What is Loop?

Overview

Loop is an Apache-2.0 coding harness written in Rust. The default binary is a terminal UI (loop) for one agent on one repository: it streams a model reply, runs tools, and keeps the conversation. You bring the model — Soket, OpenRouter, OpenAI, or any OpenAI-compatible API. Ship that binary on macOS, Linux (glibc), and WSL. The current release is v0.3.4. Native Windows builds are published and still in testing. Basic use does not need Docker. Container sandboxing is optional and uses Podman when you turn it on.

Coming soon: a skills repository, business use cases, and more guides.

Quick Start

Connect a provider and start a session.

Installation

Download a release or build from source.

Interactive Mode

TUI, keyboard shortcuts, and slash commands.

CLI Reference

Flags, subcommands, and headless --print.

Why Loop?

Bring your own model

Sign up at console.soket.ai and create an API key for Soket, or connect OpenRouter, OpenAI, or a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint (/login). Switch models in a session. Catalogs refresh from each provider’s /v1/models.

Embeddable Rust harness

The agent runtime is a library. loop-cli and the desktop beta are applications on loop-app-core → loop-agent → loop-ai.

Stateful sessions

Conversations are trees. Resume, fork, clone, and search them. Stores are in-memory, append-only JSONL, or SQLite.

Review before edits land

New sessions ask before write, edit, and bash. File edits can open an external diff. The policy is newSession, always, or never.

Container sandbox

Optional Podman isolation: full (tools inside the container) or partial (jailed host files, shell in the container). Runtimes include runc, crun, runsc (gVisor), and krun.

Optional add-ons

Multi-agent workflows and OpenTelemetry tracing compile in only when you build with orchestration or telemetry. The default binary stays small.

What ships by default

Feature	Description
Streaming TUI	Markdown, including tables, rendered as the reply streams
Built-in tools	`read`, `write`, `edit`, and `bash`
Sessions	Resume, fork, clone, tree navigation, JSONL import/export
Compaction	Automatic summary of older context, with a recent tail kept
Skills	`SKILL.md` files from user and project directories. Toggle with `/skills`. Activate one with `/skill:<name>`
Context files	`AGENTS.md`, `CLAUDE.md`, and local Claude files from the working directory and its parents
Headless runs	`loop --print` for scripts and CI; sessions are still stored
Providers	Soket, OpenRouter, OpenAI, and custom OpenAI-compatible APIs
MCP	`/mcp` client connections over stdio or HTTP, OAuth for remote servers, and `loop --serve-mcp`

Optional builds

Feature	Cargo feature	What you get
Multi-agent workflows	`orchestration`	`/workflow` plans a task graph and streams live task cards
Tracing	`telemetry`	`/tracing` to Langfuse or any OTLP collector, plus `--trace-*` on `--print`
Desktop	—	`loop-desktop` (Rust nightly): sessions, chat, diff review, PTY dock

cargo build -p loop-cli --release
cargo build -p loop-cli --release --features telemetry
cargo build -p loop-cli --release --features orchestration

Architecture at a glance

loop-cli / loop-desktop
         └── loop-app-core
               └── loop-agent ──→ loop-ai
                      ├── loop-mcp            (default)
                      ├── loop-orchestration  (feature: orchestration)
                      └── loop-telemetry      (feature: telemetry)

loop-ai — Model types, streaming, and OpenAI-compatible providers
loop-agent — Turn loop, sessions, tools, compaction, skills, sandbox
loop-app-core — Config, auth, theme, and tool-approval wiring
loop-cli — Terminal UI and slash commands
loop-desktop — Optional GPUI app on the same core
loop-mcp — MCP client and server, linked into the default binary
loop-orchestration, loop-telemetry — Optional crates, off unless the matching feature is enabled

Architecture

Crates, request flow, and feature flags.

Built by

Getting Started

Guides

Features

What is Loop?

Overview

Quick Start

Installation

Interactive Mode

CLI Reference

Why Loop?

What ships by default

Optional builds

Architecture at a glance

Architecture

​Overview

Quick Start

Installation

Interactive Mode

CLI Reference

​Why Loop?

​What ships by default

​Optional builds

​Architecture at a glance

Architecture

Overview

Why Loop?

What ships by default

Optional builds

Architecture at a glance