kernelchat/kbot
Open-source terminal AI agent with 600+ tools, 35 specialist agents, and 20 providers. Plug kbot into Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Zed, or Neovim as an MCP tool provider.
README
<p align="center"> <strong>kbot</strong><br> Open-source terminal AI agent. 35 agents. 600+ tools. 20 providers. Science, finance, security, and more. </p>
<p align="center"> <img src="tools/video-assets/demo.gif" alt="kbot demo" width="700"> </p>
<p align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/isaacsight/kernel/actions/workflows/ci.yml"><img src="https://github.com/isaacsight/kernel/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg" alt="CI"></a> <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/@kernel.chat/kbot"><img src="https://img.shields.io/npm/v/@kernel.chat/kbot?color=6B5B95&label=npm" alt="npm version"></a> <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/@kernel.chat/kbot"><img src="https://img.shields.io/npm/dw/@kernel.chat/kbot?color=6B5B95" alt="npm downloads"></a> <a href="https://github.com/isaacsight/kernel/blob/main/LICENSE"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/license/isaacsight/kernel?color=6B5B95" alt="MIT License"></a> <a href="https://kernel.chat"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/web-kernel.chat-6B5B95" alt="kernel.chat"></a> <a href="https://discord.gg/kdMauM9abG"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/discord-join-6B5B95?logo=discord&logoColor=white" alt="Discord"></a> </p>
npm install -g @kernel.chat/kbot
Why kbot?
Most terminal AI agents lock you into one provider, one model, one way of working. kbot doesn't.
- 20 providers, zero lock-in — Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Groq, Mistral, SambaNova, Cerebras, OpenRouter, and more. Switch with one command.
- Runs fully offline — Embedded llama.cpp, Ollama, LM Studio, or Jan. $0, fully private.
- Learns your patterns — Bayesian skill ratings + pattern extraction. Gets faster over time.
- 35 specialist agents — auto-routes your request to the right expert (coder, researcher, writer, guardian, quant, and 30 more).
- 600+ tools — files, bash, git, GitHub, web search, deploy, database, game dev, VFX, research, science, finance, security, and more.
- Programmatic SDK — use kbot as a library in your own apps.
- MCP server built in — plug kbot into Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Zed, or Neovim as a tool provider.
How it compares
| kbot | Claude Code | Codex CLI | Aider | OpenCode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI providers | 20 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 75+ |
| Specialist agents | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Built-in tools | 600+ | ~20 | ~15 | ~10 | ~15 |
| Science tools | 114 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Learning engine | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Offline mode | Embedded + Ollama | No | No | Ollama | Ollama |
| SDK | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| MCP server | Yes | N/A | No | No | No |
| Web companion | kernel.chat | No | No | No | No |
| Open source | MIT | Source available | Apache 2.0 | Apache 2.0 | MIT |
| Cost | BYOK / $0 local | $20+/mo | BYOK | BYOK | BYOK |
Quick Start
# Install globally
npm install -g @kernel.chat/kbot
# Or run directly (no install)
npx @kernel.chat/kbot
# Or use the install script (auto-installs Node.js if needed)
curl -fsSL https://kernel.chat/install.sh | bash
# Interactive mode
kbot
# One-shot
kbot "explain this codebase"
kbot "fix the auth bug in src/auth.ts"
kbot "create a Dockerfile for this project"
# Pipe mode (for scripting)
kbot -p "generate a migration for user roles" > migration.sql
# Use local models (free, no API key)
kbot local
# Set up your API key
kbot auth
Specialists
kbot auto-routes to the right agent for each task. Or pick one with --agent <name>.
