Eli — Ease Lives Instantly

Open-source AI agent framework in Rust. Single binary. Hook-first architecture.
Drop it into WeChat, Feishu, Telegram, Slack, Discord — or just the terminal.

Website · Quick Start · Architecture · Issues

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I needed an AI agent in my team's group chat — not a chatbot, a teammate. Everything out there was Python, couldn't ship as a single binary, and broke under real concurrency. So I built eli in Rust.

$ eli chat
eli> summarize this repo

Eli is a hook-first AI agent framework in Rust. 7-stage turn pipeline,
22 builtin tools, tape-based history, provider-agnostic LLM layer (nexil).
Works across CLI, Telegram, and any channel via OpenClaw sidecar.

Why Eli?

	Eli	Others (LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen…)
Language	Rust	Python
Deploy	Single binary	pip + deps
Channels	CLI, Telegram, WeChat, Feishu, Slack, Discord	—

Rust performance + type safety + single-binary deploys. Smaller ecosystem, zero dependency hell.

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/cklxx/eli.git
cd eli && cargo build --release
cp env.example .env    # add your API key

eli chat                    # interactive REPL
eli run "summarize this"    # one-shot
eli gateway                 # channel listener (Telegram, Webhook, Sidecar)

Features

Feature	Detail
Group chat native	WeChat, Feishu, Telegram, Slack, Discord, DingTalk — one command
Parallel tools	Concurrent execution, faster complex tasks
Auto-compact history	Long conversations trimmed, key info preserved
Progress streaming	Reports mid-task, no silent waits
Image support	Any channel, CLI included
Hot-swap models	OpenAI, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek, Gemini, Ollama
Skill system	Markdown-defined, project/global override
MCP server	Plug into Claude Code / Cursor
Auto context fork	Token limit → auto-branch, no interruption

Commands

Command	What it does
eli chat	Interactive REPL
eli run "prompt"	One-shot execution
eli gateway	Start channel listeners
eli login	Auth with OpenAI / Claude / Copilot
eli model	Switch or list models
eli use	Switch provider profile
eli status	Auth and config overview
eli tape	Tape viewer web UI
eli decisions	Manage persistent decisions

Gateway & Channels

ELI_TELEGRAM_TOKEN=xxx eli gateway          # Telegram (native)
eli gateway                                  # Feishu / WeChat / DingTalk / Discord (OpenClaw sidecar, auto-starts)

Sidecar = Node.js bridge loading OpenClaw channel plugins. First run prompts for credentials.

Architecture

Interactive diagram  |  Video walkthrough

Crate	Version	Role
nexil	0.7.0	Provider-agnostic LLM — streaming, tool calls, tape, embeddings, OAuth
eli	0.4.2	Hook-first agent — pipeline, channels, tools, skills, decisions
eli-sidecar	0.2.0	Node.js bridge — OpenClaw plugins over HTTP / MCP

Configuration

Variable	Default	Description
ELI_MODEL	openai:gpt-4o-mini	provider:model identifier
ELI_API_KEY	—	Provider API key
ELI_API_BASE	—	Custom endpoint
ELI_MAX_STEPS	50	Max tool iterations per turn
ELI_TELEGRAM_TOKEN	—	Telegram bot token
ELI_TELEGRAM_ALLOW_USERS	—	User ID allowlist (comma-separated)
ELI_TELEGRAM_ALLOW_CHATS	—	Chat ID allowlist (comma-separated)
ELI_WEBHOOK_PORT	3100	Webhook port
ELI_HOME	~/.eli	Config / data directory
ELI_TRACE	—	Trace logging (1 / true)

Profiles: ~/.eli/config.toml

Skills

Markdown + YAML frontmatter. Discovery order:

1. .agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md — project (highest)
2. ~/.eli/skills/<name>/SKILL.md — global
3. Sidecar-synthesized (from plugin tool groups)

License

Apache-2.0