linuztx/alter-zero

RAM efficient terminal agent harness for coding, cybersecurity, and automation

Summary

Alter Zero is an open-source terminal coding agent written in Rust that works inside a project by reading files, making edits, running commands, and showing the results. It focuses on software engineering while also supporting security research, technical investigation, and automation, with hosted and local model providers.

What it is useful for

Alter Zero is useful when engineers want to observe and steer an agent rather than receive only a final answer. It streams command output, displays syntax-highlighted diffs, maintains a task checklist, and provides approval prompts for proposed changes and commands.

Concrete tasks include:

• Debugging: “Find why this test fails, fix the cause, and run the relevant tests.”
• Security review: “Review this repository for security vulnerabilities. Trace each finding to the code and suggest a fix.”
• Architecture investigation: “Trace how authentication works in this project and explain where access checks happen.”
• Automation: “Write a script that summarises these logs and flags recurring errors.”

Permission modes range from manual, which asks before file changes and commands, to auto and master. Checkpoints can snapshot working files, and Esc Esc can return to an earlier message and restore files when a checkpoint exists.

The workflow can also be extended with specialist subagents, reusable skills, lifecycle hooks, MCP servers, and AGENTS.md project instructions. Saved sessions, /resume, and --continue support continuing previous work, while /context, /compact, and /usage expose context and subscription state.

How engineers can use it

Alter Zero supports Linux on x86_64 and arm64, plus macOS on Intel and Apple silicon. The documented installer selects the appropriate build, verifies its SHA-256 checksum, and installs the binary into ~/.local/bin:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linuztx/alter-zero/main/install.sh | sh

An npm installation is also available:

npm install -g @linuztx/alter-zero

Without a configured provider, Alter Zero opens an offline demo with scripted turns. For real tasks, run /login, select a subscription, API provider, or local model server, and then use /model to choose a model. OpenRouter, Ollama, LM Studio, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT Codex, and Anthropic are among the documented choices. OpenAI-compatible services can also be added in ~/.alter-zero/providers.toml.

A session can begin directly with:

alter-zero "fix the failing test"

Review approval prompts before allowing edits or commands, and use manual mode while establishing trust in a new project. Relevant limitations are that Windows is not listed as supported, real work requires a configured provider, local model servers must already be running, and some model-specific features depend on provider support. Google Antigravity is also documented as unofficial and may restrict accounts used outside it.