Loki Mode

Build the future, faster.

Describe what you want. Get production-ready code.

Website | Documentation | Installation | Changelog | Purple Lab Web UI

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How it works: Drop a spec -- a PRD, GitHub issue, OpenAPI/JSON/YAML, or one-line brief. Loki Mode classifies complexity (run.sh:detect_complexity()), assembles an agent team from 41 specialized types across 8 swarms, and runs autonomous RARV cycles (Reason - Act - Reflect - Verify, see run.sh:run_autonomous()) with 11 quality gates (see skills/quality-gates.md). Code is not "done" until it passes automated verification. Output is a Git repo with source, tests, configs, and audit logs.

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Why Loki Mode?

• Truly autonomous -- Describe what you want, walk away, come back to working code with tests
• Production quality built in -- 11 quality gates (skills/quality-gates.md), blind 3-reviewer code review (run.sh:run_code_review()), anti-sycophancy checks
• Self-hosted and private -- Your keys, your infrastructure, no data leaves your network
• 5 AI providers -- Claude, Codex, Gemini, Cline, Aider with automatic failover (loki-ts/src/runner/providers.ts)
• Legacy system healing -- loki heal archaeology/stabilize/isolate/modernize/validate phases (v6.67.0, see skills/healing.md)
• Memory system -- Episodic/semantic/procedural with vector search (v5.15.0, see memory/engine.py)
• MCP server -- 15 tools including ChromaDB code search (mcp/server.py)
• Full-stack output -- Source code, tests, Docker configs, CI/CD pipelines, audit logs
• Open source -- Free for personal, internal, and academic use. No vendor lock-in.

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Get Started in 30 Seconds

Recommended (Bun, fastest):

# Install Bun once (skip if you already have it)
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash      # macOS / Linux
# or: brew install oven-sh/bun/bun

bun install -g loki-mode
loki doctor                                   # verify environment
loki init my-app --template simple-todo-app
cd my-app
loki start prd.md                             # autonomous build from a Markdown PRD
loki start owner/repo#123                     # ...or a GitHub issue
loki start ./openapi.yaml                     # ...or an OpenAPI/YAML spec

Or skip scaffolding and go straight to a quick task:

loki quick "build a landing page with a signup form"

Other install methods (all work, all keep working):

Method	Command	Notes
Bun (recommended)	bun install -g loki-mode	Fastest. v8 will be Bun-only.
Homebrew	brew tap asklokesh/tap && brew install loki-mode	Auto-installs Bun as a dep
Docker	docker pull asklokesh/loki-mode:7.5.11 && docker run --rm asklokesh/loki-mode:7.5.11 start prd.md	Bun pre-installed in image
npm (compat)	npm install -g loki-mode	Works without Bun (bash fallback). Migrate any time with loki self-update --to bun.

Upgrading:

loki self-update                  # upgrade in place via current manager
loki self-update --to bun         # switch from npm/brew to Bun
loki self-update --check          # show current install path + manager

loki self-update auto-detects which package manager installed loki and runs the right upgrade. If you installed via npm and want to switch to Bun (recommended for v8.0.0 forward-compat), loki self-update --to bun does the migration in one command (installs via Bun first, then uninstalls the npm copy).

See the Installation Guide for the long form.

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Runtime Architecture

Loki Mode is in the middle of a phased migration from a Bash-based runtime to a TypeScript/Bun runtime. The work is happening on the feat/bun-migration branch and is being shipped incrementally.

What ships today:

• A small set of read-only commands is routed to the Bun runtime when bun is on PATH. The router lives in bin/loki and currently routes: version, --version, -v, status, stats, doctor, provider (covers provider show and provider list), memory (covers memory list and memory index).
• Every other command continues to execute on the existing Bash CLI (autonomy/loki).
• If bun is not on PATH, the shim falls through to Bash silently. Existing users without Bun installed see no behavior change.

Rollback flag:

Force every command to take the legacy Bash path:

LOKI_LEGACY_BASH=1 loki <cmd>

This is the documented escape hatch for any user who hits a regression on the Bun route. The Bash path remains the source of truth through Phase 5.

Phase 6 (planned, calendar TBD):

The next major release sunsets the Bash runtime entirely. There is no firm calendar date. Users who need to stay on the Bash route should pin the last v7.x release.

Cost:

• Adds a Bun runtime dependency (Bun 1.3.0 or newer recommended; the shim works as long as bun resolves).
• Adds a Bun toolchain to the system (Bun itself is roughly 50 MB installed via brew install or the official curl installer). The published loki-ts/dist/loki.js bundle inside the npm tarball is approximately 152 KB.
• Speedup on the ported commands is measured in .loki/metrics/migration_bench_soak.jsonl and analysed in ADR-001. Recorded soak results show roughly 3x to 5x faster execution on the ported commands (per-command range 2.9x to 5.0x); treat as indicative, not contractual.

More:

• UPGRADING.md -- per-version upgrade and rollback guidance.
• ADR-001: Runtime Migration -- design rationale and phase definitions.

