maskshift

MaskShift

The full toolbox for any coding model, in one zero-dependency terminal harness.
159 tools, 50 skills, persistent code-graph intelligence and worktree-isolated multi-agent orchestration — but only what the current step needs ever touches the model's context.

MaskShift gives a coding model one control plane for repository understanding, file edits, the host shell, Git recovery, language servers, browsers, containers, databases, remote machines, memory, scheduled work, plugins, external coding agents, skills and MCP servers. The full catalog is always available to the harness; only the capabilities relevant to the current step are inserted into model context.

It runs on Node.js 22 using only built-in modules — the interface renderer included. No npm runtime dependency tree, no HTTP server, no browser, no listening socket.

How it differs

Most terminal coding agents pick a model vendor and a fixed tool list. MaskShift is built the other way around: the model is a config line, and the tool surface is the whole catalog, held out of context until a step actually needs it.

	MaskShift	Claude Code	OpenCode	Codex CLI	Nous Hermes Agent
Model support	Any provider — Ollama, OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter, LM Studio, vLLM — plus a text protocol for models with no tool API	Anthropic's Claude family	Any provider, 75+ models	OpenAI's GPT family, via ChatGPT plan or API key	Any provider — Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI, custom endpoints
License	GPL-3.0, open source	Proprietary (Commercial Terms of Service)	MIT, open source	Apache-2.0, open source	MIT, open source
Runtime dependencies	0 — Node.js built-ins only	npm dependency tree	Go binary + provider SDKs	Rust binary, containerized sandbox by default	Python 3.11 + Node.js, ripgrep, ffmpeg
Native tool surface	159 tools — shell, LSP, browsers, containers, Kubernetes, SSH, databases, PDFs, images, MCP	Built-in file/shell/web tools, plus MCP	File/shell tools plus per-language LSP and MCP	File/shell/sandboxed-exec tools, plus MCP	40+ tools, plus MCP over the agentskills.io standard
Codebase intelligence	Persistent file/symbol/call graph with reverse change-impact analysis	Ad hoc search and grep	Per-language LSP (go-to-definition, references)	Ad hoc search and grep	General-purpose tool search, not code-graph specific
Multi-agent orchestration	Executable dependency DAGs, worktree-isolated by default, bounded parallel waves	Subagents (Explore, Plan, general-purpose)	Multiple parallel sessions	Native subagents, sandboxed	Isolated subagents, each with its own conversation and terminal
Interface	Full-screen, zero-dependency TUI — six views, mouse and keyboard — plus an MCP server so any MCP client can drive it	Chat-style terminal interface, plus IDE and desktop apps	Terminal-first TUI, plus desktop and IDE extensions	Terminal chat, plus a VS Code extension	Full TUI, plus Telegram, Discord, Slack and other surfaces
Primary focus	A coding harness — any model, the whole tool catalog	Coding agent	Coding agent	Coding agent	General-purpose autonomous assistant; coding is one surface among many

Not a knock on any of them — they make different tradeoffs on purpose. This is where MaskShift lands.

Contents

Features · Install · Run it with Ollama · Configure · The interface · The command line · Documentation · Contributing · Development · Deployment

