@charmland/crush

Crush

Your new coding bestie, now available in your favourite terminal.
Your tools, your code, and your workflows, wired into your LLM of choice.

Features

• Multi-Model: choose from a wide range of LLMs or add your own via OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible APIs
• Flexible: switch LLMs mid-session while preserving context
• Session-Based: maintain multiple work sessions and contexts per project
• LSP-Enhanced: Crush uses LSPs for additional context, just like you do
• Extensible: add capabilities via MCPs (http, stdio, and sse)
• Works Everywhere: first-class support in every terminal on macOS, Linux, Windows (PowerShell and WSL), FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD

Installation

Use a package manager:

# Homebrew
brew install charmbracelet/tap/crush

# NPM
npm install -g @charmland/crush

# Arch Linux (btw)
yay -S crush-bin

# Nix
nix run github:numtide/nix-ai-tools#crush

Windows users:

# Winget
winget install charmbracelet.crush

# Scoop
scoop bucket add charm https://github.com/charmbracelet/scoop-bucket.git
scoop install crush

Nix (NUR)

Crush is available via NUR in nur.repos.charmbracelet.crush.

You can also try out Crush via nix-shell:

# Add the NUR channel.
nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/main.tar.gz nur
nix-channel --update

# Get Crush in a Nix shell.
nix-shell -p '(import <nur> { pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {}; }).repos.charmbracelet.crush'

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://repo.charm.sh/apt/gpg.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/charm.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/charm.gpg] https://repo.charm.sh/apt/ * *" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/charm.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install crush

Fedora/RHEL

echo '[charm]
name=Charm
baseurl=https://repo.charm.sh/yum/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://repo.charm.sh/yum/gpg.key' | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/charm.repo
sudo yum install crush

Or, download it:

• Packages are available in Debian and RPM formats
• Binaries are available for Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD

Or just install it with Go:

go install github.com/charmbracelet/crush@latest

[!WARNING] Productivity may increase when using Crush and you may find yourself nerd sniped when first using the application. If the symptoms persist, join the Discord and nerd snipe the rest of us.

Getting Started

The quickest way to get started is to grab an API key for your preferred provider such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Groq, or OpenRouter and just start Crush. You'll be prompted to enter your API key.

That said, you can also set environment variables for preferred providers.

Environment Variable	Provider
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Anthropic
OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI
OPENROUTER_API_KEY	OpenRouter
CEREBRAS_API_KEY	Cerebras
GEMINI_API_KEY	Google Gemini
VERTEXAI_PROJECT	Google Cloud VertexAI (Gemini)
VERTEXAI_LOCATION	Google Cloud VertexAI (Gemini)
GROQ_API_KEY	Groq
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID	AWS Bedrock (Claude)
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	AWS Bedrock (Claude)
AWS_REGION	AWS Bedrock (Claude)
AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT	Azure OpenAI models
AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY	Azure OpenAI models (optional when using Entra ID)
AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION	Azure OpenAI models

By the Way

Is there a provider you’d like to see in Crush? Is there an existing model that needs an update?

Crush’s default model listing is managed in Catwalk, a community-supported, open source repository of Crush-compatible models, and you’re welcome to contribute.

Configuration

Crush runs great with no configuration. That said, if you do need or want to customize Crush, configuration can be added either local to the project itself, or globally, with the following priority:

• .crush.json
• crush.json
• $HOME/.config/crush/crush.json (Windows: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\crush\crush.json)

Configuration itself is stored as a JSON object:

{
  "this-setting": { "this": "that" },
  "that-setting": ["ceci", "cela"]
}

As an additional note, Crush also stores ephemeral data, such as application state, in one additional location:

# Unix
$HOME/.local/share/crush/crush.json

# Windows
%LOCALAPPDATA%\crush\crush.json

LSPs

Crush can use LSPs for additional context to help inform its decisions, just like you would. LSPs can be added manually like so:

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "lsp": {
    "go": {
      "command": "gopls",
      "env": {
        "GOTOOLCHAIN": "go1.24.5"
      }
    },
    "typescript": {
      "command": "typescript-language-server",
      "args": ["--stdio"]
    },
    "nix": {
      "command": "nil"
    }
  }
}

MCPs

Crush also supports Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers through three transport types: stdio for command-line servers, http for HTTP endpoints, and sse for Server-Sent Events. Environment variable expansion is supported using $(echo $VAR) syntax.

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "mcp": {
    "filesystem": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/mcp-server.js"],
      "env": {
        "NODE_ENV": "production"
      }
    },
    "github": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://example.com/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "$(echo Bearer $EXAMPLE_MCP_TOKEN)"
      }
    },
    "streaming-service": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "https://example.com/mcp/sse",
      "headers": {
        "API-Key": "$(echo $API_KEY)"
      }
    }
  }
}

Ignoring Files

Crush respects .gitignore files by default, but you can also create a .crushignore file to specify additional files and directories that Crush should ignore. This is useful for excluding files that you want in version control but don't want Crush to consider when providing context.

The .crushignore file uses the same syntax as .gitignore and can be placed in the root of your project or in subdirectories.

Allowing Tools

By default, Crush will ask you for permission before running tool calls. If you'd like, you can allow tools to be executed without prompting you for permissions. Use this with care.

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "permissions": {
    "allowed_tools": [
      "view",
      "ls",
      "grep",
      "edit",
      "mcp_context7_get-library-doc"
    ]
  }
}

You can also skip all permission prompts entirely by running Crush with the --yolo flag. Be very, very careful with this feature.

