vim, but the buffers are live coding agents and the operators drive them.
aeovim is a standalone, keyboard-native Rust TUI for multiplexing and orchestrating LLM coding agents. It applies the Neovim mental model — modes, motions, buffers, tabs, splits — to conversations with coding agents, so spawning, steering, watching, and reviewing many agents at once is muscle memory rather than window juggling.
The project is aeovim; the command you run is ** avim** (like Neovim →
nvim
).v1 wraps the claude
CLI (Claude Code) as child processes over headless stream-json
. It reuses Claude Code's own auth, tools, permissions, skills, and MCP servers — it doesn't re-implement any of that. All backend detail sits behind an AgentBackend
seam so other models/CLIs (or a direct API) can drop in later. Single-user, local macOS daily driver. Not distributed.
Working walking skeleton — installable and in daily use. ~3,200 lines of Rust across seven modules; builds, installs, and drives real multi-turn Claude Code sessions. This is well past the "pre-implementation" the earlier README claimed. The orchestration layer (fan-out, job board, diff review) is designed but not yet built — see the split below.
Modal TUI with a Space-leader keymap + which-key popup, ported from the author's Neovim config (nvim-tree / harpoon / bufferline / lualine / which-key). Lilac theme.Two-level model: aSpace is a named container of 1–4Chats. The sidebar lists Spaces; the active Space renders its Chats as split panes (single / vertical / horizontal / 2×2), focused pane bordered in bright purple.Live Claude Code sessions: each Chat spawnsclaude
over--output-format stream-json
; multi-turn continuity via--session-id
then--resume
.Streaming transcript: assistant messages, a thinking spinner, and Claude-style tool-call / tool-result rendering; slash-command popup; inline markdown; mode indicator; powerline status bar.Navigation:Ctrl-hjkl
focus panes ↔ sidebar,Tab
/H
/L
cycle chats,Space 1-0
jump to a Space, sidebar add / rename / delete.Space ops: merge multiple Spaces (chats combined, ≤4), pop a chat into its own Space, split management.Persistence: Spaces (name + chats) saved per tmux session at~/.local/state/aeovim/<session>.json
; relaunch resumes.Inter-agent pipe: a FIFO (~/.local/state/aeovim/<key>.pipe
) lets one agent message another Space; a reader thread routes it into the target chat's transcript and the agent responds.Permissions: dangerous by default (--dangerously-skip-permissions
);--safe
switches to--permission-mode acceptEdits
.
- Parallel fan-out of one prompt to N agents, each isolated in its own git worktree, as a first-class
job. - A quickfix-style
task board with done / needs-input / error status. - aeovim-owned
loop scheduler and askills palette. - Vim-native
diff review:
]c
/[c
hunk motions, visual-select, per-turn git approve/reject on an apply baseline. - Tree-sitter syntax highlighting (code rendering only).
- Persistent bidirectional child for in-TUI permission approval, interrupt (
Esc
), and mid-turn steering. (Today's one-child-per-turn model rules these out by design — see INTEGRATION.md.)
cargo install --path . # builds the `avim` binary into ~/.cargo/bin
avim # launch (dangerous permissions by default)
avim --safe # --permission-mode acceptEdits instead
avim --model <name> # pick the Claude model
avim --help # flags + key reference
Sessions persist per tmux session; relaunch avim
to resume where you left off.
The keymap mirrors the author's Neovim config and is still moving. The authoritative, in-app reference is ** Space zz** (cheatsheet);
avim --help
prints the current summary. The stable essentials:| Key | Action |
|---|---|
i / Esc |
compose / normal mode |
Enter |
send (in composer) |
Ctrl-h / Ctrl-l |
focus sidebar / chat panes |
H / L / Tab |
previous / next chat |
Space e |
toggle sidebar |
Space 1 –0 |
jump to Space N |
: |
command |
Space zz |
cheatsheet · q quit |
DESIGN.md— full design spec (UX model, architecture, orchestration, adapter seam, diff review).IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md— milestone ladder and build plan.INTEGRATION.md— Claude Code integration research: what the stream already emits, what to parse next, and the persistent-child milestone that unlocks in-TUI approval/interrupt.