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Autonomous Work Engine — plans, acts, recovers, and proves the result

76 skills · 121 tools · 19 providers · 9 channels · AGPL-3.0

Windows · Linux · WSL · macOS (API Mode)

Aiden

Autonomous Work Engine — plans, acts, recovers, and proves the result

Give Aiden a goal. It can work across your files, terminal, browser, supported applications, APIs, repositories, and connected services to get the job done.

76 skills · 121 tools · 19 providers · 9 channels · AGPL-3.0

Windows · Linux · WSL · macOS API mode

Technology, platform, provider, channel, and runtime details

Install · Capabilities · Models · Skills · Commands · Documentation · Discord

aiden.first.message.mp4

Aiden is an autonomous AI engine for real computer work. It can plan multi-step jobs, use your files, terminal, browser, supported applications, APIs, repositories, and connected services, remember what matters, recover from failures, and verify whether the requested result was actually produced. Built solo. Open source. Actively developed.

Why Aiden is useful

Most AI tools stop at advice. Aiden is built to move from a goal to real execution while keeping you in control.

Goal
→ Job
→ Plan & Claims
→ Attempt
→ Effect
→ Approval
→ Execution
→ Evidence
→ Verification
→ Verdict
→ Proof

Aiden does not treat a successful command or a model saying “done” as proof. Jobs, Attempts, Effects, approvals, Evidence, Verification, Verdicts, and Proof are tracked separately so interrupted, stale, conflicting, or externally uncertain work can be recovered and reconciled honestly.

• Give it a job, not dozens of tiny prompts. Aiden can plan and continue through longer, multi-step work.
• Let it use real tools. It can work with files, shell commands, code, browser workflows, APIs, MCP servers, applications, repositories, and channels.
• Stay in control. Risk-tiered approvals, trust levels, budgets, interruption, scoped permissions, leases, and generation fencing keep consequential actions visible.
• See what happened. Jobs, Attempts, Effects, Evidence, tests, artifacts, diagnostics, Verification, Verdicts, and Proof make the work inspectable.
• Use the models you prefer. Choose among 19 providers, subscription-backed sign-in where supported, custom endpoints, or Ollama.
• Run it across your setup. Aiden supports Windows, Linux, WSL, and macOS API mode.

What you can use it for

Use case	Example
Codebase Mode	Snapshot a repository, understand its structure, preserve existing user work, make conflict-safe changes, run structured tests and builds, perform Git operations, and verify the final state with durable Evidence.
Research and reports	Search, compare sources, collect findings, and save a structured deliverable.
Browser workflows	Navigate supported websites, fill forms, work with tabs and dialogs, and capture outcomes.
Background automation	React to files, schedules, email, and webhooks through the opt-in daemon.
Personal operations	Organize files, inspect system state, run repeatable procedures, and remember useful context.
Multi-agent work	Delegate focused parts of a larger job to isolated sub-agents and combine the results.

Good first prompts

Inspect this repository, explain how it works, identify the three highest-risk areas, and support the findings with repository Evidence.

Find the cause of the failing tests, fix the root problem, rerun the relevant tests, and show me exactly what changed.

Research this topic, compare the strongest findings, and save a structured Markdown report.

Try it in 60 seconds

npm install -g aiden-runtime
aiden

That’s it. The first launch opens Aiden’s current setup flow, checks the selected connection, and then hands control to the Operator TUI.

To try the latest release without permanently installing it:

npx aiden-runtime@latest

Want Aiden to react to files, schedules, email, or webhooks? Enable autonomous triggers:

export AIDEN_DAEMON=1          # PowerShell: $env:AIDEN_DAEMON = "1"
aiden trigger add file --path ~/Documents/inbox --label "watch-inbox" --include "*.txt"
aiden                          # boots the REPL + dispatcher

Drop a file in ~/Documents/inbox/anything.txt and Aiden acts on it. The agent turn is visible via aiden runs list.

aiden.skills.video.mp4

What's new in v4.18.0

Aiden v4.18.0 introduces durable Codebase Mode and a substantially rebuilt Operator TUI.

