@kernel.chat/kbot
Advanced tools
Open-source terminal AI agent. 100+ specialist skills + audit-grade finance infra via @kernel.chat/kbot-finance. Content-addressed envelopes, hash-chained audit log, jurisdiction-aware regulatory verifier. The AI Intelligence Layer never produces the numb
kbot
Open-source terminal AI agent. 100+ specialist skills. 35 specialist agents. 20 providers. Dreams, learns, watches your system, controls your phone. $0 local.
npm install -g @kernel.chat/kbot
Most terminal AI agents lock you into one provider, one model, one way of working. kbot doesn't.
kbot --agent <id> "<prompt>". List them: kbot agents.Methodology-explicit comparison vs other CLI agents → BENCHMARKS.md. TL;DR: kbot beats Aider (4.4×) and OpenCode (5.7×) on cold start; loses to Claude Code, Codex, and jcode on raw boot but wins on cost-per-task (BYOK + Ollama fallback), vertical depth (Ableton/security/computer-use/channels), and offline availability (~70% of representative tasks).
Using jcode? Wire kbot in as an MCP backend → templates/jcode-integration.md.
kbot is designed to compound with your existing AI editor, not replace it. One command wires everything up — MCP server config + a Claude Code skill that pre-authorizes the integration so safety filters don't refuse legitimate kbot calls.
kbot setup-claude-code # wires ~/.claude/settings.json + copies kbot skill
kbot setup-cursor # wires Cursor's MCP config
kbot setup-zed # wires Zed's MCP config
kbot setup-all # all three at once
Once wired, your editor can call kbot's full suite as mcp__kbot__* tools (and the local-Ollama subset as mcp__kbot-local__*). Or skip the middleman entirely and run kbot direct: kbot "<prompt>", kbot --agent <id> "<prompt>", kbot agents.
After each session, kbot "dreams" — consolidating what it learned about you into durable insights using local Ollama models. $0 cost. Insights feed back into future sessions automatically.
kbot dream run # Trigger consolidation
kbot dream status # See what kbot learned
kbot dream journal # Full insight history
kbot dream search # Find specific memories
7-tier memory: pattern cache -> solution index -> user profile -> dream journal -> passive scanner -> music production -> desktop behavior. All tiers feed each other bidirectionally through the dream engine. Dream insights automatically evolve kbot's prompts so it gets better at being your specific tool.
kbot runs 24/7 in the background, managing your entire development environment:
kbot watchdog # Service dashboard — CPU, RAM, disk, all services
kbot wd --restart email # Restart a crashed service
kbot dream status # What kbot learned about you
Every kbot user gets a unique ASCII buddy that evolves with them:
[=====] /\ /\ {o,o} /\_/\
|[o o]| ( .. ) |)__) ( o.o )
| _ | ) ( -"-"- > ^ <
|_____| (______)\ -|-|- (_/|\_)
|| || || || _// \\_ | |
Robot Fox Owl Cat
kbot buddy chat to talk directly to your buddy via local Ollama ($0)Control your iPhone from the terminal:
kbot phone_message --to "mom" --message "on my way" # Send iMessage
kbot phone_notify # Read notifications
kbot phone_shortcut --name "Morning Routine" # Run Shortcuts
kbot phone_call --number "555-1234" # FaceTime call
kbot phone_clipboard --action write --text "hello" # Universal Clipboard
kbot produce_beat --genre trap --instruments roland # Full beat in Ableton
kbot generate_drum_pattern --genre house --bpm 124 # MIDI drum pattern
kbot music_idea "late night drive through Tokyo" # Creative blueprint
kbot ableton_load_effect --track 2 --name "Saturator" # Load any plugin
Programmatic control of Ableton Live 12 — create tracks, load plugins (including Roland Cloud, Serum 2), write MIDI, set device parameters, fire clips. All from the terminal.
