buildwithnexusv0.12.8
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single binary · local or remote models · alternate-screen TUI

Agentic coding in the terminal.
Hilariously fast.

buildwithnexus (bwn) is a Rust CLI that plans work, edits files, and runs commands — behind permission gates, checkpoints, and hooks, with whatever model you already have. One ~3 MB binary, no runtime to babysit. Version 0.12 rebuilt the terminal UI to feel instant: incremental rendering with atomic frames, live autocomplete, word-level diffs, clickable files, and a composer that queues prompts while the agent works.

Get started See the TUI

npm

npm install -g buildwithnexus
bwn

cargo

cargo install bwn
bwn
buildwithnexus editing code: tool headers, a failing test, a clean diff with line-number gutter, tinted rows and word-level change highlighting, then passing tests and the composer
A real session through the real renderer — the diff shows a line-number gutter, tinted rows, and word-level highlighting of exactly what changed: - 1 and nothing else.
buildwithnexus slash-command autocomplete popup above the composer showing /mode, /model and /mouse with one-line descriptions
Type / and a live popup describes every command — ↑/↓ navigate, Tab or Enter accepts, Esc dismisses.

New in 0.12

  • ~215× faster streaming renders — time to append a streamed chunk to a long transcript went from 966µs to 4.5µs (incremental wrap cache, ~60fps frame coalescing, atomic frames). Instant startup, no black frames.
  • Live slash-command autocomplete with descriptions, plus @path and sub-argument completion.
  • GitHub-grade diffs — gutters, tinted rows, word-level change emphasis.
  • True multimodal — Ctrl+V pastes screenshots; videos parsed with ffmpeg, gated to vision models.
  • Clickable everything — file paths and links are OSC 8 hyperlinks.
  • Esc interrupts, queued prompts auto-send, prefix-filtered history, word/line mouse selection with copy confirmation.
  • Self-updating npm install — silent daily background update (BWN_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 opts out).

Full changelog →

Plan, build, brainstorm

Shift+Tab cycles modes: decompose and approve a plan, run the agentic ReAct loop, or chat with tools.

Local-first

Native Ollama support detects each model's context window; tagged tool-calls from small coder models parse reliably.

Safety rails

ask / auto / readonly permission gates, protected paths, and checkpoints that rewind any write.

Hooks

Claude-Code-style lifecycle hooks; project hooks can deny tools but never grant them.

Sessions & workflows

Resume any session, queue background workflows with /schedule and /loop, inject context with /btw.

One static binary

~3 MB, six direct dependencies, no language runtime. npm ships a provenance-attested prebuilt for your platform.