batrachian-toad 0.6.0
A unified experience for AI in your terminal.
Requires Python: >=3.14

# Toad

A unified interface for AI in your terminal ([release announcement](https://willmcgugan.github.io/toad-released/)).

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## What is Toad?

Toad is an interface to coding agents, such as Claude, Gemini, Codex, OpenHand, and many more. 

Toad blends a traditional shell based workflow and powerful agentic AI, with an intuitive Terminal User Interface.

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>
        <h3>AI "App store"</h3>
        <p>
        Find, install, and run dozens of agents directly from the Toad UI.
        <p>
        There is a large and growing list of AI agents that work with Toad.
        Discover agents from big tech and smaller Open Source projects.
        <p>
        Developers can add support for their own agents, via the <a href="https://agentclientprotocol.com/overview/introduction">Agent Client Protocol</a>.
      </td>
      <td>
        <img alt="Screenshot 2026-01-27 at 12 48 30" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f7bd3776-6405-47e5-9d1f-11a12a4ce3b2" />
      </td>
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      <td>
      <h3>Toad Shell</h3>
      <p>
      While most terminal agent interfaces can run commands (with the <kbd>!</kbd> syntax), they aren't running a shell.
      If you change directory or set environment variables, they won't persist from one command to the next.
      <p>
      Output that contains more than simple text will typically be garbled, and anything interactive will fail or even break the TUI entirely.
      <p>
      Toad integrates a fully working shell with full-color output, interactive commands, and tab completion.
      Allowing you to interleave prompts for the agent with terminal workflows.
      <p>
      At time of writing Toad is the only terminal UI which does this.
      </td>
      <td><img src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ac9247bb-3daa-4bb7-b3fd-e0bbd22475fa"/></td>        
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        <h3>Prompt Editor</h3>
        <p>
        Toad has a nice Markdown prompt editor, with syntax highlighting for code fences.
        Full mouse support, cut and paste, many keybindings and shortcuts.
      </td>
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        <img src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3d619b94-ec53-4e7a-b905-5aef6f4fa8a6"/>
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      <td>
        <h3>File Picker</h3>
        <p>
        Add a file to your prompt with <kbd>@</kbd>, and toad will show a fuzzy file picker.
        <p>
        Type a few characters from the filename or folder and Toad will refine the search as you type.
        Hit <kbd>enter</kbd> to add the file to the prompt.
        <p>
        The fuzzy picker is great when you know the file you want to mention.
        If you want to explore your files, you can press <kbd>tab</kbd> to switch to an interactive tree control.                
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        <img src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ab25c389-1d2f-4006-a1d8-159edbd3ed00"/>        
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        <h3>Beautiful Diffs</h3>
        <p>
        Side-by-side or unified diffs, with syntax highlighting for most languages.      
      </td>
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        <img alt="Screenshot 2026-01-27 at 12 44 22" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b3d6c29c-d6ec-4253-a9dc-2df0ff21e293" />
      </td>      
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      <td>
        <h3>Elegant Markdown</h3>
        <p>
        Markdown is the language of LLMs (AI).
        Toad's streaming Markdown support can display syntax highlighted code fences, elegant tables, quotes, lists, and more.
      </td>
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        <img src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b650b407-f4ab-4cb9-8920-55c15073598e"/>
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      <td>
        <h3>Simple Settings</h3>
        <p>
        An intuitive settings system (no need to manually edit JSON files).
        <p>
        Tune Toad to your liking.
        Almost everything in Toad may be tweaked.
        If you want to create an ultra-minimal UI with nothing more than a prompt—you can!                
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        <img src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2ff0de12-c2e1-455b-954a-21e66c070dd8"/>      
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        <h3>Session Resume</h3>
        <p>
        Resume previous sessions with your agent.    
        <p>
        Hit <kbd>ctrl+r</kbd> to pick a previous session to resume.
      </td>
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        <img alt="Screenshot 2026-02-01 at 16 57 46" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7c1ad59e-027c-4542-a216-9a32ef573936" />
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## Video

Watch a preview of the Toad User Interface:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ced36f4b-db02-4d29-8a0a-14ec64b22881


## Compatibility

Toad runs on Linux and macOS. Native Windows support is currently lacking (but on the roadmap), but Toad will run quite well with WSL.

Toad is a terminal application.
Any terminal will work, although if you are using the default terminal on macOS you will get a much reduced experience.
I recommend [Ghostty](https://ghostty.org/) which is fully featured and has amazing performance.

### Clipboard

On Linux, you may need to install `xclip` to enable clipboard support.

```
sudo apt install xclip
```

## Getting Started

The easiest way to install Toad is by pasting the following in to your terminal:

```bash
curl -fsSL batrachian.ai/install | sh
```

You should now have `toad` installed.

If that doesn't work for any reason, then you can install with the following steps:

First [install UV](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/):

```bash
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
```

Then use UV to install toad:

```bash
uv tool install -U batrachian-toad --python 3.14
```

Toad is also available on [conda-forge](https://conda-forge.org), and can be installed using [pixi](https://pixi.prefix.dev/latest/#installation):

```bash
pixi global install batrachian-toad
```

## Using Toad

Launch Toad with the following:

```bash
toad
```

You should see something like this:

<img alt="front-fs8" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8831f7de-5349-4b3f-9de9-d4565b513108" />

From this screen you will be able to find, install, and launch a coding agent.
If you already have an agent installed, you can skip the install step.
To launch an agent, select it and press <kbd>space</kbd>.

The footer will always display the most significant keys for the current context.
To see all the keys, press <kbd>F1</kbd> to display the help panel.

### Toad CLI

When running Toad, the current working directory is assumed to be your project directory.
To use another project directory, add the path to the command.
For example:

```bash
toad ~/projects/my-awesome-app
```

If you want to skip the initial agent screen, add the `-a` switch with the name of your chosen agent.
For example:

```bash
toad -a open-hands
```

To see all subcommands and switches, add the `--help` switch:

```bash
toad --help
```

### Web server

You can run Toad as a web application.

Run the following, and click the link in the terminal:

```bash
toad serve
```

![textual-serve](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1d861d48-d30b-44cd-972d-5986a01360bf)

## Toad development

Toad was built by [Will McGugan](https://github.com/willmcgugan) and is currently under active development.

To discuss Toad, see the Discussions tab, or join the #toad channel on the [Textualize discord server](https://discord.gg/Enf6Z3qhVr).



### Roadmap

Some planned features:

- UI for MCP servers
- Expose model selection (waiting on ACP update)
- Sessions (resume)
- Multiple agents
- Windows native support
- Builtin editor
- Sidebar (widgets)
  - Git pending changes

### Reporting bugs

This project is trialling a non-traditional approach to issues.
Before an issue is created, there must be a post in Discussions, approved by a Toad dev (Currently @willmcgugan).

By allowing the discussions to happen in the Discussion tabs, issues can be reserved for actionable tasks with a clear description and goal.