Crush

Your new coding bestie, now available in your favourite terminal.
Your tools, your code, and your workflows, wired into your LLM of choice.

终端里的编程新搭档，
无缝接入你的工具、代码与工作流，全面兼容主流 LLM 模型。

Features

Multi-Model: choose from a wide range of LLMs or add your own via OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible APIs
Flexible: switch LLMs mid-session while preserving context
Session-Based: maintain multiple work sessions and contexts per project
LSP-Enhanced: Crush uses LSPs for additional context, just like you do
Extensible: add capabilities via MCPs (http, stdio, and sse)
Works Everywhere: first-class support in every terminal on macOS, Linux, Windows (PowerShell and WSL), Android, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD
Industrial Grade: built on the Charm ecosystem, powering 25k+ applications, from leading open source projects to business-critical infrastructure

Installation

Use a package manager:

# Homebrew
brew install charmbracelet/tap/crush

# NPM (macOS, Linux, and Windows)
npm install -g @charmland/crush

# Arch Linux (btw)
yay -S crush

# Nix
nix run github:numtide/nix-ai-tools#crush

# FreeBSD
pkg install crush

Windows users:

# Winget
winget install charmbracelet.crush

# Scoop
scoop bucket add charm https://github.com/charmbracelet/scoop-bucket.git
scoop install crush

Nix (NUR)

Crush is available via the official Charm NUR in nur.repos.charmbracelet.crush, which is the most up-to-date way to get Crush in Nix.

You can also try out Crush via the NUR with nix-shell:

# Add the NUR channel.
nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/main.tar.gz nur
nix-channel --update

# Get Crush in a Nix shell.
nix-shell -p '(import <nur> { pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {}; }).repos.charmbracelet.crush'

NixOS & Home Manager Module Usage via NUR

Crush provides NixOS and Home Manager modules via NUR. You can use these modules directly in your flake by importing them from NUR. Since it auto detects whether it's a home manager or nixos context you can use the import the exact same way :)

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    nur.url = "github:nix-community/NUR";
  };

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, nur, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.your-hostname = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      system = "x86_64-linux";
      modules = [
        nur.modules.nixos.default
        nur.repos.charmbracelet.modules.crush
        {
          programs.crush = {
            enable = true;
            settings = {
              providers = {
                openai = {
                  id = "openai";
                  name = "OpenAI";
                  base_url = "https://api.openai.com/v1";
                  type = "openai";
                  api_key = "sk-fake123456789abcdef...";
                  models = [
                    {
                      id = "gpt-5.6-sol";
                      name = "GPT-5.6 Sol";
                    }
                  ];
                };
              };
              lsp = {
                go = { command = "gopls"; enabled = true; };
                nix = { command = "nil"; enabled = true; };
              };
              options = {
                context_paths = [ "/etc/nixos/configuration.nix" ];
                tui = { compact_mode = true; };
                debug = false;
              };
            };
          };
        }
      ];
    };
  };
}

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://repo.charm.sh/apt/gpg.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/charm.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/charm.gpg] https://repo.charm.sh/apt/ * *" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/charm.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install crush

Fedora/RHEL

echo '[charm]
name=Charm
baseurl=https://repo.charm.sh/yum/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://repo.charm.sh/yum/gpg.key' | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/charm.repo
sudo yum install crush

Or, download it:

Packages are available in Debian and RPM formats
Binaries are available for Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD

Or just install it with Go:

go install github.com/charmbracelet/crush@latest

On illumos (OpenIndiana, OmniOS), the command above works as-is. Only native OS notifications are unavailable there; terminal-based notifications (OSC) and the terminal bell still work. On Oracle Solaris, add -tags sqlite3_dotlk so the local database uses dot-file locking:

go install -tags sqlite3_dotlk github.com/charmbracelet/crush@latest

Warning

Productivity may increase when using Crush and you may find yourself nerd sniped when first using the application. If the symptoms persist, join the Slack or Discord and nerd snipe the rest of us.

Getting Started

The quickest way to get started is to choose a Hyper model from the little model picker. Follow the steps to authenticate and you're ready to go.

