OpenShield

AI coding agent in your terminal. Rust. Open source. Blackshield by default.

What It Does

• Persistent memory — SQLite-backed sessions with keyword and semantic search. Close the terminal, come back next week, it still knows what you were doing.
• Any model provider — Works with any OpenAI-compatible API. OpenRouter, llama-swap, xAI, local servers. Not locked to anyone.
• Autonomous agent mode — Plans, executes, verifies, retries. You approve the plan, it does the work.
• Blackshield TUI — Blood, steel, bone, and void palette with the Blackshield Mercenary shield on launch.

Install

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/synthalorian/openshield/main/install.sh | bash

Requires Rust (installs via rustup if missing). Binary goes to ~/.local/bin/openshield.

First Run

openshield setup    # Configure providers and models
openshield          # Start TUI session

Set one API key environment variable before starting: OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, KIMI_API_KEY, or XAI_API_KEY.

Commands

Command	Description
openshield	Start TUI session
openshield setup	Configure providers, models, preferences
openshield agent "<task>"	Execute task autonomously
openshield chat "<message>"	One-shot chat
openshield memory <query>	Search persistent memory
openshield memory <query> --semantic	Semantic memory search
openshield stats	Token usage and model performance
openshield models	List available models
openshield config	Show configuration

TUI Keybindings

Key	Action
Ctrl+A	Toggle autonomous mode
Ctrl+T	Cycle themes
/multi	Toggle multi-model mode
/compare	Show multi-model comparison
↑/↓	Navigate history

Themes: blackshield (default), steel_blue, high_contrast.

Tools

9 built-in tools: edit, fs, git, lsp, refactor, search, grep, terminal, test. Plus MCP server tools via native client.

Config

Config lives at ~/.config/openshield/config.toml. Run openshield setup for interactive generation.

Example config

version = "1.1.0"
default_model = "gpt-4o"
auto_route = true
cost_limit_usd = 10.0
theme = "blackshield"

[providers.openai]
base_url = "https://api.openai.com/v1"
api_key = "${OPENAI_API_KEY}"

[[providers.openai.models]]
name = "gpt-4o"
context_length = 128000
cost_per_1k_input = 0.005
cost_per_1k_output = 0.015
capabilities = ["code", "chat", "analysis"]

Development

git clone https://github.com/synthalorian/openshield
cd openshield
cargo build --release
cargo test

More

• CHANGELOG.md — Version history
• ROADMAP.md — Future plans
• STATUS.md — Current development status

License

MIT

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