills: Agent skills, on demand.
elelem-server: elelem in a browser tab. (alpha)
elelem-ratatui: A Rust terminal UI. (alpha)
elelem-evals: Test the agent, not the model. (alpha)

Lab

elelem-ggml: A transformer you can read. (lab)
elelem-llama2: llama2.c, wired into elelem. (lab)
elelem-candle: Rust in-process. Inference not yet. (lab)
elelem-diffusion: Images from the agent, locally. (lab)

Examples

Start a session with a local model:

elelem chat -p ollama

Review a change without leaving the shell:

git diff | elelem ask -p anthropic "review this"

Files

~/.agents/AGENTS.md: Your instructions for every project.
AGENTS.md: Project instructions: the nearest one walking up from the current directory.
~/.agents/plugins/, .agents/plugins/: Plugin files, loaded global first, then project.
~/.agents/models/: GGUF models for elelem-llama.
~/.agents/skills/, .agents/skills/: Agent skills for elelem-skills.

Environment

Each provider reads its own variables, such as ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, OLLAMA_HOST, and ELELEM_GGUF_MODEL. See environment for the full list.

Bugs

Known issues are tracked in the open at github.com/elelem-sh/elelem.sh/issues. Patches are welcome by email; see git-send-email.io.

Authors

mo khan. MIT licensed.