Hyper, from Charm, is the official model provider for Crush. It’s built on open-weight models and is optimized for Crush, with an emphasis on high-quality inference. There are subscription and prepaid options, including zero data retention (ZDR). It's also GDPR compliant!

API Keys

You can also use Crush with many other providers such as Anthopic, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter and so on. Press ctrl+l to open the model picker, choose the provider of your choice, and paste your API key.

That said, you can also set environment variables for preferred providers:

Environment Variable	Provider
`HYPER_API_KEY`	Charm Hyper
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	Anthropic
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	OpenAI
`VERCEL_API_KEY`	Vercel AI Gateway
`GEMINI_API_KEY`	Google Gemini
`ZAI_API_KEY`	Z.ai
`MINIMAX_API_KEY`	MiniMax
`SYNTHETIC_API_KEY`	Synthetic
`HF_TOKEN`	Hugging Face Inference
`CEREBRAS_API_KEY`	Cerebras
`OPENROUTER_API_KEY`	OpenRouter
`IONET_API_KEY`	io.net
`ALIBABA_SINGAPORE_API_KEY`	Alibaba (Singapore)
`ALIBABA_US_API_KEY`	Alibaba (United States)
`GROQ_API_KEY`	Groq
`AVIAN_API_KEY`	Avian
`OPENCODE_API_KEY`	OpenCode Zen & Go
`VERTEXAI_PROJECT`	Google Cloud VertexAI (Gemini)
`VERTEXAI_LOCATION`	Google Cloud VertexAI (Gemini)
`AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	Amazon Bedrock (Claude)
`AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	Amazon Bedrock (Claude)
`AWS_REGION`	Amazon Bedrock (Claude)
`AWS_PROFILE`	Amazon Bedrock (Custom Profile)
`AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK`	Amazon Bedrock
`AZURE_OPENAI_API_ENDPOINT`	Azure OpenAI models
`AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY`	Azure OpenAI models (optional when using Entra ID)
`AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION`	Azure OpenAI models
`MOONSHOT_API_KEY`	Moonshot
`XAI_API_KEY`	xAI

Also note that Crush can support nearly any provider, including Local Models. For more info see Custom Providers below.

By the Way

Is there a provider you’d like to see in Crush? Is there an existing model that needs an update?

Crush’s default model listing is managed in Catwalk, a community-supported, open source repository of Crush-compatible models, and you’re welcome to contribute.

Configuration

Tip

Crush ships with a builtin skill for configuring itself. Most of the time you can just tell what you want it to configure and it will get the job done.

Crush runs great with no configuration. That said, if you do need or want to customize Crush, you can, with a crushrc.

A crushrc is just Bash with some Crush-specific builtins. It’s a lot like a .bashrc, just for your Crush. Because Crush has a native, built-in Bash interpreter, Bash-based config works identically across all platforms, including Windows.

For example:

# Add Ollama.
provider add ollama --type ollama --base-url "http://localhost:11434/v1"

# Register a model on Ollama.
model add ollama/llama3.3 --name "Llama 3.3" --context-window 128000

# Auto-approve some tools.
permissions allow view edit

# Include some other file on a specific machine.
if [[ $HOSTNAME == "babysquid" ]]; then
    source ~/my-stuff/babysquid.sh
fi

# Add an MCP server, with a GitHub API token stored in 1Password.
mcp add github \
  --type http \
  --url "https://api.github.com/mcp/" \
  --header Authorization "Bearer $(op read 'op://my-secret-key')"

Configuration can be added either local to the project itself, or globally, with the following priority:

Priority	Unix-like	Windows
1	`./.crushrc`	`.\.crushrc`
2	`./crushrc`	`.\crushrc`
3	`~/.config/crush/crushrc`	`%USERPROFILE%\.config\crush\crushrc`

(Crush respects the XDG Base Directory Specification, so your paths may differ depending on your XDG_CONFIG_HOME value. Data directories such as ~/.local/share/crush and %LOCALAPPDATA%\crush contain JSON state only; Crush does not execute a crushrc from them.)

What about the old JSON format? It’s still supported, but it should be considered deprecated. See: the config docs for details.