Codebase Mode

• Repository snapshots. Aiden records repository root, VCS state, branch, HEAD, dirty files, untracked files, manifests, lockfiles, hashes, build commands, test commands, CI configuration, and snapshot identity before making changes.
• Safe file changes. Mutations are bound to an Attempt, source snapshot, expected base revision, and Effect. Stale bases, unsafe paths, symlink escapes, and conflicting user edits are blocked rather than silently overwritten.
• Fresh readback and conflict Evidence. Aiden reads changed files back from disk, records hashes and diffs, and preserves durable conflict Evidence when a requested change cannot be applied safely.
• Structured validation. Test, build, and diagnostic runs are bound to repository snapshots and record commands, parsed outcomes, artifacts, failures, and verification state.
• Git Effects. Branch, stage, commit, fetch, pull, push, tag, and related Git operations are represented as reconcilable Effects instead of invisible terminal mutations.
• Repository understanding. Aiden can inventory languages, manifests, source/test relationships, imports, symbols, commands, CI configuration, and architectural signals before planning work.
• Durable execution projection. Runtime plans, code claims, repository operations, Evidence, and Verification are projected into the existing execution graph and Proof system.

Operator TUI

• Semantic activity. Aiden shows meaningful phases such as thinking, planning, inspecting, working, testing, verifying, recovering, and finalizing instead of exposing provider plumbing.
• Summary and full activity modes. Normal operation stays compact, while /activity full exposes deeper execution detail when needed.
• Compact durable Evidence. File changes, test outcomes, diagnostics, readbacks, and Verification are presented separately from the final answer.
• Responsive borderless composer. The input area is wide, multiline, cursor-safe, and free from reflow-prone box borders.
• Stable Windows resizing. Resize transactions preserve terminal ownership without duplicating prompts, activity rows, startup cards, composers, footers, or stale animation frames.
• Native terminal scrollback. Completed prompts and answers remain reviewable through normal PowerShell and Windows Terminal scrolling.
• Preserved operator state. Drafts, Unicode input, queued messages, semantic activity, approvals, cursor position, and the status footer survive resizing and restoration.
• Provider and model identity. Narrow layouts preserve the complete provider/model identity before compressing secondary status information.

See the full v4.18.0 release notes.

Earlier v4 release highlights — v4.17 through v4.5

What's new in v4.17.0

Aiden v4.17.0 unified durable runtime authority with a responsive operator terminal.

• One durable lifecycle. Interactive, one-shot, API, Workbench, daemon, channel, child, and MCP execution share authoritative Job and Attempt transitions.
• Stale-result protection. Generations, leases, fence tokens, terminal-state guards, and persist-first cancellation prevent old work from rewriting current truth.
• Evidence-based completion. Proof, Verdict, exact file readback, Effect reconciliation, and failure-injection coverage strengthen completion claims and recovery.
• Operator TUI foundation. The Aiden startup identity, responsive metadata, composer, status strip, themes, compact outcomes, and durable queue controls share one terminal owner.
• Platform reliability. Windows process cleanup, ConPTY coverage, and cross-platform CI preserve clean startup, activity rendering, and shutdown.

See the full v4.17.0 release notes.

What's new in v4.13

Aiden can now take a job, verify it, and keep going safely.

• Durable autonomy. Every task gets a job-card; Aiden verifies work before claiming success, resumes after restart, avoids duplicate sends/actions, retries recoverable failures, and stops for permissions.
• Evidence-required subagents. Helper agents must return real proof — a file, test result, id, or similar artifact — and Aiden re-checks that proof before trusting the result.
• Trust dial. Choose how much Aiden can do: Observer, Assistant, or Partner. Destructive actions and spending still ask, even at the highest setting.
• Glass dashboard + operator TUI. Watch model, token, budget, elapsed time, and tool steps live. Queue a follow-up, redirect mid-task, or interrupt cleanly while Aiden works.
• One-shot mode + polish. aiden -q "..." for scripting, Discord setup inside the terminal, central cross-platform path handling, and green CI across Windows, macOS, and Linux.

What's new in v4.12

Aiden can now connect outward to MCP servers and operate the browser with more state.

• MCP client. Connect to external MCP servers over stdio and Streamable HTTP, with OAuth 2.0 discovery, dynamic client registration, PKCE, token refresh, reconnects, circuit breakers, and one-command curated installs.
• Approval-gated MCP tools. External tools are model-callable, but gated by approval. Results are redacted and fenced as untrusted input.
• Browser depth. Accessibility-tree snapshots, stable element handles, act-by-reference click/type/fill, stale-element re-resolution, visual screenshot-to-vision support, multi-tab/dialog handling, and local browser attach/launch.
• Safety breadth. Cross-session search, posture-aware skill/tool narrowing, truncate-then-redact tool-output caps, per-session budget enforcement, honest execution-policy messaging, and exfiltration-aware browser guardrails.
• Process manager + activity. Tracked spawns, reliable tree-kill, redacted process listing, shutdown reaping, plus /home and /activity commands.

