Prompt beginning with a dash

September 17, 2026 · View on GitHub

Atomic fork note: this package is vendored from pi's packages/coding-agent and rebranded via package.json as @bastani/atomic, CLI binary atomic, piConfig.name = "atomic", and piConfig.configDir = ".atomic".

> New issues and PRs from new contributors are auto-closed by default. Maintainers review auto-closed issues daily. See [CONTRIBUTING.md](../../CONTRIBUTING.md).

Atomic is a minimal terminal coding harness. Adapt Atomic to your workflows, not the other way around, without having to fork and modify Atomic internals. Extend it with TypeScript Extensions, Skills, Prompt Templates, and Themes. Put your extensions, skills, prompt templates, and themes in Atomic Packages and share them with others via npm or git.

Atomic ships with powerful defaults plus first-party bundled extensions for workflows, subagents, MCP, web access, and intercom. You can still adapt or replace any workflow by writing extensions, skills, prompt templates, themes, or Atomic packages that match how you work.

Atomic runs in four modes: interactive, print or JSON, RPC for process integration, and an SDK for embedding in your own apps. See openclaw/openclaw for a real-world SDK integration.

If you use Atomic for open source work, consider sharing coding-agent sessions using an Atomic-owned workflow or your team's dataset process.

Public OSS session data can help improve models, prompts, tools, and evaluations using real development workflows. Upstream Pi session-sharing resources may still be useful for historical context, but they are not the primary Atomic publication path.

Quick Start
Providers & Models
Interactive Mode
Sessions
- Branching
- Compaction
Settings
Context Files
Customization
Programmatic Usage
Philosophy
CLI Reference

Quick Start

bun install -g @bastani/atomic

Or with npm:

npm install -g @bastani/atomic

Authenticate with an API key:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
atomic

Or use your existing subscription:

atomic
/login  # Then select provider

Then just talk to Atomic. By default, Atomic gives the model six coding tools: read, write, edit, bash, find, and search. On native Windows, Atomic also enables powershell when pwsh.exe or powershell.exe is available. The model uses these to fulfill your requests. read, search, write, and successful edit calls emit session-scoped hashline anchors ([path#TAG] plus LINE:text) so the model can make stale-safe line edits; see docs/tools.md. Add capabilities via skills, prompt templates, extensions, or Atomic packages.

Providers & Models

For each built-in provider, Atomic maintains a list of tool-capable models, updated with every release. Authenticate via subscription (/login) or API key, then select any model from that provider via /model (or CTRL+L).

Subscriptions:

Anthropic Claude Pro/Max
OpenAI ChatGPT Plus/Pro (Codex)
GitHub Copilot
OpenRouter (browser PKCE, optional key minting)
Kimi Code (device authorization with token refresh)
xAI (Grok/X subscription)
Radius

API keys:

Anthropic
Ant Ling
OpenAI
Azure OpenAI
DeepSeek
NVIDIA NIM
Google Gemini
Google Vertex
Amazon Bedrock
Mistral
Groq
Cerebras
Cloudflare AI Gateway
Cloudflare Workers AI
xAI
OpenRouter
Vercel AI Gateway
ZAI
ZAI Coding Plan (China)
OpenCode Zen
OpenCode Go
Radius
Hugging Face
Fireworks
Together AI
Baseten
Kimi For Coding
MiniMax
MiniMax (China)
Moonshot AI
Moonshot AI (China)
Qwen Token Plan
Qwen Token Plan (Individual)
Qwen Token Plan (China)
Xiaomi MiMo
Xiaomi MiMo Token Plan (China)
Xiaomi MiMo Token Plan (Amsterdam)
Xiaomi MiMo Token Plan (Singapore)

See docs/providers.md for detailed setup instructions.

Atomic's Pi 0.84.1 model/runtime surface includes Claude Opus 5 on Anthropic and Bedrock, model-capability-aware strict JSON-schema and OpenAI Lark/regex tool sampling, ETag-revalidated cached catalogs, persisted llama.cpp models, arbitrary OpenAI-compatible samplingParams, opt-in vLLM thinking-token budgets through compat.supportsThinkingTokenBudget, and finishless-stream stop inference through compat.supportsFinishReason. A populated ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN makes Anthropic models available/selectable while sending header-only bearer auth—with no synthesized API key or x-api-key—across chat and summary/compaction requests. Typed RPC model listings expose constrained-sampling flags through optional ModelInfo.compat; capability flags are enforcement claims, so unsupported require constraints fail instead of being silently weakened. Custom models.json is read from the active Atomic agent directory only; it is not merged across .pi and .atomic paths. See models, providers, RPC, and extensions.

