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🔥Top 7 Open-Source CLI Tools

AI Summary9 min read

TL;DR

This article highlights 7 powerful open-source CLI tools for developers, including AI agents like Qodo and Gemini, and utilities like Lazygit. Each tool is described with features and installation steps to boost productivity.

Key Takeaways

  • •Qodo Command enables AI agent management and workflow automation directly from the terminal.
  • •Amazon Q Developer offers natural-language assistance for coding, debugging, and terminal automation.
  • •Pulstack simplifies static site deployment to AWS or GitHub Pages with zero configuration.
  • •Gemini CLI provides AI-powered code querying and editing with a large context window.
  • •Lazygit offers an intuitive terminal UI for faster Git operations without complex commands.

Tags

opensourcecliproductivityai

Hey Devs👋

In this article, I’ll be sharing some of the most powerful and developer-friendly CLI tools which are completely open-source!

✨Open-source projects rely on community support 🙏, so consider exploring these projects and giving star to these repositories to contribute to their growth.🙂

Kiran Naragund

Now, Let's get started🚀

1. Qodo Command

Qodo Gen Command is a command-line interface for running and managing AI agents.

It allows you to automate complex workflows, interact with AI models and external tools using your own tools and schemas, and serve AI agents as HTTP services, all from your terminal.

You can use it to:

  • Talk to an agent in natural language directly in your terminal (qodo chat), exactly like with Qodo Gen Chat.

  • Configure your own agent and define reusable workflows (qodo <command>).

  • Run Qodo Gen CLI with --ui to interact with Qodo Gen CLI's chat in an interactive web UI.

  • Turn any agent into a callable service (--webhook mode).

  • Model Control- Choose which AI model to use (Claude, GPT-4, etc.) with --model={model-name}.

  • Turn any agent into an MCP with --mcp.

  • Use tools without exposing your API keys.

🚀 How to Get Started

To install, run:

npm install -g @qodo/Command
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Authenticate: To start using Qodo Gen CLI, you need to log in first:

qodo login
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Run Qodo Gen Chat directly in your terminal:

qodo chat
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Go to the Qodo Command documentation site for full options and usage manuals.

Check out Qodo's agent repository in GitHub to see examples of working agents.

⭐ Qodo Command

2. Amazon Q Developer

Amazon Q Developer CLI is AWS’s open-source / publicly-available AI-powered agent that brings natural-language, code-completion and terminal automation to your terminal.

You can use it to:

  • Chat in natural language (ask questions, get help, debug, explore).
  • Translate your plain-language instructions into shell commands.
  • Get inline completions for hundreds of CLIs like git, npm, docker, aws.
  • Automate tasks: create/edit files, run commands, integrate git or AWS workflows.
  • Use context from your local environment (codebase, shell state) to provide more relevant suggestions.

🚀 How to Get Started

First install (example for macOS):

brew install --cask amazon-q
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Authenticate (login via AWS Builder ID or IAM).

q login
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Then you can run:

q chat
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Example

List all S3 buckets with more than 100 objects
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⭐ Amazon Q

3. Pulstack

Pulstack is a developer-friendly tool that lets you deploy static websites to AWS (S3 + CloudFront) or GitHub Pages with zero configuraton. It uses Pulumi under the hood to treat infrastructure as code, so your deployments are fully automated and version-controlled.

You can use it to:

  • Deploy static sites to AWS S3 with CloudFront CDN
  • Automatically create new Repo and publish to GitHub Pages
  • Secure AWS deployments using best practices (no public buckets!)
  • One-command destroy of your whole stack when you're done

🚀 How to Get Started

Clone and Install

git clone https://github.com/Kiran1689/pulstack.git
cd pulstack
npm install
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Initialize project

  • For AWS: 
node index.js init
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  • For GitHub: 
node index.js init --github
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Deploy Your Site

  • For AWS: 
node index.js deploy --target aws --dir ./public
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  • For GitHub: 
node index.js deploy --target aws --dir ./public
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⭐ Pulstack CLI

4. Gemini CLI

Gemini CLI is Google’s open-source AI-powered agent that brings Gemini 2.5 Pro directly to your terminal. It's like having a powerful AI assistant that speaks bash, Python, JavaScript or anything else you throw at it.

