Why apollo exists

Coding agents kept getting bigger: web dashboards, background daemons, workspace indexers, subscriptions. I wanted the opposite — the smallest tool that lets a strong model touch my terminal.

Enter apollo.

The philosophy

• Terminal-native. Your shell is the interface. No browser tab, no Electron, no context-switching.
• Three tools. ls, read, bash cover 95% of coding assistance. Fewer tools means fewer surprises.
• Transparent. Debug mode shows the exact request JSON. What leaves your machine is never a mystery.
• One binary. go install, set one env var, done.

When not to use apollo

Honest answer: if you need multi-file autonomous refactoring with reviews and CI integration, use a heavier harness (or an IDE agent). Apollo is for fast, conversational help inside the terminal you already live in — and this page’s docs cover everything it does.