Custom providers & models: Add providers via the active agent directory's models.json (normally ~/.atomic/agent/models.json; ATOMIC_CODING_AGENT_DIR/PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR can select another directory) if they speak a supported API (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google). For custom APIs or OAuth, use extensions. See docs/models.md and docs/custom-provider.md.

Interactive Mode

The interface from top to bottom:

Startup header - Shows shortcuts (/hotkeys for all), loaded AGENTS.md files, prompt templates, skills, and extensions
Messages - Your messages, assistant responses, tool calls and results, notifications, errors, and extension UI
Editor - Where you type; border color indicates thinking level, with streaming activity shown in a separate status row
Footer - Working directory, session name, total token/cache usage, cost, context usage, current model

The editor can be temporarily replaced by other UI, like built-in /settings or custom UI from extensions (e.g., a Q&A tool that lets the user answer model questions in a structured format). Extensions can also replace the editor, add widgets above/below it, a status line, custom footer, or overlays.

Editor

Feature	How
File reference	Type `@` to fuzzy-search project files
Path completion	Tab to complete paths
Multi-line	SHIFT+Enter (or CTRL+Enter on Windows Terminal)
Images	CTRL+V to paste (ALT+V on Windows), or drag onto terminal
Bash commands	`!command` runs and sends output to LLM, `!!command` runs without sending

Standard editing keybindings for delete word, undo, etc. See docs/keybindings.md.

Commands

Type / in the editor to trigger commands. Extensions can register custom commands, skills are available as /skill:name, and prompt templates expand via /templatename.

Command	Description
`/login`, `/logout`	OAuth authentication
`/model`	Switch models and automatically save the startup default
`/thinking`	Switch thinking level and automatically save the startup default
`/scoped-models`	Enable/disable models for CTRL+P cycling
`/settings`	Theme, message delivery, transport, and other preferences
`/resume`	Pick from previous sessions
`/new`	Start a new session
`/name <name>`	Set session display name
`/session`	Show session info (file, ID, messages, tokens, cost)
`/tree`	Jump to any point in the session and continue from there
`/fork`	Create a new session from a previous user message
`/clone`	Duplicate the current active branch into a new session
`/compact`	Delete safe older transcript objects verbatim
`/copy`	Copy last assistant message to clipboard
`/export [file]`	Export session to HTML file
`/share`	Upload as private GitHub gist with shareable HTML link
`/reload`	Reload keybindings, extensions, skills, prompts, and context files (themes hot-reload automatically)
`/hotkeys`	Show all keyboard shortcuts
`/changelog`	Display version history
`/exit`	Exit Atomic
`/quit`	Quit Atomic

Keyboard Shortcuts

See /hotkeys for the full list. Customize via the active agent directory's keybindings.json (normally ~/.atomic/agent/keybindings.json). See docs/keybindings.md.

Commonly used:

Key	Action
CTRL+C	Interrupt active or queued work; when idle, clear editor
CTRL+C twice while idle	Quit
Escape	Abort active work and hold queued messages
Escape twice	Open `/tree`
CTRL+L	Open model selector
CTRL+P / SHIFT+CTRL+P	Cycle scoped models forward/backward
SHIFT+Tab	Cycle thinking level
CTRL+O	Collapse/expand tool output
CTRL+T	Collapse/expand thinking blocks
CTRL+G	Edit chat or extension-editor text through the configured, environment, or platform external editor

Message Queue

Submit messages while the agent is working:

Enter queues a steering message, delivered after the current assistant turn finishes executing its tool calls
ALT+Enter queues a follow-up message, delivered only after the agent finishes all work
Escape or Ctrl+C aborts active/queued work and pauses queued messages in place; submitting the next ordinary chat message resumes them once in their original per-queue order. After the abort settles, a later idle Ctrl+C still clears the editor and a second quick idle press quits without dequeuing the hold
ALT+Up explicitly retrieves queued messages back to the editor instead of resuming them

On Windows Terminal, ALT+Enter is fullscreen by default. Remap it in docs/terminal-setup.md so Atomic can receive the follow-up shortcut.

