AI coding assistant
for the terminal.

Open source. Multi-provider. 7.7 MB. Built in Rust for developers who live in the command line.

37K lines 1,361 tests 166 prompts 10 tools 6 providers
Download GitHub
$ nerve > /agent on Agent mode enabled > /file src/auth.rs Added src/auth.rs (247 lines) > Fix the login bug and add tests
Features

What's inside.

Everything a developer needs from an AI assistant. Nothing extra.

166 prompts

Expert-level prompts across 28 categories. Engineering, security, testing, API design. Press Ctrl+K.

Dev workflow

/test, /build, /lint, /format, /commit, /diff. Auto-detects your stack.

Vim keybindings

Native modal editing. j/k scroll, i to insert, Esc for normal. No plugins needed.

Sessions

Auto-saves every conversation. Resume with --continue. Branch and restore states.

10 themes

Catppuccin, Tokyo Night, Gruvbox, Nord, Dracula, Rose Pine, and more.

Cost tracking

Real-time token usage in the status bar. Set spending limits. Auto-compacting context.

Agent mode

Describe it. Nerve does it.

The agent reads files, edits code, runs commands, and verifies. Every action is tracked. Roll back with /agent undo.

> Fix the auth bug and add tests ▸ read_file src/auth.rs ▸ search_code "fn login" src/ ▸ edit_file src/auth.rs:45-52 ▸ write_file tests/auth_test.rs ▸ run_command cargo test auth ✓ Fixed. 3 tests added. All passing.

10 tools

read_file
write_file
edit_file
read_lines
run_command
search_code
list_files
find_files
create_dir
web_search

Git checkpoint before each session. /agent undo to roll back.

Providers

Your model. Your choice.

Switch between 6 providers with Ctrl+T. Run local models for complete privacy.

Claude Code
Subscription
Ollama
Free / Local
OpenAI
Per token
OpenRouter
100+ models
Copilot
via gh CLI
Custom
Any endpoint
Comparison

How it stacks up.

NerveClaude CodeCursorAider
Open sourceMITNoNoApache-2.0
TerminalNativeYesElectronYes
Providers61LimitedMulti
OfflineOllamaNoNoOllama
Prompts166000
CostFree + API$20/mo$20/moFree + API
Binary7.7 MB~150 MB~500 MBPython
Vim keysNativeNoPluginNo
Install

30 seconds.

Binary

# Linux
curl -LO https://github.com/Artaeon/nerve\
/releases/latest/download/\
nerve-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar xzf nerve-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
mv nerve ~/.local/bin/

# macOS
curl -LO https://github.com/Artaeon/nerve\
/releases/latest/download/\
nerve-macos-arm64.tar.gz
tar xzf nerve-macos-arm64.tar.gz
mv nerve /usr/local/bin/

Source

git clone https://github.com/\
Artaeon/nerve.git
cd nerve
cargo build --release
cp target/release/nerve ~/.local/bin/

Requires Rust 1.85+