Neovate Code is an open-source terminal-based AI coding assistant developed by Neovate AI. It runs directly within developer workflows to assist with codebase inspection, editing, and automation tasks from the command line. In daily operation, Neovate Code provides an interactive CLI session with support for slash commands to manage interaction flow and context. It integrates with Anthropic Claude models, including Claude Sonnet, and supports multimodal input such as image reading and processing alongside source code files. Configuration can be managed via repository-level configuration files. A distinguishing feature of Neovate Code is its support for session forking using commands like /branch, allowing developers to split context paths and experiment with alternate implementations without losing prior discussion history. It also provides an extensible plugin architecture to customize agent behavior and add specialized tooling. Neovate Code is published as an open-source project on GitHub with active development and public repository contributions.
Session forking — Create branching conversation and execution states using the /branch command to test alternate implementations. - Anthropic Claude integration — Direct support for Anthropic provider models including Claude Sonnet. - Plugin architecture — Extensible plugin interface allowing developers to write custom extensions and providers. - Multimodal file input — Built-in support for reading and processing images in addition to standard text and code files. - Repository-level configuration — Configurable agent behavior using repository-level configuration directories.
Use cases
Use Case: Branching Code Exploration Developers testing multiple refactoring strategies can use /branch to fork the current session context, trying out different implementations without contaminating the main prompt session.
Use Case: Multimodal UI Implementation Engineers working on front-end components can feed UI mockups or bug screenshot images directly to Neovate Code alongside existing codebase files for accurate visual-to-code translations.
Use Case: Custom Tool and Workflow Integration Teams requiring custom internal integrations can leverage the plugin system and example plugin architecture to extend agent tool definitions.
Who it is for
Neovate Code is designed for software engineers and terminal-centric developers who want a scriptable, plugin-friendly AI coding agent that runs directly in their CLI and supports Claude models. It is less suited for developers seeking standalone full-GUI IDEs or out-of-the-box non-technical conversational interfaces.
Install guide
Installation Install Neovate Code via npm (standard installation method for Node-based CLI tools): bash npm install -g @neovate/code Or clone and build from source: bash git clone https://github.com/neovateai/neovate-code.git cd neovate-code npm install npm run build
First Run Set your Anthropic API key: bash export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-api-key-here" neovate
Example Session Launch an interactive session, inspect code, and fork context: bash neovate > Analyze ./src/auth/jwt.ts and identify potential token expiration issues > /branch explore-refresh-token > Implement refresh token rotation logic for jwt.ts
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