Configure delivery in settings: steeringMode and followUpMode can be "one-at-a-time" (default, waits for response) or "all" (delivers all queued at once). transport selects provider transport preference ("sse", "websocket", "websocket-cached", or "auto") for providers that support multiple transports.

Sessions

Sessions are stored as JSONL files with a tree structure. Each entry has an id and parentId, enabling in-place branching without creating new files. See docs/session-format.md for file format.

Management

Sessions auto-save to ~/.atomic/agent/sessions/ organized by working directory (legacy ~/.pi/agent/sessions/ sessions remain readable for compatibility).

atomic -c                  # Continue most recent session
atomic -r                  # Browse and select from past sessions
atomic --no-session        # Ephemeral mode (don't save)
atomic --session <path|id> # Use a file, exact ID, or unique 8-hex UUID prefix
atomic --session-id <id>   # Use/create an exact project-local session ID
atomic --name "Refactor"   # Set the session display name
atomic --fork <path|id>    # Fork a file, exact ID, or unique 8-hex UUID prefix

Use /session in interactive mode to see the current session ID before reusing it with --session <id>, --session-id <id>, or --fork <id>.

Branching

/tree - Navigate the session tree in-place. Select any previous point, continue from there, and switch between branches. All history preserved in a single file.

Tree View

Search by typing, fold/unfold and jump between branches with CTRL+←/CTRL+→ or ALT+←/ALT+→, page with ←/→
Filter modes (CTRL+O): default → no-tools → user-only → labeled-only → all
Press SHIFT+L to label entries as bookmarks and SHIFT+T to toggle label timestamps

/fork - Create a new session file from a previous user message on the active branch. Opens a selector, copies the active path up to that point, and places the selected prompt in the editor for modification.

/clone - Duplicate the current active branch into a new session file at the current position. The new session keeps the full active-path history and opens with an empty editor.

--fork <path|id> - Fork an existing session file or partial session UUID directly from the CLI. This copies the full source session into a new session file in the current project.

Compaction

Long sessions can exhaust context windows. Compaction now uses deletion-only context compaction by default: the selected model proposes safe deletion targets, Atomic validates them locally, and retained transcript content stays verbatim.

Manual: /compact has no prompt arguments.

Automatic: Enabled by default. Triggers on context overflow (recovers and retries) or when approaching the limit (proactive). Configure via /settings or settings.json. Automatic compaction uses the same verbatim deletion path.

The full history still remains in the JSONL file; use /tree to revisit. See docs/compaction.md for internals.

Settings

Use /settings to modify common options, or edit JSON files directly:

Location	Scope
`~/.atomic/agent/settings.json`	Global (all projects; legacy `~/.pi/agent/settings.json` also works)
`.atomic/settings.json`	Project (overrides global; legacy `.pi/settings.json` also works after trust)

See docs/settings.md for all options.

Telemetry and update checks

Atomic has two separate startup features:

Update check: checks whether a newer Atomic version exists. Disable it with ATOMIC_SKIP_VERSION_CHECK=1 (PI_SKIP_VERSION_CHECK=1 remains a legacy alias). Disabling update checks only turns off this check. The update check is independent of version-adoption telemetry.
Version-adoption telemetry: measures whether releases reach real interactive launches and which versions stay in use. The metric is version-adoption pings / first-interactive-launch pings, not installs, users, MAU, or retention. Repeated eligible launches on several machines overcount. Opt-outs, offline mode, and dropped best-effort requests undercount.

Atomic sends one GET to https://atomic-version-adoption.bastani-atomic.workers.dev/v1/version-adoption with the running version as the version query parameter and the existing atomic/<version> (<platform>; <runtime>; <arch>) User-Agent. There is no request body, UUID, cookie, auth header, or user content.

The ping fires only in interactive mode, and only on the first interactive launch with fresh settings (no recorded changelog version), or the first interactive launch after an update whose version has changelog entries. It does not fire on every launch, on npm install, on a reinstall that kept settings, or in -p / RPC modes.