Local Models

Local models can also be configured via OpenAI-compatible API. Here are two common examples:

Ollama

{
  "providers": {
    "ollama": {
      "name": "Ollama",
      "base_url": "http://localhost:11434/v1/",
      "type": "openai",
      "models": [
        {
          "name": "Qwen 3 30B",
          "id": "qwen3:30b",
          "context_window": 256000,
          "default_max_tokens": 20000
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

LM Studio

{
  "providers": {
    "lmstudio": {
      "name": "LM Studio",
      "base_url": "http://localhost:1234/v1/",
      "type": "openai",
      "models": [
        {
          "name": "Qwen 3 30B",
          "id": "qwen/qwen3-30b-a3b-2507",
          "context_window": 256000,
          "default_max_tokens": 20000
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Custom Providers

Crush supports custom provider configurations for both OpenAI-compatible and Anthropic-compatible APIs.

OpenAI-Compatible APIs

Here’s an example configuration for Deepseek, which uses an OpenAI-compatible API. Don't forget to set DEEPSEEK_API_KEY in your environment.

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "providers": {
    "deepseek": {
      "type": "openai",
      "base_url": "https://api.deepseek.com/v1",
      "api_key": "$DEEPSEEK_API_KEY",
      "models": [
        {
          "id": "deepseek-chat",
          "name": "Deepseek V3",
          "cost_per_1m_in": 0.27,
          "cost_per_1m_out": 1.1,
          "cost_per_1m_in_cached": 0.07,
          "cost_per_1m_out_cached": 1.1,
          "context_window": 64000,
          "default_max_tokens": 5000
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Anthropic-Compatible APIs

Custom Anthropic-compatible providers follow this format:

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "providers": {
    "custom-anthropic": {
      "type": "anthropic",
      "base_url": "https://api.anthropic.com/v1",
      "api_key": "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY",
      "extra_headers": {
        "anthropic-version": "2023-06-01"
      },
      "models": [
        {
          "id": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
          "name": "Claude Sonnet 4",
          "cost_per_1m_in": 3,
          "cost_per_1m_out": 15,
          "cost_per_1m_in_cached": 3.75,
          "cost_per_1m_out_cached": 0.3,
          "context_window": 200000,
          "default_max_tokens": 50000,
          "can_reason": true,
          "supports_attachments": true
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Amazon Bedrock

Crush currently supports running Anthropic models through Bedrock, with caching disabled.

• A Bedrock provider will appear once you have AWS configured, i.e. aws configure
• Crush also expects the AWS_REGION or AWS_DEFAULT_REGION to be set
• To use a specific AWS profile set AWS_PROFILE in your environment, i.e. AWS_PROFILE=myprofile crush

Vertex AI Platform

Vertex AI will appear in the list of available providers when VERTEXAI_PROJECT and VERTEXAI_LOCATION are set. You will also need to be authenticated:

gcloud auth application-default login

To add specific models to the configuration, configure as such:

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "providers": {
    "vertexai": {
      "models": [
        {
          "id": "claude-sonnet-4@20250514",
          "name": "VertexAI Sonnet 4",
          "cost_per_1m_in": 3,
          "cost_per_1m_out": 15,
          "cost_per_1m_in_cached": 3.75,
          "cost_per_1m_out_cached": 0.3,
          "context_window": 200000,
          "default_max_tokens": 50000,
          "can_reason": true,
          "supports_attachments": true
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Logging

Sometimes you need to look at logs. Luckily, Crush logs all sorts of stuff. Logs are stored in ./.crush/logs/crush.log relative to the project.

The CLI also contains some helper commands to make perusing recent logs easier:

# Print the last 1000 lines
crush logs

# Print the last 500 lines
crush logs --tail 500

# Follow logs in real time
crush logs --follow

Want more logging? Run crush with the --debug flag, or enable it in the config:

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "options": {
    "debug": true,
    "debug_lsp": true
  }
}

Disabling Provider Auto-Updates

By default, Crush automatically checks for the latest and greatest list of providers and models from Catwalk, the open source Crush provider database. This means that when new providers and models are available, or when model metadata changes, Crush automatically updates your local configuration.

For those with restricted internet access, or those who prefer to work in air-gapped environments, this might not be want you want, and this feature can be disabled.

To disable automatic provider updates, set disable_provider_auto_update into your crush.json config:

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "options": {
    "disable_provider_auto_update": true
  }
}

Or set the CRUSH_DISABLE_PROVIDER_AUTO_UPDATE environment variable:

export CRUSH_DISABLE_PROVIDER_AUTO_UPDATE=1

Manually updating providers

Manually updating providers is possible with the crush update-providers command:

# Update providers remotely from Catwalk.
crush update-providers

# Update providers from a custom Catwalk base URL.
crush update-providers https://example.com/

# Update providers from a local file.
crush update-providers /path/to/local-providers.json

# Reset providers to the embedded version, embedded at crush at build time.
crush update-providers embedded

# For more info:
crush update-providers --help

A Note on Claude Max and GitHub Copilot

Crush only supports model providers through official, compliant APIs. We do not support or endorse any methods that rely on personal Claude Max and GitHub Copilot accounts or OAuth workarounds, which violate Anthropic and Microsoft’s Terms of Service.

We’re committed to building sustainable, trusted integrations with model providers. If you’re a provider interested in working with us, reach out.

Whatcha think?

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this project. Need help? We gotchu. You can find us on:

• Twitter
• Discord
• Slack
• The Fediverse
• Bluesky

License

FSL-1.1-MIT

Part of Charm.

Charm热爱开源 • Charm loves open source