MiniMax CLI

Unofficial terminal UI (TUI) + CLI for the MiniMax platform: chat with MiniMax-M2.1, run an approval-gated tool-using agent, and generate media (images, video, music, TTS).

Highlights:

• Streaming chat via MiniMax’s Anthropic-compatible API format
• Tool-using agent with approvals + workspace sandbox
• Built-in MiniMax media tools (image/video/music/TTS/voice) that save outputs to your workspace
• Skills (SKILL.md) and external tools via MCP
• Project-aware prompts via AGENTS.md (and .claude/instructions.md / CLAUDE.md)

Not affiliated with MiniMax Inc.

Quickstart

1. Get an API key from https://platform.minimax.io
2. Run minimax and paste your key when prompted (saved to ~/.minimax/config.toml), or set MINIMAX_API_KEY
3. Press F1 or run /help for the in-app command list

Install

Prebuilt (recommended)

The NPM package is a thin wrapper that downloads the platform-appropriate Rust binary from GitHub Releases.

# npm / bun (installs `minimax`)
npm install -g @hmbown/minimax-cli
bun install -g @hmbown/minimax-cli

### From source (Rust)

```bash
cargo install minimax-cli

Direct download

Download a prebuilt binary from https://github.com/Hmbown/MiniMax-CLI/releases and put it on your PATH as minimax.

Usage

minimax                     # Interactive TUI
minimax -p "Write a haiku"   # One-shot prompt (prints and exits)

minimax doctor               # Diagnose config + API key
minimax sessions             # List auto-saved sessions (~/.minimax/sessions)
minimax --resume <id>        # Resume by ID/prefix (or "latest")
minimax --continue           # Resume most recent session

minimax --workspace /path/to/project
minimax --yolo               # Start in Agent mode + auto-approve tools (dangerous)

minimax init                 # Generate a starter AGENTS.md for the current directory

Shell completions:

minimax completions zsh > _minimax
minimax completions bash > minimax.bash
minimax completions fish > minimax.fish

Configuration

The TUI can save your API key during onboarding. You can also create ~/.minimax/config.toml manually.

Minimal config:

api_key = "YOUR_MINIMAX_API_KEY"
default_text_model = "MiniMax-M2.1" # optional
allow_shell = false                # optional
max_subagents = 3                  # optional (1-5)

Note: api_key must be a non-empty string.

Useful environment variables:

• MINIMAX_API_KEY (overrides config)
• MINIMAX_BASE_URL (default: https://api.minimax.io; China users may use https://api.minimaxi.com)
• MINIMAX_PROFILE (selects [profiles.<name>] from config; errors if missing)
• MINIMAX_CONFIG_PATH (override config file path)
• MINIMAX_ALLOW_SHELL, MINIMAX_SKILLS_DIR, MINIMAX_MCP_CONFIG, MINIMAX_NOTES_PATH, MINIMAX_MEMORY_PATH, MINIMAX_OUTPUT_DIR, MINIMAX_MAX_SUBAGENTS

See config.example.toml for a fuller config reference.

Project Instructions (AGENTS.md)

If your workspace has an AGENTS.md, the TUI loads it into the system prompt automatically (and will also look in parent directories up to the git root). Use it to tell the agent how to work in your repo: commands, conventions, and guardrails.

Create a starter file:

• CLI: minimax init
• In-app: /init

What You Can Do In The TUI

Modes

Switch modes with Tab or /mode:

• Normal: chat
• Edit: file-focused assistance
• Agent: multi-step tool use (with approvals)
• Plan: design-first prompting
• RLM: load/search/chunk large files in an in-app sandbox

Slash Commands (high-signal)

The built-in help (F1 or /help) is always up to date. Common commands:

Command	What it does
`/mode [normal	edit
/model [name]	View/set model name
/skills	List skills
/skill <name>	Activate a skill for your next message
/save [path]	Save current chat to JSON
/load <path>	Load chat JSON (or load a file into RLM context in RLM mode)
/export [path]	Export transcript to Markdown
/yolo	Switch to Agent mode + enable shell tool (still prompts for approval)
/trust	Allow file access outside workspace
/tokens	Token totals + metadata
/context	Context usage estimate
/cost	Pricing reference for paid tools
/subagents	Show sub-agent status

Tools, Safety, And The Workspace Boundary

MiniMax CLI exposes a tool set to the model (file read/write, patching, web search, sub-agents, and MiniMax media APIs). By default, the TUI asks before running tools with side effects:

• File writes: write_file, edit_file, apply_patch
• Shell: exec_shell (disabled unless allow_shell=true or /yolo or --yolo)
• Paid/Media: generate_image, generate_video, generate_music, tts, voice tools, file upload/download

The built-in web_search tool is backed by DuckDuckGo HTML results and is auto-approved.

File tools are restricted to the --workspace directory unless you enable /trust.

Media Generation (MiniMax APIs)

MiniMax CLI includes first-class tools for MiniMax’s media endpoints. In practice: ask for an image/video/music/TTS and the assistant can generate it and save outputs into your workspace.

Built-in MiniMax tool names (for power users): generate_image, generate_video, query_video, generate_music, tts, analyze_image, voice_clone, voice_list, voice_delete, voice_design.

Skills

Skills are reusable workflows stored as SKILL.md files inside a directory.

• If your workspace contains ./skills/, the TUI uses that.
• Otherwise, it falls back to ~/.minimax/skills/.

Use /skills to list and /skill <name> to activate.

This repo includes example skills like video-studio, voiceover-studio, music-video-generator, and audiobook-studio under skills/.

MCP (External Tool Servers)

MiniMax CLI can load additional tools via MCP (Model Context Protocol). Configure ~/.minimax/mcp.json (supports servers and mcpServers keys), then restart the TUI.

For Coding Plan MCP setup, see docs/coding-plan-integration.md.

Documentation

• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md
• docs/coding-plan-integration.md
• CONTRIBUTING.md

Development

cargo build
cargo test
cargo fmt
cargo clippy

License

MIT

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MiniMax is a trademark of MiniMax Inc. This is an unofficial project.