Atomic stores only UTC date, version, and an aggregate count, retained as aggregates. Cloudflare, the hosting provider, necessarily processes transient connection metadata (IP, TLS) to serve the request. That is not a promise of platform-wide zero logging.

Opt out by setting enableInstallTelemetry to false in settings.json, or by setting ATOMIC_TELEMETRY=0 (PI_TELEMETRY=0 remains a legacy alias). ATOMIC_TELEMETRY=1/true/yes forces the ping on. This does not disable update checks.

Use --offline or ATOMIC_OFFLINE=1 (PI_OFFLINE=1 remains a legacy alias) to disable all startup network operations described here, including update checks, package update checks, and install/update telemetry.

Context Files

Atomic loads AGENTS.override.md, AGENTS.md, or CLAUDE.md at startup from:

~/.atomic/agent/ (global; legacy ~/.pi/agent/ also works)
Parent directories (walking up from cwd)
Current directory

An AGENTS.override.md file replaces that directory's AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md; context from other directories is still concatenated.

Use for project instructions, conventions, common commands. Disable context file loading with --no-context-files (or -nc).

System Prompt

Replace the default system prompt with .atomic/SYSTEM.md (project; legacy .pi/SYSTEM.md also works) or ~/.atomic/agent/SYSTEM.md (global; legacy ~/.pi/agent/SYSTEM.md also works). Append without replacing via APPEND_SYSTEM.md.

Customization

Prompt Templates

Reusable prompts as Markdown files. Type /name to expand.

<!-- ~/.atomic/agent/prompts/review.md -->
Review this code for bugs, security issues, and performance problems.
Focus on: {{focus}}

Place in ~/.atomic/agent/prompts/, .atomic/prompts/ (legacy ~/.pi/agent/prompts/ and .pi/prompts/ also work), or an Atomic package to share with others. See docs/prompt-templates.md.

Skills

On-demand capability packages following the Agent Skills standard. Invoke via /skill:name or let the agent load them automatically.

<!-- ~/.atomic/agent/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md -->
# My Skill
Use this skill when the user asks about X.

## Steps
1. Do this
2. Then that

Place in ~/.atomic/agent/skills/, ~/.agents/skills/, .atomic/skills/ (legacy ~/.pi/agent/skills/ and .pi/skills/ also work), or .agents/skills/ (from cwd up through parent directories) or an Atomic package to share with others. See docs/skills.md.

Extensions

TypeScript modules that extend Atomic with custom tools, commands, keyboard shortcuts, event handlers, and UI components.

export default function (pi: ExtensionAPI) {
  pi.registerTool({ name: "deploy", ... });
  pi.registerCommand("stats", { ... });
  pi.on("tool_call", async (event, ctx) => { ... });
}

The default export can also be async. Atomic waits for async extension factories before startup continues, which is useful for one-time initialization such as fetching remote model lists before calling pi.registerProvider().

What's possible:

Custom tools (or replace built-in tools entirely)
Sub-agents and plan mode
Custom compaction and summarization
Permission gates and path protection
Custom editors and UI components
Status lines, headers, footers
Git checkpointing and auto-commit
SSH and sandbox execution
MCP server integration
Make Atomic look like Claude Code
Games while waiting (yes, Doom runs)
...anything you can dream up

Place in ~/.atomic/agent/extensions/, .atomic/extensions/ (legacy ~/.pi/agent/extensions/ and .pi/extensions/ also work), or an Atomic package to share with others. See docs/extensions.md and examples/extensions/.

Themes

Built-in: dark, light, catppuccin-frappe, catppuccin-latte, catppuccin-macchiato, and catppuccin-mocha. Custom themes hot-reload: modify the active theme file and Atomic immediately applies changes.

Place in ~/.atomic/agent/themes/, .atomic/themes/ (legacy ~/.pi/agent/themes/ and .pi/themes/ also work), or an Atomic package to share with others. See docs/themes.md.

Atomic Packages

Bundle and share extensions, skills, prompts, and themes via npm or git. Find packages on npmjs.com or Discord.

