An open-source terminal coding agent.

Powered by local or cloud LLMs. Rust single-binary. No runtime dependencies.

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What is Whet?

Whet is an open-source terminal coding agent in the same category as Claude Code and similar tools. It lives in your terminal, understands your codebase, and writes code for you using any LLM.

What makes it different:

• Open source (MIT) — you own the code, the data, and the workflow
• Provider-agnostic — Ollama, llama.cpp, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, or any OpenAI-compatible API
• Single binary — cargo install and you're done, no Node.js, no Python, no Docker
• Offline-capable — pair with a local LLM and nothing ever leaves your machine

Quick Start

# 1. Install (from source)
git clone https://github.com/kuroko1t/whet.git
cd whet && cargo install --path .

# 2. Pull a local model (or configure a cloud provider)
ollama pull qwen3:8b

# 3. Start coding
whet

Or use with a cloud provider:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
whet -m claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929

Demo

$ whet

whet v0.1.0
Model: qwen3:8b
Permission: default
Type Ctrl+D to exit.

you> Find all deprecation warnings and fix them

  [tool: grep] {"pattern": "deprecated", "path": "."}

I found 3 deprecation warnings. Let me fix them one by one.

  [tool: read_file] {"path": "src/main.rs"}
  [tool: edit_file] {"path": "src/main.rs", ...}

  Tool 'edit_file' wants to execute:
    path: src/main.rs
    old_text: use old_module::deprecated_fn;
    new_text: use new_module::updated_fn;
  Allow? [y/N/a(lways)] y

Done! Fixed all 3 deprecation warnings.
(2.3s)

Key Features

Project Instructions (WHET.md)

Like CLAUDE.md for Claude Code — place a WHET.md (or .whet.md) in your project root to give Whet project-specific context. It is automatically loaded and injected into the system prompt.

whet   # in a project with WHET.md → instructions are loaded automatically

Use /init to generate a starter template.

11 Built-in Tools

Tool	Category	Description
read_file	File	Read file contents
write_file	File	Create or overwrite a file
edit_file	File	Replace an exact text match in a file
apply_diff	File	Apply a unified diff patch (multi-hunk supported)
list_dir	File	List directory contents (recursive option)
grep	Search	Search for regex patterns recursively
repo_map	Search	Show project structure with definitions
shell	System	Execute a shell command
git	System	Git commands with safety tiers
web_fetch	Web	Fetch and extract text from a URL
web_search	Web	Search the web via DuckDuckGo

Web tools are disabled by default. Enable with web_enabled = true in config.

Git Safety Tiers

Tier	Commands	Behavior
Always allowed	status, diff, log, show, branch, stash	No approval needed
Approval required	add, commit, checkout, switch, pull, fetch, push, merge, tag, cherry-pick, remote, reset	User must approve
Always blocked	reset --hard, clean, push --force, rebase	Blocked for safety

MCP Extension

Extend Whet with external tools via MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers:

[[mcp.servers]]
name = "filesystem"
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/tmp"]

Permission System

Mode	File reads	File writes	Shell / Git
default	Auto	Ask	Ask
accept_edits	Auto	Auto	Ask
yolo	Auto	Auto	Auto

Session Management

Conversations are saved per working directory and can be resumed later.

Flag	Short	Description
--resume	-r	Interactive session picker for the current directory
--resume <id>	-r <id>	Resume a specific session by ID
--continue	-c	Resume the most recent session in the current directory

When resuming, previous user/assistant messages are displayed so you can see the conversation context at a glance.

Context Compression

Automatic conversation summarization prevents unbounded memory growth. Use /compact for manual compression.

Commands

Command	Description
/model <name>	Switch LLM model at runtime
/mode <mode>	Change permission mode (default / accept_edits / yolo)
/plan	Toggle plan mode (read-only analysis)
/test [cmd]	Auto test-fix loop (default: cargo test, max 5 rounds)
/init	Generate WHET.md template in current directory
/compact [msg]	Compress conversation context (optional custom instruction)
/skills	List loaded skill files
/clear	Clear conversation and start fresh
/help	Show all commands
Ctrl+D	Exit

LLM Providers

Provider	Network	API Key	Config provider
Ollama	Local	Not required	"ollama"
OpenAI-compatible (llama.cpp, LM Studio, vLLM)	Local / Remote	Optional	"openai_compat"
Anthropic Claude	Cloud	Required (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY)	"anthropic"
Google Gemini	Cloud	Required (GEMINI_API_KEY)	"gemini"

Configuration

Config file: ~/.whet/config.toml

[llm]
provider = "ollama"
model = "qwen3:8b"
base_url = "http://localhost:11434"
# api_key = "sk-..."
# streaming = true

[agent]
max_iterations = 10
# permission_mode = "default"
# web_enabled = false
# context_compression = true
# skills_dir = "~/.whet/skills"

[memory]
database_path = "~/.whet/memory.db"

Anthropic Claude

[llm]
provider = "anthropic"
model = "claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929"
# api_key = "sk-ant-..."   # or set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY env var

Google Gemini

[llm]
provider = "gemini"
model = "gemini-2.0-flash"
# api_key = "..."           # or set GEMINI_API_KEY env var

OpenAI-compatible (llama.cpp, LM Studio, vLLM)

[llm]
provider = "openai_compat"
model = "your-model-name"
base_url = "http://localhost:8080"
api_key = "sk-..."

Skills

Custom prompt templates loaded from ~/.whet/skills/:

mkdir -p ~/.whet/skills
echo "Always write tests for new code." > ~/.whet/skills/testing.md

Skills are injected into the system prompt automatically. Use /skills to list them.

CLI

whet                             # start interactive chat
whet "fix the bug"               # single-shot mode
whet -m llama3.2:3b              # use a specific model
whet --resume                    # pick a session to resume (current directory)
whet --resume <id>               # resume a specific session by ID
whet --continue                  # resume the most recent session
whet -p "explain main.rs"        # single-shot via -p flag
whet -y                          # skip all permission prompts
whet tools                       # list available tools
whet config                      # show current configuration

vs Claude Code

	Whet	Claude Code
License	MIT (open source)	Proprietary
LLM providers	Any (Ollama, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenAI-compat)	Anthropic only
Offline mode	Yes (with local LLM)	No
Runtime	Single Rust binary	Node.js
Project instructions	WHET.md	CLAUDE.md
MCP support	Yes	Yes
Permission system	3 modes	Yes
Session management	--resume / --continue	--resume / --continue
Context compression	Yes (auto + manual)	Yes

Architecture

whet (single binary)

  Terminal (REPL) <--> Agent Loop
                        |
                        +-- LLM Provider
                        |     Ollama / OpenAI / Anthropic / Gemini
                        |
                        +-- Tool Executor
                        |     11 built-in + MCP + Skills
                        |
                        +-- Security Layer
                        |     Path safety, Permissions, Git safety tiers
                        |
                        +-- SQLite Memory
                              Chat history, Resume, Compression

Development

cargo test                     # run tests
cargo fmt -- --check           # check formatting
cargo clippy --all-targets     # lint

All pull requests are checked by GitHub Actions: format, clippy, test, and build.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

• Issues — Use GitHub Issues for bug reports and feature requests
• Pull Requests — Fork, create a feature branch, ensure all checks pass, and submit a clear PR
• Commits — Use imperative mood with prefix: feat:, fix:, docs:, refactor:, test:, chore:

License

MIT