kbot market_analysis --ticker AAPL # 5-perspective coordinated analysis
kbot portfolio_review --holdings '[...]' # MAGI impact, risk scoring
kbot market_briefing # Morning market summary
kbot threat_feed # Latest CVEs matched to your stack
kbot ioc_check --indicator "1.2.3.4" # Check IPs/domains/hashes
kbot attack_surface_scan --domain x.com # Passive recon + security headers
kbot incident_response --type ransomware # Generate IR playbook
kbot design "a minimal pitch deck cover for our product" --kind deck --pdf --open
kbot design "landing page hero with our brand colors" --kind page
kbot design "interactive prototype of a chat inbox" --kind prototype
Local-first alternative to Anthropic's Claude Design. kbot reads your repo's CSS design tokens, typography, and component patterns, then generates a single complete HTML file — no external deps, mobile-first, a11y-clean — that matches your visual system. Optional Playwright-backed PDF export. Runs on your local model at $0, ships with @kernel.chat/kbot. No subscription, no upload, no cloud.
kbot audit facebook/react
kbot audit --share vercel/next.js # Creates a public Gist
kbot audit --badge your/repo # Badge for your README
Checks security, documentation, code quality, CI/CD, community health, and DevOps. Scored out of 100, graded A-F. Add the badge to your README.
| kbot | Claude Code | Codex CLI | Aider | OpenCode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI providers | 20 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 75+ |
| Specialist agents | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Built-in skills | 100+ | ~20 | ~15 | ~10 | ~15 |
| Science skills | included | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Memory system | 7-tier bidirectional | File-based | No | No | No |
| Dream engine | Yes ($0 local) | Cloud API | No | No | No |
| Service watchdog | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Behavior learning | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Buddy companion | Yes (8 species) | No | No | No | No |
| iPhone control | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Music production | Ableton Live | No | No | No | No |
| Visual design | kbot design (local, $0) | Separate Claude Design subscription | No | No | No |
| Financial analysis | Multi-agent | No | No | No | No |
| Threat intelligence | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Buddy leaderboard | kernel.chat | No | No | No | No |
| Offline mode | Embedded + Ollama | No | No | Ollama | Ollama |
| SDK | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| MCP server | Yes | N/A | No | No | No |
| Web companion | kernel.chat | No | No | No | No |
| Open source | MIT | Source available | Apache 2.0 | Apache 2.0 | MIT |
| Cost | BYOK / $0 local | $20+/mo | BYOK | BYOK | BYOK |
# Install globally
npm install -g @kernel.chat/kbot
# Or run directly (no install)
npx @kernel.chat/kbot
# Or use the install script (auto-installs Node.js if needed)
curl -fsSL https://kernel.chat/install.sh | bash
# Interactive mode
kbot
# One-shot
kbot "explain this codebase"
kbot "fix the auth bug in src/auth.ts"
kbot "create a Dockerfile for this project"
# Pipe mode (for scripting)
kbot -p "generate a migration for user roles" > migration.sql
# Use local models (free, no API key)
kbot local
# Set up your API key
kbot auth
kbot auto-routes to the right agent for each task. Or pick one with --agent <name>.
| Agents | |
|---|---|
| Core | kernel, researcher, coder, writer, analyst |
| Extended | aesthete, guardian, curator, strategist |
| Domain | infrastructure, quant, investigator, oracle, chronist, sage, communicator, adapter |
| Presets | claude-code, cursor, copilot, creative, developer |
As of v4.0, kbot ships ~100 curated skills (down from 670 — every kept skill has telemetry, agent reference, or test coverage). The rest are available as plugins.