Tip

You can override the user and data config locations by setting:

CRUSH_GLOBAL_CONFIG
CRUSH_GLOBAL_DATA
CRUSH_DATA_DIR (overrides the per-project .crush directory)

As an additional note, Crush also stores ephemeral data, such as application state, in one additional location. This is state and should not be edited by hand, nor should it be considered configuration.

# Unix
$HOME/.local/share/crush/crush.json

# Windows
%LOCALAPPDATA%\crush\crush.json

A note on security

Both crushrc and crush.json are trusted code; crushrc runs in a full shell, and any $(...) in crush.json runs at load time. Don't launch Crush in a directory whose config you haven't reviewed, and don't randomly source files from the internet into your config.

Environment Variables

The top-level env field sets environment variables at startup, before providers are configured. This is useful for variables that affect provider authentication (e.g. the AWS SDK credential chain) without wrapping the crush command in a shell script or exporting them in your shell profile:

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "env": {
    "AWS_PROFILE": "my-sso-profile"
  }
}

Values support the same $VAR and $(command) expansion as other config fields, so you can reference existing environment variables or shell out for a value.

Themes

Crush ships with built-in color themes.

Switching Themes

Open the command palette with ctrl+p, select Themes, and browse the list. The UI previews each theme as you navigate, and pressing enter confirms the selection. Press esc to cancel and revert.

Editing Themes

Open Themes, highlight the theme to customize, and press ctrl+e. Changes preview live as you type. Press enter or ctrl+s to save, or esc to cancel and revert. User themes are stored globally in the Crush config directory under themes/.

You can also select a theme directly in your config with active_theme:

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "options": {
    "tui": {
      "active_theme": "gruvbox-dark"
    }
  }
}

Custom theme palettes are stored as JSON files in the global theme directory. For example, ~/.config/crush/themes/my-theme.json:

{
  "base": "gruvbox-dark",
  "primary": "#ff6b6b",
  "bg_base": "#1a1a2e"
}

Select it by setting active_theme to my-theme or from the Themes dialog.

Built-In Themes

Theme	Name
Charmtone Pantera	`charmtone-panther` (default)
Gruvbox Dark	`gruvbox-dark`
Keanu	`keanu`

LSPs

Crush can use LSPs for additional context to help inform its decisions, just like you would. LSPs can be added manually like so:

# crushrc

lsp add go --command "gopls" --env "GOTOOLCHAIN go1.24.5"
lsp add typescript --command "typescript-language-server" --args --stdio
lsp add nix --command "nil"

MCPs

Crush also supports Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers through three transport types: stdio for command-line servers, http for HTTP endpoints, and sse for Server-Sent Events.

# crushrc

# Add a local MCP server that runs a Node.js script.
mcp add filesystem --command node --args /path/to/mcp-server.js \
  --timeout 10 --disabled-tools some-tool-name --env NODE_ENV production

# Add a GitHub MCP server that uses an API token.
mcp add github --type http --url https://api.github.com/mcp/ \
  --timeout 10 --header Authorization "Bearer $GH_PAT" \
  --disabled-tools create_issue --disabled-tools create_pull_request

# Add a streaming MCP server that uses SSE.
mcp add streaming-service --type sse --url "https://example.com/mcp/sse" \
  --timeout 10 --header API-Key "$API_KEY"

MCP OAuth

HTTP and SSE MCP servers that require OAuth can use Crush's built-in authorization-code flow instead of a static Authorization header. Set "oauth": true to enable it:

{
  "mcp": {
    "linear": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.linear.app/mcp",
      "oauth": true
    }
  }
}

Pre-registered clients

Some servers (GitHub, Slack) don't support dynamic client registration. For those, register an OAuth app with the provider and supply the credentials directly. All values support shell expansion:

{
  "mcp": {
    "github": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/mcp/",
      "oauth": true,
      "oauth_client_id": "Iv1.abc123def456",
      "oauth_client_secret": "$GITHUB_MCP_SECRET",
      "oauth_callback_port": 40704
    }
  }
}

When oauth_client_id is set, Crush skips dynamic client registration and authenticates as the specified client. When omitted, Crush attempts dynamic registration automatically (works with Linear, Notion, and other servers that support RFC 7591).

Session

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