Gemini CLI supports long context up to 1 million tokens 🤯

You can use it to:

  • Query and edit large codebases in and beyond Gemini's 1M token context window.
  • Generate new apps from PDFs or sketches, using Gemini's multimodal capabilities.
  • Automate operational tasks, like querying pull requests or handling complex rebases.
  • Use tools and MCP servers to connect new capabilities, including media generation with Imagen, Veo or Lyria
  • Ground your queries with the Google Search tool, built in to Gemini.

🚀 How to Get Started

To install, run:

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli
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Authenticate: When prompted, sign in with your personal Google account. This will grant you up to 60 model requests per minute and 1,000 model requests per day using Gemini.

Then you can run:

gemini "Explain this Python script"
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⭐ Gemini CLI

5. Grok CLI

Grok CLI is an open-source terminal interface built by xAI that brings the Grok large language model directly into your shell.

Unlike most cloud-only AI assistants, it supports local inference, meaning you can run it entirely offline, and has direct access to your file system and shell.

You can use it to:

  • Run Grok’s LLM on your own machine without needing an internet connection.
  • Inspect, explain, and manipulate files or run shell commands via natural language.
  • Build and install plugins to integrate with other CLI tools or custom workflows.
  • Local data storage and strict user control over whether any data is shared for model training.
  • Read project files to give code reviews, refactoring suggestions, or explanations that match your codebase.
  • If connected online, it can fetch up-to-date info (e.g., news, finance, trends) via the X platform.

🚀 How to Get Started

Install

npm install -g @vibe-kit/grok-cli
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Add your X api key

export GROK_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
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Then you can start using it:

grok
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⭐ Grok CLI

6. Codex CLI

Codex CLI is OpenAI’s terminal-based coding agent for running Codex-1 and Codex-mini versions of the o3/o4-mini models fine-tuned for software engineering. It integrates with your local repositories but executes tasks in a secure, cloud-based sandbox that mirrors your dev environment.

Key Features:

  • Cloud sandbox execution: Runs code edits, tests, and commands in an isolated environment preloaded with your repo.
  • Parallel task handling: Multiple independent tasks can run simultaneously.
  • Approval modes: Choose between suggest (review first), auto-edit (apply edits), or full-auto (edit + run commands without asking).
  • Repo-aware editing: Reads project structure and follows AGENTS.md guidelines for style, testing, and navigation.
  • Traceable changes: All edits include terminal logs, test results, and citations for verification.
  • Simple login: Sign in with your ChatGPT account, no manual API key generation.
  • Fast model: Uses codex-mini-latest for quick, low-latency editing and Q&A.

🚀 How to Get Started

Install

npm install -g @openai/codex
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Then simply run codex to get started:

codex
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⭐ Codex

7. Lazygit

Lazygit is a simple, fast, and highly intuitive terminal UI for Git. It’s perfect for developers who want to speed up their Git workflow without leaving the terminal, no more memorizing complex Git commands or switching between terminal and GUI tools.

You can use it to:

  • Stage, commit, push, pull, and stash with just a few keystrokes.

  • Visualize and interactively resolve merge conflicts.

  • Browse logs, diffs, branches, and stashes in an intuitive UI.

  • Easily switch between branches and view commit histories.

  • Customize keybindings, theme, and layout to your preference.

  • Run Git commands in the background without interrupting your flow.

🚀 How to Get Started

To install with Homebrew (macOS/Linux):

brew install lazygit
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On Windows (with scoop):

scoop install lazygit
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Or with Go installed:

go install github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit@latest
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Run it in any Git repo:

lazygit
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Check out the repo for detailed installation methods, features and tutorials.

⭐ Lazygit

That's It.🙏

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