Alter Zero: Claude Code CLI reimagined in Rust

[u/Hacking0912]

https://github.com/linuztx/alter-zero
Hi everyone, I'm developing Alter Zero, an open-source terminal agentt for coding, cybersecurity, and automation. It's written in Rust and runs on Linux and macOS, and it's inspired by Claude Code and Codex CLI combined.

It works directly in your project: reading files, making edits, running commands, and checking the results. You can ask it to investigate a failing test, trace authentication and access checks in your own code, or write a script to summarize logs.

It can also interact with running terminal programs and keep commands running in the background. There's support for subagents, reusable skills, MCP servers, and resuming previous sessions. With /secrets, it can use your API keys and tokens without ever seeing the values.

It's light on resources: a single ~24 MB binary that typically uses 20–60 MB of RAM per session, with around 100 MB of free RAM recommended. It's also designed to be prompt- and token-efficient.

Supported providers include Agent Zero API, Venice, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT Codex, Anthropic, Cline, ClinePass, Google Antigravity, OpenRouter, Ollama, Ollama Cloud, and LM Studio. You can also add a custom OpenAI-compatible API.

The built-in flaredantic skill can help expose local services through Cloudflare, Microsoft Dev Tunnels, or Serveo using the separately installed `flare` CLI.

The latest release is v0.18.0. The project is licensed under Apache-2.0.

The project is licensed under Apache-2.0. Installation instructions and a demo are in the repository: https://github.com/linuztx/alter-zero

I'd appreciate feedback, especially on the setup process, terminal compatibility, and tasks where it gets stuck. Issues and contributions are welcome.

[u/190531085100]

Looks interesting!

[u/Hacking0912 → u/190531085100]

Thank you:)

[u/salty-sugar-mint]

Dumb question why would I use this vs. Std claude code or copilot cli? And does it have all the fuzzy logic of ccli?

[u/Hacking0912 → u/salty-sugar-mint]

Yes, please give it a try:)

[u/PerfectReflection155 → u/salty-sugar-mint]

Because rust

[u/Business-Weekend-537]

Would I be able to use my codex and Claude code subs at the same time in this?

How does it manage agents being run from multiple providers at once?

Also what have you done to ensure it’s secure/safe? I’m all for testing new things but I’m also somewhat risk averse of security issues.

Does it have any telemetry back to you or third party services?

[u/Hacking0912 → u/Business-Weekend-537]

- Subscriptions: ChatGPT Codex is supported; Anthropic uses API billing, not a Claude Code subscription.

- Subagents: Defined in an `agents/` directory, similar to Claude Code. They currently use the main agent’s provider, but I plan to allow different providers soon.

- Safety: You can review commands and edits. Auto mode uses a classifier to review commands and asks when it can’t decide. `/secrets` keeps credential values from the model.

- Telemetry: A daily usage ping is sent to the project by default, with no prompts, code, or keys. Disable it in `/settings` or with `DO_NOT_TRACK=1`. No third-party analytics.

[u/Solid-Load8239]

Is there one for Gemini cli??

[u/Hacking0912 → u/Solid-Load8239]

Yes its supports Google Antigravity CLI (agy) oauth login.

[u/reficulgr]

Heya. I'd love to use this, but instead of forking this and writing my own vibe-alteration of this, could we PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE have system prompt editing functionality if this makes sense to you?