npm package: @saibolla/ada
Description: The AI research agent for the terminal
Latest version: 0.1.3

# Ada

The AI research agent for your terminal.

[![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-Apache%202.0-blue?style=flat-square)](LICENSE)
[![Node](https://img.shields.io/badge/node-%3E%3D20.18.1-brightgreen?style=flat-square)](https://nodejs.org)
[![Skills](https://img.shields.io/badge/skills-197-orange?style=flat-square)](#skills)
[![Website](https://img.shields.io/badge/web-thinkwithada.com-0d9668?style=flat-square)](https://thinkwithada.com)

Ada is an AI-powered research agent that runs in your terminal. Ask questions, search papers, run experiments, write drafts, and produce cited research artifacts. Built on [Pi](https://github.com/badlogic/pi-mono) with 197 scientific skills across 22 disciplines.

---

## Install

```bash
git clone https://github.com/saikrishnabolla/ada.git
cd ada
npm install
npm run build
npm run dev
```

On first launch, Ada will install packages and walk you through model setup.

Requires Node.js 20.18.1 or newer.

---

## Usage

Just ask anything:

```
$ ada "what do we know about scaling laws?"
```

Or use workflows for structured research:

```
$ ada deepresearch "mechanistic interpretability"
$ ada litreview "mRNA vaccine efficacy"
$ ada audit 2401.12345
$ ada replicate "chain-of-thought improves math"
```

Inside the REPL, type naturally or use `/commands`:

```
/deepresearch <topic>     thorough multi-source investigation
/litreview <topic>        literature review with citations
/review <file>            simulated peer review
/audit <paper>            verify paper claims against its codebase
/replicate <paper>        replicate a paper's experiments
/compare <topic>          compare sources on a topic
/draft <topic>            write a paper-style draft
/autoresearch <idea>      autonomous experiment loop
/help                     all commands
```

---

## What Ada can do

**Research** -- Search papers via AlphaXiv and Semantic Scholar, traverse citation graphs, run literature reviews with verified citations, and produce source-grounded briefs.

**Write** -- Generate LaTeX papers, conference posters, slide decks (PPTX), Word documents, and publication-quality figures. Every claim is backed by a source.

**Experiment** -- Run code locally, in Docker containers, or on cloud GPUs (Modal, RunPod). Replicate paper results with isolated execution environments.

**Analyze** -- 197 scientific skills covering genomics, proteomics, drug discovery, clinical research, chemistry, physics, ML, finance, geospatial, and more. 325 pre-built workflow procedures across 22 disciplines.

---

## Agents

Four specialized subagents, dispatched automatically for complex tasks:

| Agent | Role |
|-------|------|
| **Researcher** | Gather evidence across papers, web, repos, docs |
| **Reviewer** | Simulated peer review with severity-graded feedback |
| **Writer** | Structured drafts from research notes |
| **Verifier** | Inline citations, source URL verification, dead link cleanup |

---

## Skills

Ada ships 197 skills organized into:

- **Research tools** -- AlphaXiv paper search/Q&A, Semantic Scholar citation graphs, Crawl4AI web scraping, session search
- **Scientific domains** -- Genomics (scanpy, biopython), drug discovery (rdkit, diffdock), clinical (clinvar, pubmed), proteomics, chemistry, physics, materials science, neuroscience, ecology, astronomy
- **Databases** -- 250+ scientific databases including PubMed, ChEMBL, UniProt, COSMIC, ClinicalTrials.gov, OpenAlex, arXiv, KEGG, STRING, GnomAD
- **Writing & visualization** -- LaTeX papers, posters, PPTX slides, DOCX, PDF manipulation, matplotlib, seaborn, plotly, Mermaid diagrams
- **Compute** -- Docker sandbox, Modal (serverless GPU), RunPod (persistent GPU), Python REPL
- **Workflow catalog** -- 325 pre-built procedures from data analysis to quantum circuit design

---

## Packages

27 Pi packages provide tools, agents, and integrations:

| Category | Packages |
|----------|----------|
| Research | AlphaXiv, arXiv, Tavily web search, session search |
| Agents | Subagents, task tracking, ultrathink review loops |
| Documents | Document parser, markdown preview, PowerPoint, Zotero |
| Visualization | Charts, Mermaid diagrams, Excalidraw canvas |
| Compute | Python REPL, sandbox, process management |
| Infrastructure | MCP adapter, command palette, context management |

---

## Configuration

On first launch, run `setup` inside Ada to configure services interactively. Or edit `~/.ada/.env` directly:

```env
# AI model (required -- at least one provider)
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=
OPENAI_API_KEY=

# Web search
TAVILY_API_KEY=

# Scientific databases (optional)
S2_API_KEY=                    # Semantic Scholar
OPENALEX_API_KEY=              # OpenAlex
NCBI_API_KEY=                  # PubMed/NCBI

# Citation management
ZOTERO_API_KEY=
ZOTERO_LIBRARY_ID=
ZOTERO_LIBRARY_TYPE=user

# Cloud compute (optional)
MODAL_TOKEN_ID=
MODAL_TOKEN_SECRET=
RUNPOD_API_KEY=
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=
```

Global config at `~/.ada/.env` works from any folder. Project-specific `.env` overrides per directory.

---

## Architecture

```
ada/
├── packages/alpha-hub/     AlphaXiv CLI and library
├── extensions/             Research tools (/help, /init, /outputs)
├── prompts/                Workflow templates (11 orchestrated workflows)
├── skills/                 197 scientific skills (SKILL.md files)
├── .ada/
│   ├── agents/             4 subagent prompts
│   ├── themes/             Ada terminal theme
│   ├── settings.json       Package configuration
│   └── SYSTEM.md           Agent personality and rules
├── src/                    TypeScript source
└── bin/ada.js              CLI entry point
```

Built on the Pi agent runtime and Feynman by Companion AI. Scientific skills sourced from Claude Scientific Skills (MIT).

---

## Development

```bash
git clone https://github.com/saikrishnabolla/ada.git
cd ada
npm install
npm run dev          # Run from source
npm run build        # Compile TypeScript
npm test             # Run tests (25 tests)
npm run typecheck    # Type checking
```

---

## License

Apache 2.0 -- see [LICENSE](LICENSE).

[thinkwithada.com](https://thinkwithada.com)