Intro

Get started with AlphaBase.

AlphaBase is an open source AI coding agent. It’s available as a terminal-based interface, desktop app, or IDE extension.

AlphaBase TUI with the alphabase theme

Let’s get started.

Prerequisites

To use AlphaBase in your terminal, you’ll need:

A modern terminal emulator like:
- WezTerm, cross-platform
- Alacritty, cross-platform
- Ghostty, Linux and macOS
- Kitty, Linux and macOS
API keys for the LLM providers you want to use.

Install

The easiest way to install AlphaBase is through the install script.

curl -fsSL https://alphabase.ai/install | bash

You can also install it with the following commands:

Using Node.js
- npm
- Bun
- pnpm
- Yarn
Terminal window
npm install -g alphabase-ai
Terminal window
bun install -g alphabase-ai
Terminal window
pnpm install -g alphabase-ai
Terminal window
yarn global add alphabase-ai
Using Homebrew on macOS and Linux
Terminal window
```
brew install alphabasehq/tap/alphabase
```
We recommend using the AlphaBase tap for the most up to date releases. The official brew install alphabase formula is maintained by the Homebrew team and is updated less frequently.
Using Paru on Arch Linux
Terminal window
```
paru -S alphabase-bin
```

Windows

Using Chocolatey
Terminal window
```
choco install alphabase
```
Using Scoop
Terminal window
```
scoop install alphabase
```
Using NPM
Terminal window
```
npm install -g alphabase-ai
```

Using Mise

mise use -g github:alphabasehq/alphabase

Using Docker

docker run -it --rm ghcr.io/alphabasehq/alphabase

Support for installing AlphaBase on Windows using Bun is currently in progress.

You can also grab the binary from the Releases.

Configure

With AlphaBase you can use any LLM provider by configuring their API keys.

If you are new to using LLM providers, we recommend using AlphaBase Zen. It’s a curated list of models that have been tested and verified by the AlphaBase team.

Run the /connect command in the TUI, select alphabase, and head to alphabase.ai/auth.
```
/connect
```
Sign in, add your billing details, and copy your API key.
Paste your API key.
```
┌ API key
│
│
└ enter
```

Alternatively, you can select one of the other providers. Learn more.

Initialize

Now that you’ve configured a provider, you can navigate to a project that you want to work on.

cd /path/to/project

And run AlphaBase.

alphabase

Next, initialize AlphaBase for the project by running the following command.

/init

This will get AlphaBase to analyze your project and create an AGENTS.md file in the project root.

This helps AlphaBase understand the project structure and the coding patterns used.

Usage

You are now ready to use AlphaBase to work on your project. Feel free to ask it anything!

If you are new to using an AI coding agent, here are some examples that might help.

Ask questions

You can ask AlphaBase to explain the codebase to you.

How is authentication handled in @packages/functions/src/api/index.ts

This is helpful if there’s a part of the codebase that you didn’t work on.

Add features

You can ask AlphaBase to add new features to your project. Though we first recommend asking it to create a plan.

Create a plan

AlphaBase has a Plan mode that disables its ability to make changes and instead suggest how it’ll implement the feature.

Switch to it using the Tab key. You’ll see an indicator for this in the lower right corner.
```
<TAB>
```
Now let’s describe what we want it to do.
```
When a user deletes a note, we'd like to flag it as deleted in the database.
Then create a screen that shows all the recently deleted notes.
From this screen, the user can undelete a note or permanently delete it.
```
You want to give AlphaBase enough details to understand what you want. It helps to talk to it like you are talking to a junior developer on your team.

Give AlphaBase plenty of context and examples to help it understand what you want.
Iterate on the plan

Once it gives you a plan, you can give it feedback or add more details.
```
We'd like to design this new screen using a design I've used before.
[Image #1] Take a look at this image and use it as a reference.
```
Drag and drop images into the terminal to add them to the prompt.

AlphaBase can scan any images you give it and add them to the prompt. You can do this by dragging and dropping an image into the terminal.
Build the feature

Once you feel comfortable with the plan, switch back to Build mode by hitting the Tab key again.
```
<TAB>
```
And asking it to make the changes.
```
Sounds good! Go ahead and make the changes.
```

Make changes

For more straightforward changes, you can ask AlphaBase to directly build it without having to review the plan first.

We need to add authentication to the /settings route. Take a look at how this is
handled in the /notes route in @packages/functions/src/notes.ts and implement
the same logic in @packages/functions/src/settings.ts

You want to make sure you provide a good amount of detail so AlphaBase makes the right changes.

Undo changes

Let’s say you ask AlphaBase to make some changes.

Can you refactor the function in @packages/functions/src/api/index.ts?

But you realize that it is not what you wanted. You can undo the changes using the /undo command.

/undo

AlphaBase will now revert the changes you made and show your original message again.

Can you refactor the function in @packages/functions/src/api/index.ts?

From here you can tweak the prompt and ask AlphaBase to try again.

Or you can redo the changes using the /redo command.

/redo

The conversations that you have with AlphaBase can be shared with your team.

/share

This will create a link to the current conversation and copy it to your clipboard.

Here’s an example conversation with AlphaBase.

Customize

And that’s it! You are now a pro at using AlphaBase.

To make it your own, we recommend picking a theme, customizing the keybinds, configuring code formatters, creating custom commands, or playing around with the AlphaBase config.