One terminal.Every platform.
Kai is a terminal for macOS, Linux, and Windows, with tabs, split panes, and a built-in way to run AI coding tools on your own code. Free and MIT licensed — no account, no tracking.
Try it — click a chip or type help and press Enter.
✔ Kai v0.1.6 is ready
✔ Fast and private · Free
Installers for v0.1.6 aren't published yet — the download page shows how to build from source.
How it works
Three steps, all on your machine.
Install Kai
Download the installer for your OS (macOS .dmg, Linux .deb/.AppImage, or Windows .exe/.msi) from GitHub Releases. Free & MIT licensed.
macOS .dmg / Linux .deb / Windows .exeOpen Kai Terminal
From any shell, run kai open to launch the Kai Terminal desktop app. You can optionally specify a project folder or just run kai open in your current directory.
kai openLaunch any AI agent
Inside Kai Terminal, launch your tool with kai claude . (Claude Code shown — replace claude with your tool’s command). Kai auto-wires MCP, runs the agent, strips co-authors, and auto-syncs the code graph on exit.
kai claude .Every command is listed in the User Manual.
What Kai does
Terminal first. Local CLI second. No account.
Native PTY
Real system terminals underneath — ConPTY on Windows, POSIX pty on macOS and Linux. No Electron in the path.
Smooth Rendering
GPU rendering with a canvas fallback, so big outputs like npm install stay readable instead of freezing.
Tabs & Split Panes
Split panes keep your running programs intact while you resize. Drag tabs to reorder them.
Works With AI Tools
Kai maps out your code (functions, imports, files) and shares it with the AI tool you already use.
Private by Default
Everything stays on your machine. No accounts, no tracking, no cloud. Secret files like .env are skipped automatically.
Small & Open Source
~30MB idle RAM with one tab. MIT licensed, with installers for macOS, Linux, and Windows built on GitHub Actions.
Your code, ready for AI tools
Kai reads your project and hands the AI tool the parts it needs — files, functions, and how they connect. It all happens on your machine.
Kai fills in each tool's settings for you, and keeps a backup of what was there before.
- 10 tools supported — Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini, OpenCode, Aider, Windsurf, Cline, GitHub Copilot, and Antigravity.
- Local code intelligence — builds an AST map of functions, types, and dependencies, and auto-syncs when the agent exits.
- Private & self-contained — index stored in
~/.kai/; auto-strips AI co-author trailers in git commits.
[kai] MCP configuration auto-wired for claude.
[kai] Indexing project for Code Mode run...
[kai] Running Code Mode task in "web-app": claude
... [Agent Session Runs Here] ...
[kai] Agent finished (command exited with code 0).
[kai] Graph auto-sync: incremental (changed-files).
Re-indexed 3 modified files in 24ms.Why Kai?
A fast terminal that also works with the AI tools you already use.
| Feature | Kai | Electron terminals | Alacritty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memory with one tab | ~30 MB | 300 MB+ | Low |
| Tabs & split panes | Built in | Built in | Needs tmux |
| Fast scrolling | Yes — GPU | Yes | Yes |
| AI coding tools | 10 built in | Plugins | None |
| Code map auto-sync | Automatic | None | None |
| Private, no tracking | Yes | Varies | Yes |
Memory with one empty tab. Alacritty needs tmux for tabs and splits.
- Real system terminals — uses the OS terminal layer directly (ConPTY on Windows), no Electron in between.
- Splits that don't restart anything — resizing panes never kills or restarts your running programs.
- Keeps a map of your code — tracks functions, classes, and imports, and refreshes the map after each AI session.
- Tidy git history — a small git hook removes AI co-author lines from commit messages, and leaves your other hooks alone.
Same app on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Free and MIT licensed.