Kimi CLI is an AI agent that runs in the terminal, designed to help users complete software development tasks and terminal operations. It can read and edit code, execute shell commands, search and scrape web pages, and autonomously plan and adjust actions during execution.
Its main capabilities include: running in the terminal as a coding agent; also having shell functionality, allowing users to switch to shell command mode by pressing Ctrl-X to run shell commands directly without leaving Kimi CLI (note: built-in shell commands such as cd are not currently supported). In addition, it supports integration with Visual Studio Code through a VS Code extension; supports Agent Client Protocol (ACP) out of the box, and can be used with any ACP-compatible editor or IDE; supports MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools, allowing management of MCP servers through the kimi mcp subcommand group, and also supports temporary MCP configuration through CLI options; it also provides Zsh integration. By installing the zsh-kimi-cli plugin and adding kimi-cli to the plugin list in ~/.zshrc, after restarting Zsh you can press Ctrl-X to switch to agent mode.
Status note: This is an archived project and is no longer maintained. The Python version of Kimi CLI has been replaced by Kimi Code CLI (the next-generation terminal AI agent launched by the same team). This repository is read-only, and there will be no new releases, bug fixes, or security updates. Existing installations are no longer supported and will stop working, and the official recommendation is to migrate as soon as possible.
Migration method: To install Kimi Code CLI, use the following commands - macOS / Linux: curl -fsSL https://code.kimi.com/kimi-code/install.sh | bash；Windows（PowerShell）：irm https://code.kimi.com/kimi-code/install.ps1 | iex; it can also be installed via Homebrew (brew install kimi-code) or npm (npm install -g @moonshot-ai/kimi-code). After installation, open a new terminal and run kimi. On first launch, it will detect Kimi CLI data in ~/.kimi/ and provide options to migrate configuration, MCP servers, input history, and sessions. You can also run kimi migrate at any time. The original ~/.kimi/ data will not be modified or deleted. You need to run /login again and reauthorize MCP servers; login credentials, MCP authorization, and Kimi CLI plugins will not be migrated. After migration, the old CLI should be uninstalled, for example with uv tool uninstall kimi-cli or brew uninstall kimi-cli.
About ACP usage: First run Kimi CLI in the terminal and send /login to complete login, then configure the ACP client to start Kimi CLI as an ACP agent server with the command kimi acp. For example, when used with Zed or JetBrains, you can add the configuration to the ~/.config/zed/settings.json or ~/.jetbrains/acp.json file, after which you can create a Kimi CLI thread in the IDE's agent panel.
The packages in the repository are archived together with the repository. Published versions remain on PyPI, but will no longer receive any updates. The source code is still provided under the Apache License 2.0.
Development-related: The repository provides commands for developing Kimi CLI. make build and make build-bin will automatically run make build-web to embed the Web UI. See the official documentation for more features.
