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MendCode: a terminal coding agent with its own engine, and room for the others

MendCode is one binary: a daemon that keeps sessions and a terminal UI that attaches to it. Its native engine uses the plans and keys you already have, and a session can run Claude Code, Codex, an ACP agent or pi instead.

Generated editorial cover. Product screenshots inside the post are unedited.

One binary, one daemon

MendCode runs as one binary. A daemon keeps the sessions, and the terminal UI attaches to it. Close the terminal and the session keeps going; open another terminal and it shows the same session live. Permissions are enforced by the daemon, not by the screen.

A session, drawn from MendCode’s own render code.

Engines

What can run a session

Native engine

Your ChatGPT plan, API keys (OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Groq, DeepSeek) or local models in Ollama and LM Studio.

Claude Code

As you installed it, with MendCode’s transcript, tools and approvals around it.

Codex

The Codex CLI runs the turn; MendCode keeps the session.

ACP agents and pi

Any Agent Client Protocol agent, and pi, in the same screen.

Three starting points

A tier is a starting set of features; each of the 69 features can still be switched on or off. Input tokens on the first request of a fresh session, with gpt-6-luna and no MCP or skills:

Tiers

TierFirst requestAdds
minimalist1,064read, write, edit, shell, grep and glob, a short prompt, a compact screen
balanced (default)2,421code graph, sub-agents, script workflows, output filters, MendCode’s tools in Claude Code
full3,433MCP servers, adaptive reasoning, /fanout, sub-agents in worktrees, idle compaction

Measured

On a MacBook Pro M4 Pro, compiled binary

  • The daemon idles at 98 MB; with a terminal attached it uses 104 to 129 MB, from 0 to 10,000 messages (2026-10-04).
  • A session takes 206,165 bytes on disk.
  • The install is 70.9 MB (2026-10-29).
  • In the coding eval (gpt-6-luna, medium effort, 12 tasks × 3 runs) the balanced tier solved 33 of 36 runs with 1.00 M input tokens; Codex CLI 0.159.0 solved 32 with 3.40 M.

Install

macOS and Linux
curl -fsSL https://github.com/MendCode/MendCode/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh
Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://github.com/MendCode/MendCode/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 | iex

The installer checks the binary’s SHA256 and, when cosign 2.6.1 or newer is installed, its signature. Every option is on the install page.