What's new in v4.11

A reliability release for honest output, better control, and stronger setup.

• Honesty & verification. Per-turn outcome verifier catches failed tool results and contradictions instead of glossing over them.
• Artifact registry. /artifacts tracks files Aiden creates, with provenance: source tool, originating request, and turn link.
• Streaming & control. Streaming delta coalescer reduces terminal writes, while /undo, /retry, /compress, and /usage give direct operator control.
• Task durability. Orphan-task boot sweep retires crashed-session tasks as interrupted; /tasks all shows tasks across sessions.
• Setup polish. Wizard back-navigation and config detection fixes prevent working OAuth/env setups from being mistaken as empty.
• Model updates. DeepSeek V4 Pro and V4 Flash added, model picker table improved, and weak-model UI gating reduces markup leaks.

What's new in v4.10

Aiden becomes inspectable, durable, and finally streams properly.

• Streaming default restored at the wizard layer. display.streaming now defaults to true for fresh installs — restoring what v4.1.4 attempted but couldn't operationally land because the wizard wrote the older default into your config.yaml. Existing users with explicit streaming: false keep their setting and see a one-time per-session disclosure suggesting the flip.
• Durable Task object. Every user prompt creates a persistent task row with status / goal / event back-references. /tasks [active|completed|cancelled|<N>] lists; /adjust <task_id> cancel or /adjust <task_id> goal <new text> controls.
• /trace recent event inspection. Every tool call, permission decision, and task lifecycle event lands in a queryable run_events ledger. Filter by category / kind / name / tool_call_id; scope to the current run, this session, the last N hours, or all.
• Bug D ghost-text cursor fix. Ghost suggestions now render on a footer line below the prompt; cursor lands right after your typed input. Third attempt that actually works — prior two attempts shipped inert because they tried to fight @inquirer/core's cursor manager from inside the rendered string.
• Permission picker scope clarity. Session (this path) / Always (this command) labels carry a dynamic qualifier showing what the scope actually covers.
• Eval harness v1. Contract tests under tests/v4/eval/ protect the v4.10 substrate from regression — PTY-driven where possible, mockProvider-backed for streaming guarantees.

What's new in v4.9.0

Aiden v4.9.0 ships three new feature families:

• Memory — three-namespace persistent memory with CLI and auto-review
• Hooks — secure subprocess hook system with observe, decide, and transform modes plus a full audit trail
• Strategic substrate — UUIDv7 IDs, W3C trace propagation, durable runs, idempotency, and crash recovery

Plus the theme system, MCP integration for supported clients, and substantial UI polish.

See CHANGELOG.md for details.

What's new in v4.8

Aiden's UI got an identity, and pasting actually works now.

v4.8.1 — Paste handling + visual polish

• Robust paste handling. Stateful parser across stdin chunk boundaries, watchdog handling for missing paste-end markers, degraded marker normalization, universal newline normalization, and timing-based accumulation that catches line-by-line paste delivery.
• Markdown tables render as proper grids. Proportional column-width distribution with header-floor minimums.
• Version reporting reads runtime package.json. Boot card and /version no longer report stale numbers after /update install.
• /update install cleanups. Install progress shown via a sliding-shimmer indicator. Install-method detection broadened to Windows user-mode globals.
• Loading indicator + spacing. Indicator aligned with the rest of the terminal surface.
• Status bar timer glyph. Visible at all supported terminal widths.
• Single approval panel per file_write.

v4.8.0 — Events backbone + visual identity

• Watch the agent work. Structured ui_* events let the model emit progress signals instead of writing them as prose.
• Aiden-native visual chrome. Token-sourced design system with centralized palette, glyphs, and spacing.
• Packed status bar. Model name, token ratio, context meter, turn counter, elapsed timer, and state.
• Sliding-block loading indicator.
• Onboarding refresh. ANSI AIDEN banner, capability disclaimer, loading sequence, and Built solo card.
• Markdown polish. Code blocks, lists, and task lists render with Aiden-native formatting.
• Provider routing fixes. Auxiliary calls use configured supporting providers where available instead of consuming the main model unnecessarily.