| Agents | |
|---|---|
| Core | kernel, researcher, coder, writer, analyst |
| Extended | aesthete, guardian, curator, strategist |
| Domain | infrastructure, quant, investigator, oracle, chronist, sage, communicator, adapter |
| Presets | claude-code, cursor, copilot, creative, developer |
600+ Tools
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Files & Code | read, write, glob, grep, lint, format, type-check |
| Shell | bash, parallel execute, background tasks |
| Git & GitHub | commit, diff, PR, issues, code search |
| Web | search, fetch, browser automation, browser agent |
| Research | arXiv, Semantic Scholar, HuggingFace, NASA, DOI |
| Data | CSV read/query/write, transforms, reports, invoices |
| Quality | lint (ESLint/Biome/Clippy), test (Vitest/Jest/pytest), deps audit, formatting |
| Deploy | Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Workers/Pages, Fly.io, Railway |
| Database | Postgres, MySQL, SQLite queries, Prisma, ER diagrams, seed data |
| Containers | Docker build/run/compose, Terraform |
| Creative | p5.js generative art, GLSL shaders, SVG patterns, design variants |
| VFX | GLSL shaders, FFmpeg, ImageMagick, Blender, procedural textures |
| Game Dev | 16 tools for Godot, Unity, Unreal, Bevy, Phaser, Three.js, PlayCanvas, Defold |
| Training | dataset prep, fine-tuning, evaluation, model export |
| Social | post to X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Mastodon — single posts and threads |
| Sandbox | Docker sandboxes, E2B cloud sandboxes, isolated code execution |
| Notebooks | Jupyter read/edit/insert/delete cells |
| Build Matrix | cross-platform builds — mobile, desktop, WASM, embedded, server |
| LSP | goto definition, find references, hover, rename, diagnostics |
| Memory | persistent memory save/search/update across sessions |
| MCP | marketplace search/install, 20 bundled servers |
| IDE | MCP server, ACP server, LSP bridge |
| Forge | create tools at runtime, publish to registry, install from registry |
| Meta | subagents, worktrees, planner, sessions, checkpoints, self-eval |
| Science & Math | symbolic compute, matrix ops, FFT, ODEs, probability, optimization, graph theory, OEIS |
| Physics | orbital mechanics, circuits, signal processing, particles (PDG), relativity, quantum simulator, beam analysis, fluid dynamics |
| Chemistry | PubChem compounds, reactions, periodic table (118 elements), spectroscopy, stoichiometry, thermodynamics |
| Biology | PubMed, gene lookup, protein/PDB, BLAST, drug/ChEMBL, pathways, taxonomy, clinical trials |
| Earth & Climate | earthquakes/USGS, climate/NOAA, satellite imagery, geology, ocean, air quality, volcanoes, water resources |
| Neuroscience | brain atlas, EEG analysis, cognitive models, neural simulation, connectome, psychophysics |
| Social Science | psychometrics, game theory, econometrics, social network analysis, survey design, voting systems |
| Humanities | corpus analysis, formal logic, argument mapping, ethics frameworks, historical timelines, stylometry |
| Health & Epidemiology | SIR/SEIR models, epidemiology calculations, disease surveillance, nutrition, vaccination modeling |
| Finance | market data, technical analysis, paper trading, DeFi yields, wallet & swaps, stock screener, sentiment |
| Cybersecurity | dep_audit, secret_scan, ssl_check, headers_check, cve_lookup, port_scan, owasp_check |
| Self-Defense | memory HMAC, prompt injection detection, knowledge sanitization, forge verification, anomaly detection |
20 Providers
| Provider | Cost | Local? |
|---|---|---|
| Embedded (llama.cpp) | Free | Yes |
| Ollama | Free | Yes |
| LM Studio | Free | Yes |
| Jan | Free | Yes |
| DeepSeek | $0.27/M in | Cloud |
| SambaNova | $0.50/M in | Cloud |
| Cerebras | $0.60/M in | Cloud |
| Groq | $0.59/M in | Cloud |
| NVIDIA NIM | $0.80/M in | Cloud |
| Together AI | $0.88/M in | Cloud |
| Fireworks AI | $0.90/M in | Cloud |
| Google (Gemini) | $1.25/M in | Cloud |
| Mistral | $2.00/M in | Cloud |
| OpenAI (GPT) | $2.00/M in | Cloud |
| Cohere | $2.50/M in | Cloud |
| Anthropic (Claude) | $3.00/M in | Cloud |
| xAI (Grok) | $3.00/M in | Cloud |
| Perplexity | $3.00/M in | Cloud |
| OpenRouter | varies | Cloud |
| kbot local | Free | Yes |
Set any provider's env var and kbot auto-detects it. Or run kbot auth for interactive setup.
SDK
import { agent, tools, providers } from '@kernel.chat/kbot'
const result = await agent.run("fix the auth bug", { agent: 'coder' })
console.log(result.content)
for await (const event of agent.stream("explain this code")) {
if (event.type === 'content_delta') process.stdout.write(event.text)
}
Architecture
graph TD
A[User Message] --> B{Local-first check}
B -->|file, git, grep| C[Instant response — $0]
B -->|Needs AI| D{Complexity detection}
D -->|Simple| E[Bayesian Router → Specialist]
D -->|Multi-step| F[Autonomous Planner]
E --> G[Provider API + Tool Loop]
F --> G
G --> H{600+ Tools}
H --> I[File ops, bash, git, GitHub, search, deploy, DB, game dev...]