Security: Atomic packages run with full system access. Extensions execute arbitrary code, and skills can instruct the model to perform any action including running executables. Review source code before installing third-party packages.

atomic install npm:@foo/atomic-tools
atomic install npm:@foo/atomic-tools@1.2.3      # pinned version
atomic install git:github.com/user/repo
atomic install git:github.com/user/repo@v1  # tag or commit
atomic install git:git@github.com:user/repo
atomic install git:git@github.com:user/repo@v1  # tag or commit
atomic install https://github.com/user/repo
atomic install https://github.com/user/repo@v1      # tag or commit
atomic install ssh://git@github.com/user/repo
atomic install ssh://git@github.com/user/repo@v1    # tag or commit
atomic remove npm:@foo/atomic-tools
atomic uninstall npm:@foo/atomic-tools          # alias for remove
atomic list
atomic update                               # update Atomic only
atomic update --all                         # update Atomic and packages
atomic update --extensions                  # update packages only
atomic update --models                      # force-refresh authenticated provider model catalogs
atomic update --self                        # update Atomic only
atomic update --self --force                # reinstall Atomic even if current
atomic update npm:@foo/atomic-tools         # update one package
atomic config                               # enable/disable extensions, skills, prompts, themes

Packages install to ~/.atomic/agent/git/ (git) or global npm. Use -l for project-local installs (.atomic/git/, .atomic/npm/; legacy .pi/git/ and .pi/npm/ are compatibility fallbacks). Git @ref values are pinned tags or commits; pinned packages are skipped by atomic update --extensions and atomic update --all, so use atomic install git:host/user/repo@new-ref to move an existing package to a new ref. Git packages install dependencies with npm install --omit=dev by default, so runtime deps must be listed under dependencies; when npmCommand is configured, git packages use plain install for compatibility with wrappers. If you use a Node version manager and want package installs to reuse a stable npm context, set npmCommand in settings.json, for example ["mise", "exec", "node@20", "--", "npm"].

Create a package by adding an app-name manifest key to package.json (atomic for this package). The legacy pi key is still accepted as a backwards-compatible shim:

{
  "name": "my-atomic-package",
  "keywords": ["atomic-package"],
  "atomic": {
    "extensions": ["./extensions"],
    "skills": ["./skills"],
    "prompts": ["./prompts"],
    "themes": ["./themes"],
    "workflows": ["./workflows"]
  }
}

Without a manifest, Atomic auto-discovers from conventional directories (extensions/, skills/, prompts/, themes/, workflows/). Workflow packages may also use a singular workflow/ directory.

See docs/packages.md.

Programmatic Usage

SDK

import { createAgentSession, SessionManager } from "@bastani/atomic";

// By default, createAgentSession builds a ModelRuntime from the active agent
// directory's auth.json and models.json.
const { session } = await createAgentSession({
  sessionManager: SessionManager.inMemory(),
});

await session.prompt("What files are in the current directory?");

For advanced multi-session runtime replacement, use createAgentSessionRuntime() and AgentSessionRuntime.

See docs/sdk.md and examples/sdk/.

RPC Mode

For non-Node.js integrations, use RPC mode over stdin/stdout:

atomic --mode rpc

RPC mode uses strict LF-delimited JSONL framing. Clients must split records on \n only. Do not use generic line readers like Node readline, which also split on Unicode separators inside JSON payloads.

See docs/rpc.md for the protocol.

Philosophy

Atomic is aggressively extensible so it does not have to dictate your workflow. The distribution bundles first-party extensions for workflows, subagents, MCP, web access, and intercom, while still letting you build or install alternative extensions, skills, and Atomic packages. This keeps Atomic adaptable without forcing every workflow into the core CLI.

Bundled subagents and workflows. Atomic includes the first-party subagents and workflows packages. Use them as shipped, customize them, or replace them with your own extensions if your workflow needs a different orchestration model.

Bundled MCP, web access, and intercom. Atomic ships first-party integrations for MCP tools, web/repository/document/video extraction, and cross-session coordination. These are packaged extensions rather than hard-coded agent behavior, so they remain configurable and replaceable.

Security stays explicit. Run in a container, use project trust controls, or build confirmation flows with extensions inline with your environment and security requirements.

Composable planning and task tracking. Use the bundled workflow/subagent/todo capabilities, write plans to files, or install a package that matches your team's process.

Foreground bash only. Use tmux or explicit extensions for background work. Full observability, direct interaction.

