thwip

Universal Coding Agent Multiplexer

Discover supported local AI tools, connect configured model providers in one terminal interface, and switch providers while preserving completed text conversation history.

Features

• Auto-Detection: Discovers installed AI coding agents (Claude Code, Antigravity, Gemini CLI, OpenAI/Codex, Aider, Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Ollama) and configured credentials.
• Existing Sign-ins: Chats through installed Codex, Claude Code, and Antigravity CLIs using their own logins and live model lists, with no API key required.
• Context Portability: Switch providers with stored conversational text. Working files remain in the selected local project; they are not automatically uploaded.
• Handoff Preview: Inspect text continuity, omitted state, capability changes, approximate context pressure, and a text fingerprint before switching. Runs locally without model calls.
• Dynamic UI: Terminal interface adapts its status bar, capabilities, and theme based on the active provider.
• Capability Disclaimers: Highlights when an agent lacks specific capabilities such as file editing or code execution.
• Rate Limit Failover: Detects HTTP 429 errors or quota exhaustion and prompts instant switching to ready fallback models.
• Tool Layer: Shared file editing, code execution (Python, Node, Shell), and Git integration across connected models.
• Session Persistence: Save and resume sessions across projects with /session save and /session load.
• Familiar Flow: The same everyday commands as Codex, Claude Code, and Antigravity (/model, /new, /resume, /compact, /diff, /copy, !cmd, @file), plus autocompletion, Ctrl+S / Ctrl+T shortcuts, and streaming Markdown.
• Live Model Lists: Model catalogs come from the connected CLI or the provider's list-models endpoint, never from a hardcoded list.

Quickstart

1. Installation

Install the published package:

pip install --upgrade thwip-cli

Or install the repository in editable mode for development:

git clone https://github.com/tanmayhutt/thwip-cli.git
cd thwip-cli
pip install -e .

2. Launching thwip

Start the interactive terminal in your current project directory:

thwip
thwip --project ~/code/my-app   # open a specific project
thwip --version

Slash Commands and Shortcuts

Short aliases are available for frequent commands: /a, /m, /s, /sw, /k, /g, and /t.

Existing CLI sign-ins (no API key needed)

If Codex, Claude Code, or the Antigravity CLI is installed and signed in, Thwip connects to it at startup and uses that sign-in for chat. No API key is copied or required, and Thwip never reads the CLI's stored credentials. A configured direct API key for the same provider always takes precedence over the native connection.

/models refreshes the catalog supplied by each CLI. An explicit model ID that is not in the catalog is passed to the CLI for validation instead of being rejected by a bundled list. A model available in a desktop app may still be absent from the installed CLI's catalog or account access.

Native connections are read-only by default. Codex starts with a read-only sandbox and asks before operations outside it; approval requests appear in Thwip with the command or file list and default to denial. Claude Code and the Antigravity CLI run in their non-interactive print modes, where tools that would need an approval are declined by the CLI itself. Each turn sends the portable text conversation to a fresh native session, so native reasoning and tool state do not carry between turns. Ctrl+C interrupts the current turn and stops the child process; the unanswered message is removed so it can be re-sent or handed to another provider.

Native billing and usage limits are managed by each CLI account. Thwip records the token counts the CLIs report but does not estimate cost for them. Codex and Claude Code also report their account usage windows (5 hour and 7 day) after each response; /limits and /status show the used percentage and reset time. When a CLI reports an exhausted usage limit, the standard failover prompt offers the other connected providers.

/native codex remains available as a launcher: it saves the Thwip session and replaces Thwip with the Codex CLI itself in the selected project. Conversation history is not transferred by the launcher; use /session load after restarting Thwip to resume.

Live model lists

Model lists are not hardcoded. Each connected source supplies its own list:

• Installed CLIs report their models (Codex model/list, agy models, Claude Code aliases).
• Direct providers with a key are queried through their list-models endpoint (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, Groq, OpenRouter) at startup, on /models, and right after /key. Non-chat models (embeddings, speech, image, moderation) are filtered out. Context sizes and prices are taken from the provider when it publishes them.
• A small bundled list per provider remains only as an offline fallback and is labelled "bundled fallback" in /models until a key or connection is available.

Usage-limit failover

When the active provider reports an exhausted limit (Codex "You've hit your usage limit", Claude Code "usage limit reached" or a rejected rate-limit event, Google RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED, or HTTP 429 from a direct API), Thwip stops, shows the ready alternatives with their default models, and offers to switch. Accepting switches the provider, keeps the text conversation, and re-sends the unanswered message. Set [limits] auto_switch = true to skip the question. The [fallback] chain order is honored; a chain model the provider does not list falls back to that provider's default.

Auditable handoffs

/handoff
/handoff google
/handoff openai gpt-5.6-terra

/handoff previews the current target; specifying a provider uses its default model unless you supply a model ID. Targets can be inspected without credentials or an installed provider. /switch shows the same report before changing the active agent.

The report includes:

• Exact counts of transferred user/assistant text messages and excluded stored records.
• A count of observed transient tool results that are not in portable history. New sessions track from creation; older saved sessions explicitly report partial coverage.
• Capability gains and losses using the local model catalog.
• Approximate request size including tool schemas, with up to 4,096 tokens reserved for an answer in the advisory calculation. This does not change generation settings.
• SHA-256 of canonical system-prompt and conversational-text JSON. It stays the same across targets when that text is unchanged. Tool schemas and attribution metadata are intentionally outside this text fingerprint.

The preview makes no model requests, saves no transcript exports, executes no tools, and does not trim or summarize history. Token sizing uses UTF-8 bytes divided by four plus per-message overhead, not a provider tokenizer. Catalog limits can be stale; an apparently fitting request can still fail. Warnings are advisory, not switch gates. Hidden reasoning and provider-native state do not transfer. The digest proves neither delivery nor semantic understanding, and is not a signature or privacy guarantee.

See research and prior art for the differentiation rationale.

Supported Companies and Agents

Configuration (~/.thwip/config.toml)

thwip auto-detects existing API keys from environment variables and existing agent configs (~/.claude.json, ~/.gemini/config.json). Configuration can also be set manually:

Installed CLI sign-ins and API access are separate paths. A signed-in Codex, Claude Code, or Antigravity CLI is used directly through its own protocol (see above). The direct SDK adapters for Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Groq, and OpenRouter require a provider API key. Ollama needs no key when its local server is running.

[defaults]
agent = "claude"
model = "claude-opus-5"
project = "."
theme = "dark"
stream = true
auto_save = true
confirm_tools = true

[keys]
anthropic = "sk-ant-..."
google = "AIza..."
openai = "sk-..."
deepseek = "sk-..."
groq = "gsk_..."
openrouter = "sk-or-..."

[ollama]
host = "http://localhost:11434"

[fallback]
enabled = true
chain = [
    "claude/claude-opus-5",
    "google/gemini-3.7-flash",
    "openai/gpt-5.6-terra",
    "deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash",
    "ollama/llama3.3"
]

Prefer /key <provider> over editing the file directly. Mutating workspace tools ask for confirmation by default, file access is restricted to the selected project, and Thwip stores its config and saved sessions with user-only permissions.

License

MIT License