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Other install methods

Method	Command
Homebrew	brew tap asklokesh/tap && brew install loki-mode
Docker	docker pull asklokesh/loki-mode:7.5.11
Inside Claude Code	claude --dangerously-skip-permissions then type "Loki Mode"
Git clone	git clone https://github.com/asklokesh/loki-mode.git

See the full Installation Guide.

Supported spec formats

A "spec" is whatever you hand loki start. Loki auto-detects the format and normalises it before the RARV loop. A Markdown PRD is one form of spec; the table below lists every input the v7.5.11 CLI accepts.

Format	Example	Notes
Markdown PRD	loki start ./prd.md	Canonical form. Headings become section anchors.
JSON spec	loki start ./spec.json	Free-form JSON; keys surfaced to agents.
YAML spec	loki start ./openapi.yaml	OpenAPI / AsyncAPI / plain YAML all accepted.
Plain text brief	loki start ./brief.txt	One-paragraph briefs work; complexity auto-detects to "simple".
GitHub issue URL	loki start https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/42	Title + body + labels become the spec.
GitHub shorthand	loki start owner/repo#42	Same as above, shorter.
Jira ticket key	loki start PROJ-456	Requires JIRA_BASE_URL + JIRA_TOKEN env vars.
GitLab / Azure DevOps URL	loki start https://gitlab.com/group/proj/-/issues/7	GitLab and Azure DevOps issue URLs both supported.
Bare issue number	loki start #123 or loki start 123	Resolved against the current repo's origin remote.
OpenSpec change directory	loki start --openspec ./openspec/change-001	Reads OpenSpec change manifest + delta files.
Auto-detect (no input)	loki start	Picks up ./prd.md, ./spec.{json,yaml,yml}, or ./SPEC.md from cwd.

All formats land in the same RARV pipeline and pass the same 11 quality gates (skills/quality-gates.md).

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What You Can Build

Project	Build Time	Complexity
Landing page with signup form	~10 min	Simple
REST API with JWT auth	~20 min	Simple
Portfolio with animations	~15 min	Simple
SaaS dashboard with analytics	~25 min	Standard
E-commerce store with Stripe	~45 min	Standard
Task manager with kanban board	~25 min	Standard
Chat app with WebSocket	~30 min	Standard
Blog platform with MDX	~30 min	Standard
Microservice architecture	~2 hours	Complex
ML pipeline with monitoring	~3 hours	Complex

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What To Expect

	Simple	Standard	Complex
Examples	Landing page, todo app, single API	CRUD + auth, REST API + React	Microservices, real-time, ML pipelines
Duration	5-30 min	30-90 min	2+ hours
Autonomy	Completes independently	May need guidance on complex parts	Use as accelerator with human review

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Architecture

RARV Cycle Every iteration: Reason (read state) - Act (execute, commit) - Reflect (update context) - Verify (run tests, check spec). Failures trigger self-correction. Core Workflow	41 Agent Types 8 swarms: engineering, operations, business, data, product, growth, review, orchestration. Auto-composed by PRD complexity. Agent Types	11 Quality Gates Blind review, anti-sycophancy, severity blocking, mock/mutation detection, backward compatibility (gate 10, v6.67.0), documentation coverage (gate 11, v7.5.0). Code does not ship until all gates pass. Quality Gates
Memory System 3-tier architecture: episodic (interaction traces), semantic (generalized patterns), procedural (learned skills). Vector search optional. Memory Architecture	Dashboard Real-time monitoring, agent status, task queue, WebSocket streaming. Auto-starts at localhost:57374. Dashboard Guide	Enterprise Layer TLS, OIDC/SSO, RBAC, OTEL tracing, policy engine, audit trails. Activated via env vars. Enterprise Guide

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Purple Lab

The hosted development platform. A Replit-like web UI for visual PRD-to-code workflow with AI chat for iterative development.

loki web                           # launches at http://localhost:57375

Platform Pages Home -- One-line prompt to start building instantly Projects -- Browse, search, filter past builds Templates -- 20+ starter PRDs by category Showcase -- Gallery of example projects to build Compare -- Feature comparison vs competitors

IDE Workspace Monaco editor with tabs, Cmd+P quick open AI chat panel for iterative development Activity panel: build log, agents, quality gates Live preview with URL bar navigation Right-click context menu: Review, Test, Explain

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Loki Mode vs. Alternatives

Feature	Loki Mode	bolt.new	Replit	Lovable
Self-hosted / your keys	Yes	No	No	No
5 AI provider failover	Yes	No	No	No
11 quality gates	Yes	No	No	No
Blind code review	Yes	No	No	No
Enterprise auth (SSO/RBAC)	Yes	No	Yes	No
Air-gapped deployment	Yes	No	No	No
Docker + CI/CD generation	Yes	No	Yes	No
Open source	Yes	No	No	No
Free tier	Open source	Yes	Yes	Yes

Loki Mode is the only platform that is fully self-hosted, open source, and includes automated quality verification. Your code, your keys, your infrastructure.

