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Relay – open-source coding agent for non-mainstream/Chinese LLM providers

An open-source coding agent called Relay has been released, supporting non-mainstream and Chinese LLM providers like DeepSeek, Qwen, and GLM. The Electron app offers chat and code workspaces with file editing, command execution, and human-in-the-loop permissions, and encrypts API keys locally. It is in early public beta and welcomes community contributions.

read3 min views1 publishedJun 29, 2026
Relay – open-source coding agent for non-mainstream/Chinese LLM providers
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An open-source, dark-mode desktop coding agent — built for people who want to use non-mainstream LLM providers, not just the big three.

Relay is an Electron app that puts DeepSeek, Qwen, GLM, Kimi, MiniMax, and other open/Chinese models on equal footing with the usual suspects. Bring your own API key (or run locally via Ollama), pick a model, and work in either a Chat workspace or a full Code workspace with real file editing, command execution, and human-in-the-loop permissions.

Relay is an early public beta (think alpha/0.1). It already does a lot and is usable day to day, but it is not polished production software yet — you should expect bugs, half-finished corners, the occasional crash, and provider quirks (rate limits, model-specific errors, auth gotchas across the many supported providers). That's normal for software this young.

This is being shared openly precisely so we can fix those things together. If you hit an error, please open an issue with what you did, which provider/model you used, and the error text or a screenshot — that's the single most helpful thing you can do. Bug reports, fixes, and ideas are all genuinely welcome; with more eyes on it we can squash these issues much faster than I can alone. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Known in-progress areas: signed installers / auto-update, broader automated test coverage, and additional renderer hardening. Your API keys are not affected by any of this — they're encrypted on your own machine and never leave it (see the security model below).

📣 Follow @ for updates, progress, and release notes.

levyathanon Twitter/X

Many providers, one router. DeepSeek, Alibaba/Qwen (DashScope + coding/token plans), Z.AI / GLM, Moonshot / Kimi (global + China), MiniMax, SiliconFlow, Tencent, Xiaomi, OpenRouter, and Ollama Cloud — via the Mastra model router. Add a key in Settings and its models appear in the picker.Chat workspace. Streaming replies, reasoning ("thinking") controls where the model supports them, image/document attachments, and websearch+ deep** research**(Tavily / Brave / DuckDuckGo, key optional).** Code workspace.Projects live in real folders. The agent reads, writes, and edits files and runs commands scoped to the project**, with permission modes (Ask / Approve / Full).** Plan modeasks clarifying questions and proposes a plan before touching anything. Sources**(your design docs + framework docs) are kept in the agent's context every turn so it never loses the plot, and new projects default to aNext.js + shadcn/ui stack the agent scaffolds and keeps current.Plugins (MCP). Connect Model Context Protocol servers — Notion and Linear via one-click OAuth; GitHub, Filesystem, Git, Supabase (OAuth), Convex, Postgres, and more. Plugins are chosen per conversation and filtered by workspace.Skills. Reusable instruction packs the agent can pull in on demand.Parallel sessions. Start a run in one session and switch away — it keeps streaming and saving in the background, with a "working" indicator.Context management. Per-model context windows, automatic compaction of older turns, and a live usage meter.

  • API keys, plugin credentials, OAuth tokens, and search keys are encrypted at rest with Electron safeStorage

in the app's userData directory. - Decrypted secrets never leave the main process — the renderer only ever sees key namesand connection status. - File and command tools are confined to the active project folder; writes and shell commands are gated by the permission mode (path traversal is blocked unless you grant Full access).

  • The renderer runs with contextIsolation

and no Node integration; links open in your real browser, never an in-app window.

See SECURITY.md for the full threat model and how to report issues.

Prerequisites: Node.js ≥ 20 and Corepack (bundled with Node). Local (stdio) MCP plugins like Filesystem/Git also need npx

on your PATH.

corepack pnpm install     # install dependencies (pnpm 11)
corepack pnpm dev         # run the app in development
corepack pnpm build       # typecheck + production build into out/

Then open Settings, add an API key for any supported provider, and pick a model.

Electron · electron-vite (Vite) · React 19 · TypeScript · Mastra (@mastra/core

model router + @mastra/mcp

).

Issues and PRs are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md. Run corepack pnpm typecheck && corepack pnpm lint && corepack pnpm test

before opening a PR.

MIT © Levente Nagy

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