Codewhale
DeepSeek + MiMo coding agent in terminal
The Lens
By Erik Loyd, SaaS CEO and former COO/CFO of an AWS Premier Partner.
Updated Sep 2026
Codewhale is a coding agent that runs in your terminal. Describe a task and it reads your project, edits files, runs commands, and checks the result, using whatever model you connect. It started life as deepseek-tui and is now provider-neutral: 44 provider IDs, from DeepSeek (still the default), OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google to local models through Ollama, vLLM, or SGLang. MIT licensed, written in Rust.
Install is one curl command, or npm, Cargo, Docker, Nix, or Scoop, with builds for Linux, macOS, Windows, and Android under Termux. Then you add your own API key or point it at a local model server. Plan mode explores without touching files, work mode makes changes, and Shift+Tab switches between Ask, Auto-Review, and Full Access. A ChatGPT sign-in route bills against your subscription instead of an API key.
Free at every team size today. You pay your model provider and nothing to Codewhale. anomalyco/opencode, openai/codex, and Aider-AI/aider are the closest alternatives. Pick Codewhale for DeepSeek-first defaults and a wide provider list in a single Rust binary.
The catch: usage analytics are on by default until you run codewhale config set telemetry false. It is pre-1.0. And the company behind it, Shannon Labs, is building accounts, a hosted API route, and a closed-source desktop app. The terms promise to show a price before charging, which tells you prices are coming.
Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
fully freeFree: The MIT terminal agent and its bundled local web client, with 44 provider IDs including local runtimes (Ollama, vLLM, SGLang). The terminal and local browser work without a Codewhale account.
Self-hosted: It runs on your machine. The only bill is whichever model provider you connect, or your own hardware for local models.
Paid: No price published anywhere as of September 2026. An account system exists for the hosted web and desktop apps, and the terms say that if paid features become active the product will show the price and get authorization before charging. The desktop app lives in a private repo.
Free and MIT licensed today, and you pay only your model provider. An account and billing system is being built, so expect paid features later.
What to do by team size
- Solo
- free
- Small team
- free; bring your own model keys
- Medium team
- free; turn telemetry off in your standard config
- Large team
- free, but pre-1.0 with no enterprise controls yet
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The open source coding agent.
⌥ AI Coding agent for the terminal: hash-anchored edits, optimized tool harness, LSP, Python, browser, subagents, and more
An open-source AI coding agent that lives in your terminal.
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