Overview
Elph is a local AI coding agent harness. It runs as an interactive TUI (elph), as a headless prompt (elph run), and as an ACP server for editors (elph acp --stdio).
The core harness follows Pi: a small session loop, tools, providers, and a native terminal UI. Elph keeps that model and adds a local project store, floppy memory, worktrees, MCP, native lifecycle hooks, Plan vs Build, and Claude/Codex import.
You bring the model. Sessions and memory stay on disk in the project .elph/ store. There is no required cloud agent backend.
Elph is pre-alpha. Breaking changes and bugs are expected. Check GitHub Releases before you upgrade.
Surfaces
| Command | Role |
|---|---|
elph | Interactive TUI — transcript, slash palette, mouse support |
elph run "…" | Headless prompt for scripts and CI |
elph acp --stdio | Agent Client Protocol v1 (add --experimental for v2) |
What stays local
- Config:
~/.config/elph/(ELPH_HOME) - Data:
~/.local/share/elph/(ELPH_DATA_DIR) - Project:
<cwd>/.elph/— memory (store.db) and optional project hooks (hooks.json)..elph/plans/is created when you save a plan. GlobalAGENTS.mdis optional and is not written on first run.
Start here
- Installation — install script, cargo, first launch
- Using Elph — TUI, resume, headless
- Providers — supported catalogs, API keys, OAuth
- Settings — paths and environment
- Lifecycle hooks — native command hooks and trust
- Sessions — resume, store, goals
- Plan mode — Plan vs Build
- Memory — floppy / project store
- Permissions — trust and tool policy