What's new in v4.6

Aiden now spawns workers and learns from itself.

• Sub-agents. spawn_sub_agent runs a focused child with an isolated context and intersected toolset; subagent_fanout runs multiple children with merge strategies and provider rotation across configured fallback slots.
• Operator kill-switch. /spawn-pause on|off|status blocks new sub-agent spawning while in-flight children continue.
• Self-improvement loop foundation. TCE classifications and recoveries persist to durable SQLite records; /recovery list|show|clear surfaces recurring failure patterns.
• REPL parent-run lineage. Each REPL turn writes a run row; sub-agent children link back through parent lineage.
• PlannerGuard opt-in. Keyword-based per-turn tool narrowing remains optional for smaller local models.
• Onboarding redesign. Provider picker, connection probe, success screen, and /walkthrough guided tour.

What's new in v4.5

Aiden now wakes up by itself.

• Persistent daemon mode (opt-in). AIDEN_DAEMON=1 boots a background service with a SQLite-backed trigger bus.
• Autonomous trigger dispatch. File watchers, webhooks, email polling, and schedules can launch real agent turns.
• Execution guardrails + risk tiers. Filesystem boundaries, dry-run preflight, and optional Docker-backed execution.
• State-aware browser depth. URL, DOM, iframe, and interaction-state capture before and after browser actions.
• Continuous error recovery. Failure classification, bounded retries, cooldowns, dead-letter handling, and recovery reports.
• Live-flip slash commands. Toggle sandbox, TCE, browser depth, daemon behavior, suggestions, and updates without restarting.
• Update notification + /update CLI.

Full v4.5 internals: docs/v4.5/.

Core capabilities

Category	What Aiden does
Inference & providers	19 providers: Anthropic, OpenAI, Groq, Gemini, OpenRouter, Together, NVIDIA NIM, DeepSeek, Mistral, Z.ai, Kimi, MiniMax, Hugging Face, Ollama, Nous Portal, custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints, and additional configured routes. OAuth subscription routing for ChatGPT Plus where supported.
121 built-in tools	Web search and fetch, deep research, YouTube search, browser automation, file operations, process control, shell execution, code execution, system information, screenshots, clipboard, app launch, media controls, MCP bridge, memory operations, session search and recall, skill management, and self-update workflows.
76 bundled skills	Composable workflows with a SKILL.md, optional helper scripts, and tool requirements. Includes GitHub workflows, trading tools, security lookups, Windows administration, Docker management, research, and content workflows.
v4.18 Codebase Mode	Durable repository snapshots, conflict-safe file changes, fresh readback, structured TestRun / BuildRun / Diagnostic records, Git Effects, repository understanding, code claims, Evidence, Verification, and execution-graph projection.
v4.18 Operator TUI	Semantic activity phases, summary/full activity modes, compact Evidence, responsive borderless multiline input, native terminal scrollback, provider/model identity preservation, and stable draft, queue, activity, approval, and cursor restoration during resize.
Self-promoting memory	USER.md + SOUL.md identity, plus durable and recent-session memory. Sessions end with structured summaries, while semantic recall can retrieve relevant earlier work.
Voice	Edge TTS / Windows SAPI text-to-speech and speech-to-text helpers.
Channel adapters	Discord, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Email, Webhook, Twilio SMS, iMessage on macOS, and Signal. Channels use the same agent loop.
Computer use	Screenshot capture, screen-state vision loop, state-aware browser automation, accessibility-tree snapshots, stable element handles, act-by-reference interaction, and partial mouse/keyboard automation.
v4.5 daemon mode (opt-in)	File watcher, webhook, email, and scheduled triggers route through a durable trigger bus consumed by the dispatcher. Off by default.
v4.15 interaction reliability	Single-owner activity and timer lifecycle, exact FIFO queued input, truthful approval and interruption states, responsive startup chrome, stronger claim verification, and clearer recovery guidance.
Plugins	Bundled integrations include a Chrome DevTools Protocol bridge and ChatGPT Plus OAuth. Plugins use explicit permission states such as pending grant, loaded, and suspended.
MCP	Model Context Protocol bridge and client with stdio and Streamable HTTP transports, schema discovery, OAuth, approval-gated external tools, and tool dispatch.
Security moat	Tiered approvals, dangerous-command classification, outcome Verification, artifact provenance, trust controls, memory guardrails, tool narrowing, SSRF-safe fetching, secret/PII scanning, browser exfiltration defenses, and skill governance.