Features

159 native tools	Filesystem, shell and process control, search and indexing, Git worktrees and checkpoints, LSP, browsers over CDP, containers and Kubernetes, SSH and rsync, databases, runtimes, images, PDF and Jupyter, web retrieval, plugins, automations, memory and orchestration. → tool inventory
50 bundled skills	Loaded lazily by description, including 14 Apache-2.0 skills imported from Anthropic, alongside skills from Claude, Codex, Copilot and workspace directories. → skills
Lazy MCP fabric	stdio and Streamable HTTP, stateless and legacy initialization, resources, prompts, qualified tools, imported configs, and the live official MCP Registry. Servers connect on demand, so the catalog never floods the context window. MaskShift is also an MCP server itself — maskshift mcp serve exposes its native tool catalog over stdio to Claude Desktop, Claude Code, an IDE, or another MaskShift instance. → MCP config
Any model	Ollama, OpenAI Responses, OpenAI-compatible servers, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter, LM Studio and vLLM — with a text protocol that gives models without a native tool API the full tool surface. → providers
Codebase intelligence	Persistent file/symbol/import/call graph, reverse change-impact analysis, likely-test discovery, and budgeted context selection with decision metadata. → architecture
Provenance-aware memory	Durable facts can cite workspace files by content hash; changed or missing sources make those memories stale and exclude them from automatic context.
Intelligence routing	Task-aware model and external-agent recommendations, adjusted by prior run outcomes when evidence exists.
Executable DAG agents	Dependency-aware plans run ready nodes concurrently, pass predecessor results forward, block downstream failures, and isolate edit workers in Git worktrees by default.
Validated skills	Skill improvements can be promoted only after recorded A/B trials show uplift without regressions.
Cost-aware	Anthropic prompt-cache breakpoints on the stable prefix, decay- and access-aware memory ranking, and a usage_report tool that prices spend from a user-editable table — never a guessed number.
Scheduled work	Agent runs, direct tool calls or host shell commands on an interval, a cron expression or a one-shot timestamp. → automations
Extensible	Plugins register tools, skill directories, MCP servers and event listeners in-process; bridges delegate scoped work to Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Copilot CLI, Hermes or Aider. → extension boundary
Permissive by default	permissionMode: "overdrive" — host filesystem scope, no per-command approval dialogs, and recovery through automatic checkpoints and an append-only audit log. → read this first

Install

Requirements

• Node.js 22 or newer
• A terminal at least 80×24 (UTF-8 and truecolour are used when available, and degraded cleanly when not)
• Git and ripgrep recommended
• Any instruction-following model through Ollama or another configured provider

Install from npm

npm install -g maskshift
cd /path/to/repository && maskshift

Or run it without installing anything:

npx maskshift --workspace /path/to/repository

Or run from the source directory

git clone https://github.com/nafeeur/MaskShift.git
cd MaskShift
./start.sh --workspace /path/to/repository

Or install to your user account from source

./install.sh
cd /path/to/repository && maskshift

The installer copies MaskShift to ~/.local/lib/maskshift and links ~/.local/bin/maskshift. It does not run npm install, because there is nothing to install — MaskShift has zero runtime dependencies.

Run it with Ollama

MaskShift's default model reference is ollama:auto: it discovers your installed Ollama models and prefers the strongest coding-oriented one it finds.

# 1. Pull a coding model
ollama pull qwen3-coder:latest

# 2. Point MaskShift at Ollama and pick the model
export OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:11434
export MASKSHIFT_MODEL=ollama:qwen3-coder:latest

# 3. Open the interface on a repository
./start.sh --workspace ~/code/my-project

Type a task into the composer and press ↵. To run one task headlessly instead:

./start.sh run "Map this repository, repair the highest-impact defect, add tests, and verify." \
  --workspace ~/code/my-project \
  --model ollama:qwen3-coder:latest

A remote Ollama host works the same way — set OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://model-host:11434.

If a model has no native tool API, MaskShift detects it on the first request and switches to an in-prompt text protocol, so the whole harness still works. → models without native tool calling

Configure

Model references are provider:model:

ollama:auto                 openai:<model-id>            anthropic:<model-id>
lmstudio:auto               openrouter:provider/model    gemini:<model-id>
vllm:auto

Cloud providers read their keys from the environment:

export OPENAI_API_KEY=...      export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=...
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=...  export GEMINI_API_KEY=...

Everything else lives in ~/.maskshift/config.json — providers, MCP servers, agent bridges, hooks, indexing, memory ranking, automations and interface preferences. Press f2 in the interface to edit the core settings without touching the file, or use maskshift config set.

→ full configuration reference · environment variables · data locations

The interface

maskshift opens a full-screen terminal application built on a bespoke, zero-dependency renderer, driven equally by keyboard and mouse. Six views switch with 1–6, ctrl+b toggles the right rail, and ctrl+k opens a fuzzy command palette over every action.