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Multi-Provider Support

Provider	Autonomous Flag	Parallel Agents	Install
Claude Code	--dangerously-skip-permissions	Yes (10+)	npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Codex CLI	--full-auto	Sequential	npm i -g @openai/codex
Gemini CLI	--approval-mode=yolo	Sequential	npm i -g @google/gemini-cli
Cline CLI	--auto-approve	Sequential	npm i -g @anthropic-ai/cline
Aider	--yes-always	Sequential	pip install aider-chat

Claude gets full features (subagents, parallelization, MCP, Task tool). Other providers run sequentially. Auto-failover switches providers when rate-limited. See Provider Guide.

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CLI Reference

All commands

Command	Description
loki start [PRD]	Start with optional PRD file (also accepts an issue ref; replaces deprecated loki run)
loki stop	Stop execution
loki heal <path>	Legacy system healing (archaeology, stabilize, isolate, modernize, validate -- v6.67.0)
loki pause / resume	Pause/resume after current session
loki status	Show current status
loki dashboard	Open web dashboard
loki web	Launch Purple Lab web UI
loki doctor	Check environment and dependencies
loki plan [PRD]	Pre-execution analysis: complexity, cost, iterations
loki review [--staged|--diff]	AI-powered code review with severity filtering
loki test [--file|--dir|--changed]	AI test generation (8 languages, 9 frameworks)
loki onboard [path]	Project analysis and CLAUDE.md generation
loki import	Import GitHub issues as tasks
loki ci	CI/CD quality gate integration
loki failover	Cross-provider auto-failover management
loki memory <cmd>	Memory system: index, timeline, search, consolidate
loki enterprise	Enterprise feature management
loki version	Show version

Run loki --help for all options. Full reference: CLI Reference | Config: config.example.yaml

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BMAD Method Integration

Loki Mode integrates with the BMAD Method, a structured AI-driven agile methodology. If your project uses BMAD for requirements elicitation, Loki Mode can consume those artifacts directly:

loki start --bmad-project ./my-project

The adapter handles BMAD's frontmatter conventions, FR-format functional requirements, Given/When/Then acceptance criteria, and artifact chain validation. Non-BMAD projects are unaffected -- the integration is opt-in via --bmad-project.

See BMAD Integration Validation.

Enterprise Features

Enterprise features are included but require env var activation. Self-audit: 35/45 capabilities working, 0 broken, 1,314 tests passing.

export LOKI_TLS_ENABLED=true
export LOKI_OIDC_PROVIDER=google
export LOKI_AUDIT_ENABLED=true
loki enterprise status

Enterprise Architecture | Security | Authentication | Authorization | Metrics | Audit Logging

Benchmarks

Self-reported results from the included test harness. Verification scripts included for reproduction.

Benchmark	Result	Notes
HumanEval	162/164 (98.78%)	Max 3 retries, RARV self-verification
SWE-bench	299/300 patches	Patch generation -- evaluator not yet run

See benchmarks/ for methodology.

Presentation

9 slides: Problem, Solution, 41 Agents, RARV Cycle, Benchmarks, Multi-Provider, Full Lifecycle

Download PPTX

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Limitations

Area	What Works	What Doesn't (Yet)
Code Gen	Full-stack apps from PRDs	Complex domain logic may need human review
Deploy	Generates configs, Dockerfiles, CI/CD	Does not deploy -- human runs deploy commands
Testing	11 automated quality gates	Test quality depends on AI assertions
Providers	5 providers with auto-failover	Non-Claude providers lack parallel agents
Dashboard	Real-time single-machine monitoring	No multi-node clustering

What "autonomous" means: The system runs RARV cycles without prompting. It does NOT access your cloud accounts, payment systems, or external services unless you provide credentials. Human oversight is expected for deployment, API keys, and critical decisions.

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Research Foundation

Papers and sources

Source	What We Use
Anthropic: Building Effective Agents	Evaluator-optimizer, parallelization
Anthropic: Constitutional AI	Self-critique against quality principles
DeepMind: Scalable Oversight via Debate	Debate-based verification in council review
DeepMind: SIMA 2	Self-improvement loop design
OpenAI: Agents SDK	Guardrails, tripwires, tracing
NVIDIA ToolOrchestra	Efficiency metrics, reward signals
CONSENSAGENT (ACL 2025)	Anti-sycophancy in blind review
GoalAct	Hierarchical planning for complex PRDs

Practitioner insights: Boris Cherny, Simon Willison, HN Community

Full Acknowledgements -- 50+ papers and resources

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Contributing

git clone https://github.com/asklokesh/loki-mode.git && cd loki-mode
npm install && npm test              # 683 tests
python3 -m pytest                    # 631 tests

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

Business Source License 1.1 -- Free for personal, internal, academic, and non-commercial use. Converts to Apache 2.0 on March 19, 2030. Contact founder@autonomi.dev for commercial licensing.

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