Mermaid

An open-source AI coding assistant for the terminal. Local/cloud models via Ollama, native tool calling, and a clean TUI.

Features

• Local & Cloud Models via Ollama - run locally or use cloud models with no hardware cost
• Native Tool Calling - read, write, edit, execute commands, search the web, manage git
• Image Paste - Ctrl+V to attach images for vision models (X11/Wayland)
• Thinking Mode - toggle extended reasoning with Alt+T
• Session Persistence - conversations auto-save and resume with --continue
• Message Queuing - type while the model generates, messages send in order

Quick Start

# Install
cargo install mermaid-cli

# Or from source
git clone https://github.com/noahsabaj/mermaid-cli.git
cd mermaid-cli
cargo install --path .

mermaid                        # Start fresh session
mermaid --continue             # Resume last session
mermaid --model qwen3-coder:30b  # Use specific model
mermaid list                   # List available models

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Enter	Send message
Esc	Stop generation / clear input
Ctrl+C	Quit
Alt+T	Toggle thinking mode
Ctrl+V	Paste image or text from clipboard
Ctrl+O	Preview attached image
Ctrl+Click	Open image from chat history
Up/Down	Navigate input history / scroll chat
Page Up/Down	Scroll chat

Commands

Type : followed by a command:

Command	Description
:model <name>	Switch model
:clear	Clear chat history
:save	Save conversation
:load	Load conversation
:list	List saved conversations
:help	Show all commands
:quit	Exit

Tools

The model uses these autonomously:

Tool	Description
read_file	Read files (text, PDF, images)
write_file	Create or overwrite files
edit_file	Targeted text replacement with diff
delete_file	Delete files (with backup)
create_directory	Create directories
execute_command	Run shell commands
git_status	Check repository status
git_diff	View file changes
git_commit	Create commits
web_search	Search the web
web_fetch	Fetch URL content as markdown

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/mermaid/config.toml

last_used_model = "ollama/qwen3-coder:30b"

[ollama]
host = "localhost"
port = 11434
# cloud_api_key = "your-key"

Cloud & Web Search

Access cloud models and web search via Ollama Cloud:

export OLLAMA_API_KEY=your-key
mermaid --model kimi-k2.5:cloud

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0

Built with Ratatui and Ollama. Inspired by Aider and Claude Code.