View	Holds
01 HEIST	Transcript and composer — markdown, syntax-tinted code, coloured diffs, live tool calls
02 FILES	Workspace tree with a syntax-highlighted preview
03 ARSENAL	Every native tool and skill, searchable, with parameter schemas — and x to run one yourself
04 NETWORK	MCP servers: bundled, workspace-configured, or pulled live from the official registry
05 MOD SHOP	Automations, plugins, agent bridges, browser profiles and background processes
06 TERMINAL	The host shell

03 ARSENAL — see exactly what a run can reach before it uses it	04 NETWORK — connect a server on demand
ctrl+k — every action, nothing buried behind a memorised key	The rail — plan, loadout telemetry, event bus, Git pulse

Below 108 columns the rail hides itself and the header sheds telemetry, so the same six views work in a narrow split pane. MASKSHIFT_MOUSE=off (or f2) hands text selection back to the terminal, and NO_COLOR, MASKSHIFT_COLOR=off and MASKSHIFT_ASCII=1 each produce a clean, aligned fallback.

→ keys, views and the design system

The command line

Everything the interface can do is also a subcommand, and every subcommand takes --json:

maskshift run "make the failing tests pass"      # one headless run, streamed
maskshift tools run shell_exec '{"command":"npm test"}'
maskshift mcp registry playwright && maskshift mcp install io.github.microsoft/playwright-mcp
maskshift automation create nightly --schedule "every 6h" --prompt "Review the diff and fix regressions"
maskshift workspace search "checkpoint restore" --json | jq -r '.[].path'
maskshift doctor
maskshift mcp serve --workspace ~/code/my-project    # MaskShift itself, as an MCP server

maskshift [tui] [PROMPT]     open the interface (the default command)
maskshift run "PROMPT"       one headless run, streamed to stdout
maskshift daemon             resident automation scheduler, no interface
maskshift doctor             environment and provider diagnostics
maskshift <workspace|session|tools|skills|mcp|plugins|automation|browser|config> ...

Global flags: --workspace PATH, --model REF, --config PATH, --json, --no-color.

→ full command reference

Documentation

Document	Covers
Configuration	Every setting, provider, MCP definition, hook, automation and data location
Tools	The complete native tool inventory
Skills	Bundled skills, and where MaskShift looks for more
Interface	Keys, views, the design system and its rules
Command line	Every subcommand and flag
Architecture	The agent loop, lazy capability fabric, persistence and extension boundary
Permissive execution	What overdrive means, what stays observable, and where the limits are
Tool verification	Per-tool coverage and live-integration limits
Release verification	What the automated suite covers before a release

Contributing

CONTRIBUTING.md has the expectations changes are held to — lazy capability loading, precise tool schemas, regression coverage, a dependency-free runtime and interface. SECURITY.md describes the trust boundary overdrive mode assumes and where to report a real vulnerability. examples/plugins/telemetry-pack is a complete worked plugin to start from; the bundled plugin-authoring and skill-creator skills cover the rest of the extension surface.

Development

npm run check       # syntax validation across every source module
npm test            # unit and integration suite, including renderer tests
npm run test:tools  # all-native-tool scenarios and edge-case regressions
npm run smoke       # end-to-end agent run plus a full interface paint
npm run verify      # check + tests + smoke
npm run docs        # regenerate the tool and skill inventories
npm run capture     # regenerate docs/screenshots from the real renderer

The screenshots above are produced by npm run capture through the same code path the terminal uses, so they cannot drift from the product.

Deployment

• deploy/maskshift.service — user-level systemd unit running maskshift daemon for scheduled automations, with no interface.
• Dockerfile / compose.yaml — /workspace and /data volumes. MaskShift is a terminal application, so attach a TTY: docker run -it, or docker compose run --rm maskshift.

A container limits MaskShift to the files, sockets, devices and credentials mounted into it. For full host authority, run the user service directly instead.

License

GNU General Public License v3.0.