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Files & Code | read, write, glob, grep, lint, format, type-check |
| Shell | bash, parallel execute, background tasks |
| Git & GitHub | commit, diff, PR, issues, code search |
| Web | search, fetch, browser automation, browser agent |
| Research | arXiv, Semantic Scholar, HuggingFace, NASA, DOI |
| Data | CSV read/query/write, transforms, reports, invoices |
| Quality | lint (ESLint/Biome/Clippy), test (Vitest/Jest/pytest), deps audit, formatting |
| Deploy | Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Workers/Pages, Fly.io, Railway |
| Database | Postgres, MySQL, SQLite queries, Prisma, ER diagrams, seed data |
| Containers | Docker build/run/compose, Terraform |
| Creative | p5.js generative art, GLSL shaders, SVG patterns, design variants |
| VFX | GLSL shaders, FFmpeg, ImageMagick, Blender, procedural textures |
| Game Dev | 16 tools for Godot, Unity, Unreal, Bevy, Phaser, Three.js, PlayCanvas, Defold |
| Training | dataset prep, fine-tuning, evaluation, model export |
| Social | post to X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Mastodon — single posts and threads |
| Sandbox | Docker sandboxes, E2B cloud sandboxes, isolated code execution |
| Notebooks | Jupyter read/edit/insert/delete cells |
| Build Matrix | cross-platform builds — mobile, desktop, WASM, embedded, server |
| LSP | goto definition, find references, hover, rename, diagnostics |
| Memory | persistent memory save/search/update across sessions |
| MCP | marketplace search/install, 20 bundled servers |
| IDE | MCP server, ACP server, LSP bridge |
| Forge | create tools at runtime, publish to registry, install from registry |
| Meta | subagents, worktrees, planner, sessions, checkpoints, self-eval |
| Science & Math | symbolic compute, matrix ops, FFT, ODEs, probability, optimization, graph theory, OEIS |
| Physics | orbital mechanics, circuits, signal processing, particles (PDG), relativity, quantum simulator, beam analysis, fluid dynamics |
| Chemistry | PubChem compounds, reactions, periodic table (118 elements), spectroscopy, stoichiometry, thermodynamics |
| Biology | PubMed, gene lookup, protein/PDB, BLAST, drug/ChEMBL, pathways, taxonomy, clinical trials |
| Earth & Climate | earthquakes/USGS, climate/NOAA, satellite imagery, geology, ocean, air quality, volcanoes, water resources |
| Neuroscience | brain atlas, EEG analysis, cognitive models, neural simulation, connectome, psychophysics |
| Social Science | psychometrics, game theory, econometrics, social network analysis, survey design, voting systems |
| Humanities | corpus analysis, formal logic, argument mapping, ethics frameworks, historical timelines, stylometry |
| Health & Epidemiology | SIR/SEIR models, epidemiology calculations, disease surveillance, nutrition, vaccination modeling |
| Finance | market data, technical analysis, paper trading, DeFi yields, wallet & swaps, stock screener, sentiment |
| Cybersecurity | dep_audit, secret_scan, ssl_check, headers_check, cve_lookup, port_scan, owasp_check |
| Self-Defense | memory HMAC, prompt injection detection, knowledge sanitization, forge verification, anomaly detection |
| Provider | Cost | Local? |
|---|---|---|
| Embedded (llama.cpp) | Free | Yes |
| Ollama | Free | Yes |
| LM Studio | Free | Yes |
| Jan | Free | Yes |
| DeepSeek | $0.27/M in | Cloud |
| SambaNova | $0.50/M in | Cloud |
| Cerebras | $0.60/M in | Cloud |
| Groq | $0.59/M in | Cloud |
| NVIDIA NIM | $0.80/M in | Cloud |
| Together AI | $0.88/M in | Cloud |
| Fireworks AI | $0.90/M in | Cloud |
| Google (Gemini) | $1.25/M in | Cloud |
| Mistral | $2.00/M in | Cloud |
| OpenAI (GPT) | $2.00/M in | Cloud |
| Cohere | $2.50/M in | Cloud |
| Anthropic (Claude) | $3.00/M in | Cloud |
| xAI (Grok) | $3.00/M in | Cloud |
| Perplexity | $3.00/M in | Cloud |
| OpenRouter | varies | Cloud |
| kbot local | Free | Yes |
Set any provider's env var and kbot auto-detects it. Or run kbot auth for interactive setup.