Architecture

Aiden is a durable autonomous work engine rather than a collection of disconnected agent loops.

Goal
→ Job
→ Plan & Claims
→ Attempt
→ Effect
→ Approval
→ Execution
→ Evidence
→ Verification
→ Verdict
→ Proof

A Job represents the requested outcome. Each execution happens through a fenced Attempt with its own generation, lease, cancellation state, budget, and terminal-state protection.

Consequential operations are registered as Effects, bound to exact approvals, executed through the existing authorities, and reconciled when an external outcome is uncertain.

A command exiting with code 0 is not automatically treated as success. Aiden attaches Evidence, performs explicit Verification, records a Verdict, and produces Proof only when the requested Claims are supported.

Codebase Mode extends this same kernel rather than creating a separate coding-agent runtime. Repository snapshots, safe changes, TestRun and BuildRun records, diagnostics, Git operations, code Claims, conflicts, artifacts, and fresh readbacks remain linked to the owning Job, Attempt, Effect, and Evidence records.

The Operator TUI is a projection over this durable state. It does not become the authority for execution. Semantic activity, approvals, queued input, drafts, Evidence, Verification, and final answers are rendered from the same lifecycle and remain recoverable across interruption and restart.

The daemon, channels, MCP surfaces, browser workflows, and interactive terminal reuse the same runtime authorities. Generations, fence tokens, leases, exact approvals, process supervision, restart recovery, Effect reconciliation, and stale-result rejection prevent older work from rewriting current truth.

Detailed historical diagrams and module maps remain available in docs/v4.5/architecture.md.

aiden.first.message.mp4

Install, update, and first run

Linux / WSL / macOS

npm install -g aiden-runtime
aiden

Windows

npm install -g aiden-runtime
aiden

If you hit native-build errors on Windows, confirm that your Node version is supported and that the required native build prerequisites are installed.

Try without installing

npx aiden-runtime@latest

After pulling updates

npm install -g aiden-runtime@latest

Or, from inside a running session:

/update install

Aiden also prompts you on boot when a newer version is available. Use /update auto off to silence automatic update notices.

Uninstall

npm uninstall -g aiden-runtime

To also remove your local Aiden home, including config, sessions, memory, and installed skills:

# Linux / macOS
rm -rf ~/.aiden

# Windows PowerShell
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $env:LOCALAPPDATA\aiden

aiden.first.message.mp4

Recommended terminal setup

For best visual rendering, Aiden looks crispest with:

• Font: Cascadia Code, JetBrains Mono, or Fira Code at 13–14pt
• Terminal: Windows Terminal, iTerm2, or another modern terminal with truecolor support
• Color depth: truecolor / 24-bit

Aiden works on other terminals, but glyphs and color depth may degrade gracefully on older or minimal setups.

Setup wizard

The first time you run aiden, you'll see:

1. Disclaimer screen — honest about what Aiden can touch, including files, browser, and shell
2. Loading sequence — system checks, skills, tools, memory, and runtime initialization
3. Provider picker — choose from supported providers with no hidden default
4. Live model fetch — retrieve the available model catalog from the selected provider where supported
5. Connection probe — validate authentication, model access, and tool-use support
6. Success screen — example prompts to help you get started
7. Operator TUI handoff — enter the interactive terminal with the current composer and status surface

To re-run the wizard later:

aiden setup

To diagnose your environment without re-running setup:

aiden doctor

Switching models

Inside the REPL:

/model

This opens the provider and model picker, shows configured authentication where available, fetches the live model list, and saves your choice to config.yaml.

To set a default through environment variables:

export AIDEN_DEFAULT_PROVIDER=groq
export AIDEN_DEFAULT_MODEL=llama-3.3-70b-versatile

Recommended models

Use case	Best models
Best overall / quality	GPT-5.5 through ChatGPT OAuth, GPT-5, Claude Sonnet 4.6 / Opus, Gemini 2.5 Pro
ChatGPT OAuth / no separate API key	GPT-5.5, GPT-5.4, GPT-5.3 Instant, GPT-5, and other models exposed through the connected ChatGPT plan
Speed + free tier	Groq Llama 3.3 70B, Cerebras Llama 3.3 70B
Fully local	Ollama with capable coding or reasoning models supported by your hardware
Open weights via subscription	Nous Portal and other supported provider routes
Long context	High-context Gemini and other supported long-context models

Quality scales with model capability. Aiden’s output quality depends heavily on the model you choose. Real codebase work, multi-step recovery, and verification generally benefit from the strongest model your budget allows.

