clue is a fast, simple coding agent for Claude, in your terminal. It calls Claude's API directly and ships as a single binary. The conversation prints into your terminal's scrollback, like any other command's output.
clue works to shorten three waits. It's ready in 7.5 ms, resumes a session in 13.8 ms, and adds 5.4 ms of its own before the first token (benchmarks).
Read the docs at clue.shivam.dev
clue is actively developed, so things may change. CHANGELOG.md lists what changed in each version.
curl -fsSL https://clue.shivam.dev/install | bashclue runs on macOS and Linux, on arm64 and x86_64. You don't need Bun to run it. clue upgrade installs the latest release.
clue calls Claude's API through the API SDK, not the Agent SDK, so it bills per token. clue usage shows what it has cost.
clue login
cd your-project
clueType what you want done and press Enter. /help lists the commands and keys.
clue "fix the flaky spec" # start with a prompt
clue -c # continue the last session here
clue ask "explain this" # one request, for scripts
clue doctor # check your setup
clue usage # cost and cache use across sessions| Topic | Page |
|---|---|
| Install and sign in | Quick start |
@ file mentions, images, steering and queued messages |
Prompts |
| Resume, undo and cost across sessions | Sessions |
/compact and long sessions |
Compaction |
clue ask and JSON output |
Scripts |
ask, auto and full-access |
Permissions |
~/.clue/settings.json |
Settings |
| MCP servers | MCP servers |
| Commands, keys and tools | Slash commands, Keys, Tools |
See CONTRIBUTING.md.
clue builds on two projects:
- pi by Mario Zechner showed that a coding agent needs only a short prompt and a plain loop.
- fx by Vercel Labs shaped clue's terminal output, tool set, permission modes and MCP commands. clue's system prompt is adapted from fx's
system_prompt.md, licensed under Apache-2.0.