import { agent, tools, providers } from '@kernel.chat/kbot'
const result = await agent.run("fix the auth bug", { agent: 'coder' })
console.log(result.content)
for await (const event of agent.stream("explain this code")) {
if (event.type === 'content_delta') process.stdout.write(event.text)
}
graph TD
A[User Message] --> B{Local-first check}
B -->|file, git, grep| C[Instant response — $0]
B -->|Needs AI| D{Complexity detection}
D -->|Simple| E[Bayesian Router → Specialist]
D -->|Multi-step| F[Autonomous Planner]
E --> G[Provider API + Tool Loop]
F --> G
G --> H{100+ Skills}
H --> I[File ops, bash, git, GitHub, search, deploy, DB, game dev...]
G --> J[Learning Engine]
J --> K[Patterns + Solutions + User Profile]
G --> L[Checkpointing]
L --> M[Resume from last tool call]
Use kbot as a tool provider inside any MCP-compatible IDE:
{
"mcp": {
"servers": {
"kbot": { "command": "kbot", "args": ["ide", "mcp"] }
}
}
}
Or run the MCP server via Docker:
docker run -i --rm kernelchat/kbot ide mcp
Works with Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Zed, Neovim.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
kbot | Interactive REPL |
kbot "prompt" | One-shot execution |
kbot auth | Configure API key |
kbot local | Use local AI (Ollama, embedded, LM Studio, Jan) |
kbot serve | Start HTTP REST + SSE streaming server |
kbot audit <repo> | Security + quality audit of any GitHub repo (A-F grade) |
kbot dream run | Consolidate session learnings into durable insights |
kbot dream status | See what kbot has learned about you |
kbot dream journal | Full insight history |
kbot dream search | Find specific memories |
kbot watchdog | System dashboard — services, CPU, RAM, disk, Ollama, dreams |
kbot wd --restart <svc> | Restart a crashed background service |
kbot contribute <repo> | Find good-first-issues and quick wins |
kbot share | Share conversation as GitHub Gist |
kbot pair | File watcher with auto-analysis |
kbot team | Multi-agent TCP collaboration |
kbot record | Terminal session recording (SVG, GIF, asciicast) |
kbot voice | Text-to-speech output mode |
kbot watch | Real-time file analysis on change |
kbot bootstrap | Outer-loop project optimizer (visibility scoring) |
kbot plugins | Search, install, update community plugins |
kbot models | List, pull, remove, catalog local models |
kbot changelog | Generate changelog from git history |
kbot completions | Shell completions (bash, zsh, fish) |
kbot cloud | Sync learning data to kernel.chat |
kbot ide mcp | Start MCP server for IDEs |
kbot doctor | 10-point health check |
kbot --architect "design the auth system" # Architecture mode — plan before code
kbot --thinking "solve this hard problem" # Extended reasoning with thinking budget
kbot --self-eval "write a parser" # Self-evaluation loop — scores and retries
kbot --computer-use "fill out this form" # Computer use — controls mouse and keyboard
kbot -p "query" > output.txt # Pipe mode — clean output for scripting
cd packages/kbot
npm install
npm run dev # Run in dev mode
npm run build # Compile TypeScript
npm run test # Run tests (vitest)
kbot has a web companion at kernel.chat — same agents, persistent memory, and a visual interface. Free to use (20 messages/day).
FAQs
Open-source terminal AI agent. 100+ specialist skills + audit-grade finance infra via @kernel.chat/kbot-finance. Content-addressed envelopes, hash-chained audit log, jurisdiction-aware regulatory verifier. The AI Intelligence Layer never produces the numb
We found that @kernel.chat/kbot demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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