Core stays small// 01
Chat, settings, sidebar, six providers, six read-only tools. That's the whole baseline. No features you didn't ask for, nothing extra to disable later.
$vanish
A terminal workspace
for chatting with AI.
Exactly what you want, nothing you don't.
Because you picked it, and you own all of it.
Why so extension-heavy?
Because the small thing you actually want is unlikely to be the small thing someone else wants. So Vanish ships the absolute minimum, and everything else is opt-in — auditable, observable, and yours to switch off the moment it stops earning its keep.
Every addition is yours// 02
Opt into extensions one at a time. See what each one adds, audit what data it touches, watch what it does at runtime. Disable any of them with a single toggle.
The SDK is the way in// 03
If the extension you need doesn't exist yet, write it. The SDK is full, the contract is open. Ship it locally, share it if you'd like.
The views you start with
A sidebar on the left — think of it as a hallway. Each entry is a place you can go. Press Tab to walk down the hallway, or Ctrl·B to tuck the sidebar away when you want more room.
Chat// front door
Where you actually talk to the AI. The front door, and where you'll spend most of your time.
Settings// tuning room
Pick a model. Pick a voice. Pick a theme. Pick your shortcuts. Tune everything in one place.
Omniscience// quiet room · off by default
A quieter place for keeping an eye on background tasks you've started. Flip it on in Settings when you want it.
Six providers, your pick
Pick one. Paste in a key — or sign in — and you're chatting. Want to try a different one mid-conversation? Ctrl·M, or type /model.
- GroqQuick, lightweight responses. Good when you want answers fast.
- Google AI StudioGoogle's Gemini models, behind your AI Studio key.
- CerebrasAnother fast-inference option for low-latency chat.
- GitHub CopilotChat through the Copilot subscription you already have.
- Codex (ChatGPT)OpenAI's models, routed through your ChatGPT account.
- ClaudeAnthropic's Claude, via the Claude CLI you've already signed in to.
What the AI already knows
Six small built-in tools. The AI reaches for them when they fit. Everything here is read-only — it can look around, but it won't change anything on its own. Extensions are how you let it do more; the core ships intentionally cautious.
- 01nowCurrent time and your timezone.
- 02systemOS, terminal size, Node version.
- 03cwdWhich folder Vanish is running in.
- 04themeWhich theme is currently active.
- 05viewsViews you have set up and which one is in focus.
- 06providersAI providers you've configured.
Two themes to start
Press Ctrl·T to flip, or type /theme to pick from a list. Status colors keep their hue across both themes, so warnings, errors, and success ticks stay recognizable.
dark// default · grayscale
neutral, no blue tint. easy on the eyes for long sessions.
light// matching opposite
the same palette, inverted. for daytime work.
Find anything quickly
Vanish has a lot of small actions, and you don't need to remember any of them. Press Ctrl·⇧·P and you get fuzzy search across about forty built-in actions. Start typing what you want. The palette finds it.
/ slash commands worth knowing
| /help | List every slash command. /help <name> for details. |
| /theme | Switch theme. /cyclet rotates to the next one. |
| /model | Pick a model (and switch providers if needed). |
| /provider | Switch the active provider. |
| /effort | Set reasoning effort for models that support it. |
| /temperature | Nudge the temperature up or down. |
| /settings | Jump to the Settings view. |
| /tools | List every tool the AI currently has. |
| /logs | Show the in-app log. |
| /quit | Close the app. |
tipType // to send a literal /something as a message to the AI instead of running a command.
Keys to remember
These five always work, anywhere in the app. Everything else is reachable through the palette, so you don't have to commit anything else to memory until you want to.
- TabMove to the next view
- Ctrl · TCycle to the next theme
- Ctrl · BShow or hide the sidebar
- Ctrl · ⇧ · POpen the command palette
- Ctrl · CQuit Vanish
Off by default
Two experimental rooms you can turn on in Settings when you're ready. Nothing changes without your say-so.
Evolve// instructions that get better
The small written instructions Vanish gives the AI can improve over time, one approved change at a time. Evolve occasionally proposes a tweak: current version, candidate version, how they compared on real examples. You see a diff. You say yes or no. Roll back any time. If you'd rather not even capture the data Evolve learns from, there's a switch for that.
There's a deeper guide at docs/USE_EVOLVE.md when you're ready.
Omniscience// background tasks · vanish-omni
A place to kick off small background jobs — research tasks, note-taking, the kind of thing you'd otherwise babysit — and watch them report back while you keep working in Chat. Ships with a companion command, vanish-omni, that lives in your terminal alongside the main app.
Like Evolve, opt-in: flip it on in Settings when you want it.
Your data stays with you
Everything Vanish saves lives in one folder on your machine — ~/.vanish-tui/. Nothing in the core app syncs to a cloud.
- api keysencrypted at rest, AES-256-GCM. they never sit in plain text on disk.
- settingsa readable config file next to your keys — yours to inspect or back up.
- syncnone. what's on your machine stays on your machine.
- ephemeralset a key as an environment variable to use it without saving — takes precedence over anything stored. perfect for one-off sessions or CI.