ChatGPT subscribers: use the OAuth flow rather than a separate API key where supported. Choose chatgpt-plus as the provider during /model setup, then sign in through the browser. Usage follows the available models and allowances on your connected plan.

Skills

Aiden ships with 76 bundled skills and supports installing more from the community registry.

What are skills?

Skills are composable workflows. Each skill has a SKILL.md prompt, optional helper scripts, and declared tool requirements.

Examples include GitHub PR and issue workflows, trading integrations, security research, Windows administration, Docker management, browser research, document workflows, and content tools.

Managing skills

Action	Command
List installed skills	/skills
Browse the community registry	Visit skills.taracod.com
Install a skill from the registry	/skills install <name>
Remove a skill	/skills remove <name>
Reload skills after edits	/skills reload

Contributing skills

Skills live in skills/ under Apache-2.0. PRs are welcome.

Each skill needs:

• A SKILL.md describing what it does and when to use it
• Optional tool declarations
• Optional helper scripts in lib/

Configuration

Aiden reads ~/.aiden/config.yaml on Linux/macOS or %LOCALAPPDATA%\aiden\config.yaml on Windows. The setup wizard writes a starter configuration on first boot; later changes are merged without replacing unrelated settings.

Common environment variables

Variable	Default	Effect
AIDEN_DAEMON	0	Set to 1 to boot the daemon foundation alongside the REPL
AIDEN_DAEMON_PORT	4200	Daemon HTTP listener port
AIDEN_DAEMON_BIND	127.0.0.1	Loopback-only by default; non-loopback requires AIDEN_API_KEY
AIDEN_DAEMON_DAILY_BUDGET	unset	Hard daily token cap across daemon turns
AIDEN_DAEMON_MODEL	unset	Override the model for daemon turns using <provider>/<model>
AIDEN_SANDBOX	1	Set to 0 to disable supported sandbox controls
AIDEN_TCE	1	Set to 0 to disable continuous error recovery
AIDEN_BROWSER_DEPTH	1	Set to 0 to disable state-aware browser observation
AIDEN_API_KEY	unset	Required for non-loopback daemon binding
AIDEN_NO_UPDATE_CHECK	0	Set to 1 to silence the boot-time update probe
AIDEN_PLANNER_GUARD	0	Set to 1 to enable keyword-based tool narrowing

Most flags can also be changed live through slash commands.

CLI commands

Command	What it does
aiden	Start the Operator TUI and run setup on first launch
aiden -q "..."	Run a one-shot prompt for scripting or automation
aiden setup	Re-run onboarding
aiden doctor	Diagnose providers, authentication, configuration, and environment
aiden --version	Print the installed runtime version
aiden --help	Show the CLI manual
aiden update	Check for and install updates
aiden daemon start	Run the daemon in the foreground
aiden daemon install	Install the daemon as a supported system service
aiden daemon status	Show daemon health, triggers, and recent run history
aiden trigger add file --path <p>	Add a file-watcher trigger
aiden trigger add webhook --label <n>	Add an HTTP webhook trigger
aiden trigger add cron --schedule "<expr>"	Add a scheduled trigger
aiden trigger list	List configured triggers
aiden runs list	List recent interactive and daemon runs
aiden runs show <id>	Inspect a specific run and its tool chain
aiden runs stats	Show aggregate run statistics

In-chat slash commands

Type /help inside Aiden for the complete command list grouped by category.

Configuration

/model · /personality · /skin · /streaming · /reasoning · /verbose · /debug-prompt · /identity

Session

/clear · /cls · /compress · /save · /title · /usage · /undo · /retry · /queue · /activity

System

/sandbox · /tce · /browser-depth · /daemon · /suggestions · /update · /skills · /tools · /plugins · /cron · /runs · /trigger · /tasks · /adjust · /trace · /artifacts · /home · /doctor · /status · /show · /history

Sub-agents

/spawn-pause on|off|status · /recovery list|show|clear · /planner-guard on|off|status

Walkthrough and onboarding

/walkthrough — guided tour of Aiden’s main capabilities

Authentication

/auth login · /auth status · /auth refresh

MCP

/reload-mcp · /setup

Daemon mode (opt-in)

Linux

export AIDEN_DAEMON=1
aiden daemon install
loginctl enable-linger $USER

macOS

export AIDEN_DAEMON=1
aiden daemon install

Windows

See docs/v4.5/daemon-windows.md. Foreground execution with aiden daemon start is recommended for initial testing.

