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Crush

Glamorous agentic coding for the terminal by Charm

LSP-enhanced terminal coding agent from Charmbracelet with the broadest cross-platform support including Android. Features mid-session model switching and MCP extensibility for custom tool integration. Combines the elegance of Charmbracelet's TUI toolkit with practical coding assistance, offering a polished terminal experience for developers on any platform.

About Crush

Crush is a glamorous AI coding agent that lives in your terminal, developed by the Charm team as an evolution of the OpenCode project. It provides a rich TUI and CLI for interacting with AI models to perform code generation, debugging, file operations, and development automation directly from the command line. Current public sources position it as free BYOK software, but the repository uses FSL-1.1-MIT, a source-available license with a future MIT conversion path rather than a plain permissive open-source license.

Crush differentiates itself through its integration with the Charm ecosystem of terminal tools, bringing polished TUI aesthetics powered by Bubble Tea and Lip Gloss to the AI coding experience. It supports multiple AI providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Groq, AWS Bedrock, Azure, and any OpenAI or Anthropic-compatible endpoint, allowing developers to swap between models without losing session context. The tool leverages your existing shell environment, directory layout, and Git history as the AI workspace, enabling contextual understanding without manual configuration.

Crush targets developers who prefer terminal-centric workflows and want an aesthetically pleasing, model-agnostic AI coding assistant that integrates with their existing command-line tools. It is especially appealing to users of Charm's broader terminal tool ecosystem and developers who value the flexibility of choosing their own AI provider rather than being locked into a single model vendor. Crush works across macOS, Linux, Windows/WSL, Android, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD, and its BYOK model makes it cost-effective for developers who already have API access to preferred models.

Pricing & Platform Specs

Pricing Summary

Free source-available CLI under FSL-1.1-MIT (automatically converts to MIT after 2 years); requires commercial licensing for competing use or proprietary SaaS distribution.

full pricing breakdown →

Supported Platforms

macOS, Linux, Windows/WSL, Android, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD terminals; supports OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible APIs, MCP servers, and LSP-aware code context.

Explore categories, tags & use cases

Open-source AI coding agent for the terminal

Open-source terminal-based AI coding agent built in Go by the SST team, with a rich TUI (Bubble Tea) supporting 75+ model providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Bedrock, Groq, and OpenRouter. Features vim-like editing, persistent SQLite sessions, and LSP integration for 40+ languages. Fully free with no vendor lock-in, it has rapidly grown to 95k+ GitHub stars.

Open Source

Open-source extensible AI agent by Block

Autonomous coding agent from Block (Square) that works with any LLM through MCP-first extensibility. Apache 2.0 licensed with 47K+ GitHub stars and a Linux Foundation AAIF founding project. Designed for terminal-based workflows with deep tool integration, making it a strong open-source option for developers who want agent-assisted coding without vendor lock-in.

Open Source

Minimal terminal coding harness

Pi Coding Agent is an MIT-licensed Node.js CLI from earendil-works for building and running coding agents in a local terminal. The current package describes a read/bash/edit/write toolset and session management, while the repo positions Pi as a unified LLM API, agent loop, TUI, and coding-agent CLI. It is best framed as a lean, self-extensible BYO-model toolkit rather than a managed IDE.

Open Source
Claude Code logo

Claude Code

Top Pick

Anthropic's agentic coding CLI

Anthropic's agentic CLI coding tool that delegates complex tasks to Claude directly from the terminal. Understands entire codebases via automatic context gathering, edits multiple files, runs shell commands, and manages Git workflows autonomously. Supports CLAUDE.md for persistent project instructions, integrates with VS Code and JetBrains, and uses Claude Opus/Sonnet with extended thinking for complex architectural decisions. Built for terminal-first developers.

freemium

AI pair programming in your terminal

Terminal-based AI pair programmer with deep git integration. Auto-commits changes with meaningful messages and creates repository maps for navigating large codebases. Works with Claude, GPT, DeepSeek, and local models. One of the most popular open-source AI coding tools, known for its reliability, broad model support, and seamless command-line workflow.

Open Source

Open-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code

Cline is an Apache-2.0 open-source AI coding agent runtime for editor, terminal, and SDK workflows. It reads and edits files, runs commands, uses browsers, plans then acts, and requires explicit approval for each step unless users enable auto-approve. Current Cline sources show 8M+ installs, 63.6k+ GitHub stars, BYOK/provider flexibility, local model support, MCP, plugins, hooks, and Enterprise governance.

Open Source

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Aider logo
Aider
vs
Crush logo
Crush

crush vs Aider — Charmbracelet Terminal Agent vs Open-Source AI Pair Programmer

crush provides a beautifully designed terminal AI coding agent from the Charmbracelet team with multi-model support. Aider offers a mature open-source AI pair programmer with deep git integration and proven multi-file editing capabilities. Aider wins on maturity and git workflow while crush wins on terminal UX design and visual polish.

AiderCrush

Community experience

Sources & verification

Sources checked
Content verified

Verification dates are editorial checks. Routine CMS saves and automatic updatedAt timestamps do not advance them.

FAQ

What is Crush?

LSP-enhanced terminal coding agent from Charmbracelet with the broadest cross-platform support including Android. Features mid-session model switching and MCP extensibility for custom tool integration. Combines the elegance of Charmbracelet's TUI toolkit with practical coding assistance, offering a polished terminal experience for developers on any platform.

Is Crush free?

Yes — Crush is open source and free to use. Free source-available CLI under FSL-1.1-MIT (automatically converts to MIT after 2 years); requires commercial licensing for competing use or proprietary SaaS distribution.

Is Crush still maintained?

Yes — Crush is active. Its listing was last verified on September 6, 2026.

What are the best Crush alternatives?

The first editor-selected Crush alternatives are OpenCode, Goose, Pi, and more.

How does Crush score in our review?

The published editorial review lists Crush at 84/100 overall across speed, privacy, and developer experience. Check the review's evidence status and test metadata for its verification level.