Upstream Pi's minimal-core rationale is documented in the original blog post; Atomic preserves the extensibility model while also bundling first-party capabilities for common workflows.

CLI Reference

atomic [options] [--] [@files...] [messages...]

Package Commands

atomic install <source> [-l]         # Install package, -l for project-local
atomic remove <source> [-l]          # Remove package
atomic uninstall <source> [-l]       # Alias for remove
atomic update [source|self|atomic]   # Update Atomic only, or one package source
atomic update --all                  # Update Atomic and packages
atomic update --extensions           # Update packages only
atomic update --models               # Force-refresh authenticated provider model catalogs
atomic update --self                 # Update Atomic only
atomic update --self --force         # Reinstall Atomic even if current
atomic update --extension <src>      # Update one package
atomic list                          # List installed packages
atomic config                        # Enable/disable package resources

Modes

Flag	Description
(default)	Interactive mode (fullscreen TUI)
`-p`, `--print`	Print response and exit
`--mode json`	Output all events as JSON lines (see docs/json.md)
`--mode rpc`	RPC mode for process integration (see docs/rpc.md)
`--export <in> [out]`	Export session to HTML

In print mode, Atomic also reads piped stdin and merges it into the initial prompt:

cat README.md | atomic -p "Summarize this text"

Model Options

Option	Description
`--provider <name>`	Provider (anthropic, openai, google, etc.)
`--model <pattern>`	Model pattern or ID (supports `provider/id` and optional `:<thinking>`)
`--api-key <key>`	API key (overrides env vars)
`--thinking <level>`	`off`, `minimal`, `low`, `medium`, `high`, `xhigh`, `max` (subject to model capabilities)
`--models <patterns>`	Comma-separated patterns for CTRL+P cycling
`--list-models [search]`	List available models

Session Options

Option	Description
`-c`, `--continue`	Continue most recent session
`-r`, `--resume`	Browse and select session
`--session <path\|id>`	Use a session file, exact ID, or unique 8-hex UUID prefix
`--session-id <id>`	Use an exact project session ID; warn and create it when missing
`--fork <path\|id>`	Fork a session file, exact ID, or unique 8-hex UUID prefix
`--session-dir <dir>`	Custom session storage directory
`--name <name>`, `-n <name>`	Set the session display name
`--no-session`	Ephemeral mode (don't save)

Tool Options

Option	Description
`--tools <list>`, `-t <list>`	Allowlist specific tool names across built-in, extension, and custom tools; mandatory ordinary `intercom` remains available
`--exclude-tools <list>`, `-xt <list>`	Denylist specific built-in, extension, and custom tools; mandatory ordinary `intercom` cannot be excluded
`--no-builtin-tools`, `-nbt`	Disable built-in tools by default but keep extension/custom tools enabled
`--no-tools`, `-nt`	Disable every tool except mandatory ordinary `intercom`

Default built-in tools: read, bash, edit, write, find, search, ask_user_question, todo, plus powershell on native Windows when a PowerShell executable is available. find.paths accepts directories, files, or glob paths such as *.ts and honors timeout; search accepts pattern, paths, i, gitignore, and skip for regex content-search pagination. read/search/write/edit share session-scoped hashline snapshot tags for stale-safe line edits; copied hashline output is stripped by write only when it matches a known current-session snapshot. Archive selectors are Bun-native, and internal-resource selectors use the session router when available. Use --exclude-tools to disable one or more tools while leaving the rest available.

Project Trust Options

Option	Description
`--approve`, `-a`	Trust project-local files/resources for this run
`--no-approve`, `-na`	Ignore project-local files/resources for this run

Project trust gates .atomic/legacy .pi project resources, project package settings, project-local context files, and .agents/skills discovered from the project tree. Saved trust decisions can be managed with /trust; see docs/security.md.

Resource Options

Option	Description
`-e`, `--extension <source>`	Load extension from path, npm, or git (repeatable)
`--no-extensions`, `-ne`	Disable optional extension discovery; mandatory bundled Intercom remains loaded
`--skill <path>`	Load skill (repeatable)
`--no-skills`, `-ns`	Disable skill discovery
`--prompt-template <path>`	Load prompt template (repeatable)
`--no-prompt-templates`, `-np`	Disable prompt template discovery
`--theme <path>`	Load theme (repeatable)
`--no-themes`	Disable theme discovery
`--no-context-files`, `-nc`	Disable context-file discovery and loading

Combine --no-* with explicit flags to load exactly what you need, ignoring settings.json (e.g., --no-extensions -e ./my-ext.ts).

