Drinky

A dependency-free terminal coding agent you can read end to end.

Give Drinky a prompt in the terminal. The model can read, search, and change files or run commands in the working directory. Drinky talks to Anthropic, OpenAI, and Gemini on Google Vertex AI.

Drinky is a single Zig program. It needs no Node.js runtime or third-party package tree, so a complete review covers Drinky and the Zig standard library. Use Drinky as it is, or fork it and add the features your workflow needs.

Highlights

1. Terminal-native: The conversation stays in the normal scrollback. A session is the process, and Drinky saves no conversation to resume.
2. Telegram remote control: Attach a bot and drive the session from its chat, while the terminal shows the work.
3. One job: An agent loop and seven tools, with no sub-agents and no workflow mode.
4. Small system prompt: The compiled prompt states the mechanics. Your instruction files and skills carry every rule about how to work.
5. Self-describing: The model can read every command, setting, and key binding of Drinky, so it can maintain your config for you.
6. No compiled-in models: Every model, limit, and price comes from the provider at runtime.

See FEATURES.md for the complete capability overview.

Build and run

Drinky requires Zig 0.16.0, a POSIX system, and the HOME variable. A terminal with the Kitty keyboard protocol and grapheme cluster processing gives the best experience. The project uses Ghostty for development and testing.

Build and run the ReleaseSafe executable:

zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe
./zig-out/bin/drinky

Sign in

Run /login to sign in with a subscription account or an Anthropic Console account. The Console login mints an API key in the browser and stores it, so no environment variable is needed. You can also set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or OPENAI_API_KEY by hand. For Gemini on Google Vertex AI, set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to a service account key file and GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION to eu, us, or global. Drinky serves Gemini 3 and later.

An API key or a service account key file uses the public provider API. A subscription login uses an unsupported provider interface that can change or stop working. The minted key bills at API rates over the public API, but the login that mints it is unsupported. See the implementation notes for Anthropic and OpenAI.

Drinky is not affiliated with Anthropic or OpenAI.

Slash commands

A line that starts with a slash runs in Drinky and reaches no model. Type / or /help to open the complete command list.

• /login signs in.
• /model and /effort change the model and the reasoning effort.
• /skill picks a discovered skill. /skill:name loads one skill with an optional task.
• /new clears the conversation.
• /status states the session.
• /sources shows the loaded instruction files and skills.
• /system shows the complete system prompt.
• /remote attaches a Telegram bot.

Telegram remote control

Create a bot with BotFather, run /remote, and paste the token. Drinky shows a pairing code, and the private chat that sends it binds to the bot. A saved bot attaches with one pick.

While a bot is attached, the chat holds the input and the terminal shows the work. A message from the chat runs as a prompt, or queues as steering during a turn. The chat mirrors every answer and event, and one message per turn shows the state and holds a Cancel turn button. /new, /effort, /model, /help, /skill, and /status run from the chat, and the other commands run in the terminal alone. Every exit key in the terminal detaches the bot.

The bot tokens live in the owner-only ~/.drinky/remote.json, and Drinky talks to the Telegram Bot API directly.

Herdr

Inside a Herdr pane, Drinky reports its state over the Herdr socket, so Herdr can notify you when a turn ends or fails. The status line leaves the directory and the branch to the Herdr pane label. This needs no setup.

Configuration

The ~/.drinky/config.json file is optional. It controls instruction files, request and bash limits, required skills, a default effort level, and interface settings. Drinky reads the file only at startup and never writes it. You can keep it in version control.

The config file holds no secrets. Credentials, project state, and cached model information live in separate files under ~/.drinky/.

Security

The AGENTS.md files and the skills in a repository are model instructions. Drinky has no permission gate or sandbox. Open an untrusted repository in a container.

Name and inspiration

Drinky takes its name from Homer Simpson's drinking bird, which repeatedly presses Y on his remote nuclear plant workstation.

Drinky takes inspiration for its terminal rendering model from pi.

License

Drinky is available under the MIT License.