Hygge

Hygge (H(Y)OO-gə) is a terminal AI coding assistant built in Go. It provides a local-first Bubble Tea TUI, streaming model responses, persistent SQLite sessions, tools, plugins, MCP integrations, hooks, subagents, slash commands, and themeable chat UI chrome.

Install

Requires Go 1.26.3 or newer.

go install github.com/cfbender/hygge@latest

With mise:

mise install github:cfbender/hygge@latest

or for the go backend:

mise install go:github.com/cfbender/hygge@latest

For a pinned release:

go install github.com/cfbender/hygge@v0.5.0
mise install go:github.com/cfbender/hygge@v0.5.0

Quick start

Launch Hygge to start the onboarding flow:

hygge

Onboarding creates your first mode. A mode is a reusable agent setup: a name, provider/model choice, and system instructions for a kind of work. Start with the default General mode, then add more focused modes when you want different behavior without rewriting prompts every session.

To set up a starter mode layout from the CLI, authenticate at least one provider, then run hygge init and pick a style:

hygge provider auth 
hygge init

You can also choose a style directly:

hygge init general   # one general engineering mode
hygge init amp       # smart/rush/deep modes plus specialist subagents
hygge init opencode  # build/plan modes plus general/explore/scout subagents

hygge init writes editable prompt files under $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/hygge/prompts/<style>/, updates your user config.toml, and writes subagents.toml for styles that include subagents. Manual configuration via hygge provider auth or environment variables such as ANTHROPIC_API_KEY also work.

Or build from source:

mise install
mise run build
./bin/hygge

What Hygge does

• Streams assistant responses into a terminal chat UI.
• Persists sessions, messages, compaction markers, todos, token usage, and cost in SQLite.
• Resolves provider/model metadata through the Catwalk-backed catalog with an embedded fallback for offline startup.
• Runs model tool calls through built-in tools, plugins, and MCP servers.
• Gates side effects with permissions, project config, hooks, and yolo-mode boundaries.
• Supports slash commands, subagents, skills, memories, prompt attachments, project context files, profiles, themes, model switching, reasoning settings, session forking, and session resume.

Common commands

hygge                         # launch the TUI
hygge --continue              # resume the most recent session for this cwd
hygge --new                   # force a fresh session
hygge resume [id-prefix]      # resume a session
hygge sessions list           # list sessions
hygge sessions show <id>      # inspect a session
hygge sessions delete <id>    # soft-delete a session
hygge version                 # print version and platform info

Configuration and discovery:

hygge config explain [key]
hygge profile list
hygge profile show [name]
hygge profile use <name>
hygge init [general|amp|opencode]
hygge provider auth [name]
hygge provider list
hygge provider remove <name>
hygge catalog list [provider]
hygge catalog show <provider>/<model>
hygge catalog refresh
hygge context list
hygge context paths
hygge context show
hygge theme show

Runtime extensions:

hygge skills list
hygge skills show <name>
hygge skills doctor
hygge subagents list
hygge subagents show <name>
hygge commands list
hygge commands show <name>
hygge hooks list
hygge hooks show <name>
hygge mcp list
hygge mcp tools [server]
hygge mcp ping <server>
hygge mcp doctor
hygge plugins list
hygge plugins show <name>
hygge plugins install <source>
hygge plugins update [name]
hygge plugins remove <name>
hygge plugins types install

Configuration

User config lives at (either filename is accepted; hygge.toml takes precedence over config.toml when both exist):

~/.config/hygge/hygge.toml   (preferred when config.toml is already used by another tool)
~/.config/hygge/config.toml  (existing name, still supported)

or using a custom $XDG_CONFIG_HOME:

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/hygge/hygge.toml
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/hygge/config.toml

Project config can live in .hygge/hygge.toml or .hygge/config.toml in the current directory or any parent project directory. Both are loaded when present; hygge.toml values win over config.toml values within the same directory.

Two additional files are loaded directly from the current working directory (not from .hygge/) with the highest file-based precedence:

• hygge.toml — project-root overrides, committed to version control.
• hygge.local.toml — machine-local overrides, add to .gitignore; wins over everything except environment variables and CLI flags.