Other Options

Option	Description
`--system-prompt <text>`	Replace default prompt (context files and skills still appended)
`--append-system-prompt <text>`	Append to system prompt
`--offline`	Disable startup network operations, including update checks, package updates, and telemetry
`--verbose`	Force verbose startup
`--`	Stop option parsing; remaining arguments are prompts or `@file` inputs
`-h`, `--help`	Show help
`-v`, `--version`	Show version

File Arguments

Prefix files with @ to include in the message:

atomic @prompt.md "Answer this"
atomic -p @screenshot.png "What's in this image?"
atomic @code.ts @test.ts "Review these files"

Examples

# Interactive with initial prompt
atomic "List all .ts files in src/"

# Non-interactive
atomic -p "Summarize this codebase"

# Prompt beginning with a dash
atomic -p -- "- Summarize these points"

# Non-interactive with piped stdin
cat README.md | atomic -p "Summarize this text"

# Different model
atomic --provider openai --model gpt-4o "Help me refactor"

# Model with provider prefix (no --provider needed)
atomic --model openai/gpt-4o "Help me refactor"

# Model with thinking level shorthand
atomic --model sonnet:high "Solve this complex problem"

# Limit model cycling
atomic --models "claude-*,gpt-4o"

# Read-only mode
atomic --tools read,search,find,ls -p "Review the code"

# High thinking level
atomic --thinking high "Solve this complex problem"

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
`AI_AGENT`	Set to `atomic` by Atomic's CLI, RPC, and compiled binary entry points, and in every Atomic-owned child-process environment, so generic tooling can attribute those processes correctly. Child environments force this value even when the caller supplies another value; the caller's environment object is not mutated.
`ATOMIC_CODING_AGENT_DIR`	Override config directory (default: `~/.atomic/agent`; `PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR` is a legacy alias)
`ATOMIC_CODING_AGENT_SESSION_DIR`	Override session storage directory (overridden by `--session-dir`; `PI_CODING_AGENT_SESSION_DIR` is a legacy alias)
`ATOMIC_PACKAGE_DIR`	Override package directory (useful for Nix/Guix where store paths tokenize poorly; `PI_PACKAGE_DIR` is a legacy alias)
`ATOMIC_OFFLINE`	Disable startup network operations, including update checks, package update checks, and install/update telemetry (`PI_OFFLINE` is a legacy alias)
`ATOMIC_SKIP_VERSION_CHECK`	Skip the Atomic version update check at startup. `PI_SKIP_VERSION_CHECK` is a legacy alias.
`ATOMIC_TELEMETRY`	Override version-adoption pings. Use `1`/`true`/`yes` to enable or `0`/`false`/`no` to disable. This does not disable update checks (`PI_TELEMETRY` is a legacy alias).
`ATOMIC_REDUCED_MOTION`	Set to `1` to skip startup choreography and use a static working identity
`ATOMIC_NO_PTY`	Set to `1` to disable PTY use for bash commands (`PI_NO_PTY` is a legacy alias)
`NODE_COMPILE_CACHE`	Override Node's persistent compile-cache directory; set `NODE_DISABLE_COMPILE_CACHE=1` to opt out
`PI_CACHE_RETENTION`	Provider/upstream-specific prompt-cache retention knob; set to `long` where supported. This is not an `ATOMIC_*` alias and has no Atomic-prefixed equivalent.
`VISUAL`, `EDITOR`	External editor for CTRL+G

Bash and PowerShell commands also receive an execution-time session snapshot through ATOMIC_SESSION_ID, ATOMIC_SESSION_FILE (omitted for unsaved sessions), ATOMIC_PROVIDER, ATOMIC_MODEL, and ATOMIC_REASONING_LEVEL. The exact PI_SESSION_ID, PI_SESSION_FILE, PI_PROVIDER, PI_MODEL, and PI_REASONING_LEVEL aliases carry identical values. Unrelated inherited or caller-supplied environment variables are preserved.

Contributing & Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines and docs/development.md for setup, forking, and debugging.

License

MIT