Troubleshooting

Common issues live in docs/v4.5/troubleshooting.md.

Quick reference:

• Daemon already running — inspect and remove a stale daemon runtime lock only after confirming no daemon process is active
• Webhook 401 despite valid HMAC — confirm the expected webhook format
• IMAP authentication failure — Gmail and Outlook commonly require app passwords
• High RSS or slow drain — use the daemon soak tests and inspect active processes
• Boot stuck during setup — non-TTY input may prevent interactive onboarding; configure the provider environment or use a supported non-interactive mode
• An old setup screen appears — remove stale global binaries and reinstall with npm install -g aiden-runtime@latest
• /help does not list a command — some commands require an active session or capability
• npm permission errors on Windows — use a user-writable npm prefix and install into a normal directory rather than a drive root
• Native module version mismatch — run Aiden under the Node version used to install its native dependencies, or reinstall dependencies under the active Node version

aiden.stocks.mp4

aiden.last.mp4

aiden.github.mp4

The book

📖 Omega — A novel about code, solitude, and what builds back. The story behind Aiden and what it means to build alone.

Sponsor

Aiden is free and open source. If it saves you time or you want it to keep getting better, sponsorship helps cover server costs, API testing, infrastructure, and the time required to keep shipping.

Even a one-time tip or a star on the repository is appreciated.

Acknowledgements

Built solo by Shiva Deore at Taracod.

Aiden builds on open-source foundations including TypeScript, Node.js, SQLite, better-sqlite3, Playwright, Chromium, chokidar, croner, inquirer, marked, kleur, the Model Context Protocol, and provider SDKs.

Thank you to everyone building, testing, documenting, and maintaining the foundations that make Aiden possible.

Contributing

Aiden is built solo right now, but contributions are welcome — bug reports, skill submissions, provider adapters, tests, and documentation improvements.

Before opening a PR:

1. Fork the repository
2. Run npm install
3. Make changes on a focused feature branch
4. Run npm run typecheck
5. Run npm run build
6. Test the relevant Aiden workflow locally
7. Open a PR with a clear description of what changed and why

Keep PRs focused. One feature or fix per PR. Be honest about what works, what remains uncertain, and what was tested.

License

• Core runtime: AGPL-3.0. You can self-host, modify, and distribute Aiden as long as covered modifications remain under the AGPL.
• Bundled skills: Apache-2.0.
• Commercial licensing for closed-source derivatives: contact hello@taracod.com.

The planned skills.taracod.com marketplace will support community skills under their declared licenses.

Links

Where	What
🌐 Website	aiden.taracod.com
💬 Discord	discord.gg/CU5wshJW4F
📦 npm	aiden-runtime
🐙 Source	github.com/taracodlabs/aiden
📁 Standalone releases	github.com/taracodlabs/aiden-releases
🧾 Release notes	v4.18.0 · v4.17.0 · v4.16.1 · v4.16.0 · v4.15.1 · v4.15.0 · v4.13.0 · v4.12.0
📖 Book — Omega	Amazon
📚 Docs	docs/v4.5/
💖 Sponsor	razorpay.me/@whitelotus9625
✉️ Contact	contact@taracod.com

Disclaimer

Aiden can read and write files, run shell commands, access the web, operate supported applications, and connect to external services. It is autonomous within the limits you set.

Review permissions carefully, keep backups, use limited credentials, and test important workflows in a safe environment.

Aiden is actively developed, and some capabilities remain experimental or platform-dependent. Report reproducible problems so they can be investigated and fixed.

Built solo by Shiva Deore at Taracod. Started as a hobby project. Improving with every release.

Welcome

• Contributors — bug reports, skill submissions, provider adapters, tests, and documentation PRs are welcome.
• Sponsors and investors — Aiden is built by one person and funded through client work. To help it grow faster, contact contact@taracod.com or sponsor through Razorpay.
• Beta testers — try Aiden on real workflows, file reproducible issues, and share what works and what does not.

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By Taracod · White Lotus

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Give Aiden a job. Watch it work. See what actually happened.