Profiles live in:

~/.config/hygge/profiles/<name>.toml

Select a profile with:

hygge profile use work

Example config:

default_profile = "work"

[session]
resume_default = "continue" # "new" | "continue" | "ask"

[model]
provider = "anthropic"
name = "claude-sonnet-4-5"
reasoning = "medium" # "off" | "low" | "medium" | "high"

[catalog]
refresh_interval = "24h"

hygge config explain shows the resolved value and source layer for every setting.

Project context, skills, and subagents

Hygge loads project instructions from common agent files such as AGENTS.md, AGENTS.local.md, CLAUDE.md, and CLAUDE.local.md. Root files are included in the system prompt; subdirectory context files are loaded lazily when tools touch paths under those directories.

Skills are named Markdown procedures discoverable from skills/ directories under user or project config layers. The assistant sees each skill's name and description, then loads the full body with the skill tool when needed.

Subagents are configured in subagents.toml and invoked by the task tool for focused work. Subagent sessions are persisted, auditable, can use per-type tool allowlists and model overrides, and can be referenced from the prompt with @agent:<name> mentions.

Tools and permissions

Built-in tools include filesystem reads/searches, edits, shell commands, skills, todos, memories, and subagent dispatch. Read-only tools can run in parallel; side-effecting tools run serially and pass through permission checks.

Permissions can be granted once, for the session, always, or denied. Project and user config can tune defaults, while hooks can add policy checks before or after tool and message events.

Add a .aiexclude file at the project root to hard-block Hygge's filesystem read and write tools from matching paths. Entries use gitignore-style patterns, for example secrets/, .env.local, or *.pem. These denies apply before normal permissions and yolo-mode, so approved sessions cannot read, write, or edit excluded files.

MCP, hooks, and plugins

MCP servers are configured through mcp.toml and exposed as namespaced tools. Hygge supports stdio, SSE, and Streamable HTTP transports.

Hooks are external commands configured in hooks.toml. They can observe or gate events such as pre_tool, post_tool, pre_message, and post_message. pre_message hooks may return system_prompt_append to add one-turn model context without rendering or persisting that context as user text.

Plugins are Lua modules installed from local paths or GitHub repositories. They can register tools, hooks, slash commands, and subagent types through Hygge's Lua API. For example, quorum uses the plugin system to add extra planning/review subagents that Hygge can fan out to from the same session.

When developing a Lua plugin, initialize editor support with:

hygge plugins dev init

For an existing plugin, run hygge plugins types install to add Hygge's LuaLS type definitions and avoid editor diagnostics for the hygge plugin API.

TUI basics

• Type a prompt and press Enter to send.
• Use / to open slash command completion.
• Use @ to mention repository files or @agent:<name> subagents. Mentioned files are attached to the next prompt as context.
• Use /attach to attach files manually and /attachments clear to clear the pending attachment set.
• Use /compact to summarize older session history.
• Use /model and /reason to inspect or change runtime model settings; Ctrl+T cycles reasoning levels.
• Use /memory, /remember, and /forget to inspect, save, or delete durable facts.
• Use /fork to branch a session from the latest user message or a specific message ID.
• Press Ctrl+E to edit the current prompt in $VISUAL or $EDITOR.
• Use Esc to dismiss popovers or leave a subagent view. While a turn is busy, Esc clears queued prompts and a quick double-Esc interrupts the run.
• Use the sessions UI to resume, switch, or inspect prior sessions.
• Subagent transcripts render as nested, collapsible chat blocks; Ctrl+G follows into the latest subagent transcript.

Development

mise install
mise run build       # compile ./bin/hygge
mise run test        # go test ./... -race -count=1
mise run lint        # golangci-lint run
mise run precommit   # fix + lint + test + build

Release helper:

mise run bump -- patch
mise run bump -- minor
mise run bump -- major

The bump task increments cmd/hygge/cli/cli.go, commits, creates an annotated tag, and pushes the commit and tag. Use it only when intentionally cutting a release.

See docs/releasing.md for the full release process, changelog generation with git-cliff, and required GitHub repository settings (squash-only merges, PR title enforcement).

License

MIT — see LICENSE.