G --> J[Learning Engine]
J --> K[Patterns + Solutions + User Profile]
G --> L[Checkpointing]
L --> M[Resume from last tool call]
MCP Server
Use kbot as a tool provider inside any MCP-compatible IDE:
{
"mcp": {
"servers": {
"kbot": { "command": "kbot", "args": ["ide", "mcp"] }
}
}
}
Works with Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Zed, Neovim.
Commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
kbot |
Interactive REPL |
kbot "prompt" |
One-shot execution |
kbot auth |
Configure API key |
kbot local |
Use local AI (Ollama, embedded, LM Studio, Jan) |
kbot serve |
Start HTTP REST + SSE streaming server |
kbot audit <repo> |
Security + quality audit of any GitHub repo |
kbot contribute <repo> |
Find good-first-issues and quick wins |
kbot share |
Share conversation as GitHub Gist |
kbot pair |
File watcher with auto-analysis |
kbot team |
Multi-agent TCP collaboration |
kbot record |
Terminal session recording (SVG, GIF, asciicast) |
kbot voice |
Text-to-speech output mode |
kbot watch |
Real-time file analysis on change |
kbot bootstrap |
Outer-loop project optimizer (visibility scoring) |
kbot plugins |
Search, install, update community plugins |
kbot models |
List, pull, remove, catalog local models |
kbot changelog |
Generate changelog from git history |
kbot completions |
Shell completions (bash, zsh, fish) |
kbot cloud |
Sync learning data to kernel.chat |
kbot ide mcp |
Start MCP server for IDEs |
kbot doctor |
10-point health check |
Power-User Flags
kbot --architect "design the auth system" # Architecture mode — plan before code
kbot --thinking "solve this hard problem" # Extended reasoning with thinking budget
kbot --self-eval "write a parser" # Self-evaluation loop — scores and retries
kbot --computer-use "fill out this form" # Computer use — controls mouse and keyboard
kbot -p "query" > output.txt # Pipe mode — clean output for scripting
Security
- API keys encrypted at rest (AES-256-CBC)
- Destructive operations require confirmation
- Shell commands sandboxed with blocklist
- Tool execution timeout (5 min) with middleware pipeline
- Config files restricted to owner (chmod 600)
- 0 P0/P1 security issues (audited March 2026)
Development
cd packages/kbot
npm install
npm run dev # Run in dev mode
npm run build # Compile TypeScript
npm run test # Run tests (vitest)
Web Companion — kernel.chat
kbot has a web companion at kernel.chat — same agents, persistent memory, and a visual interface. Free to use (20 messages/day).
Community
- Web: kernel.chat
- npm: @kernel.chat/kbot
- Discord: discord.gg/kdMauM9abG
- GitHub: isaacsight/kernel
- Issues: Report a bug
License
推荐服务器
Baidu Map
百度地图核心API现已全面兼容MCP协议,是国内首家兼容MCP协议的地图服务商。
Playwright MCP Server
一个模型上下文协议服务器,它使大型语言模型能够通过结构化的可访问性快照与网页进行交互,而无需视觉模型或屏幕截图。
Magic Component Platform (MCP)
一个由人工智能驱动的工具,可以从自然语言描述生成现代化的用户界面组件,并与流行的集成开发环境(IDE)集成,从而简化用户界面开发流程。
Audiense Insights MCP Server
通过模型上下文协议启用与 Audiense Insights 账户的交互,从而促进营销洞察和受众数据的提取和分析,包括人口统计信息、行为和影响者互动。
VeyraX
一个单一的 MCP 工具,连接你所有喜爱的工具:Gmail、日历以及其他 40 多个工具。
graphlit-mcp-server
模型上下文协议 (MCP) 服务器实现了 MCP 客户端与 Graphlit 服务之间的集成。 除了网络爬取之外,还可以将任何内容(从 Slack 到 Gmail 再到播客订阅源)导入到 Graphlit 项目中,然后从 MCP 客户端检索相关内容。
Kagi MCP Server
一个 MCP 服务器,集成了 Kagi 搜索功能和 Claude AI,使 Claude 能够在回答需要最新信息的问题时执行实时网络搜索。
e2b-mcp-server
使用 MCP 通过 e2b 运行代码。
Neon MCP Server
用于与 Neon 管理 API 和数据库交互的 MCP 服务器
Exa MCP Server
模型上下文协议(MCP)服务器允许像 Claude 这样的 AI 助手使用 Exa AI 搜索 API 进行网络搜索。这种设置允许 AI 模型以安全和受控的方式获取实时的网络信息。