IOSM CLI
AI Engineering Runtime for Professional Developers — terminal coding agent with IOSM methodology, MCP, checkpoints, orchestration, and extensions
What is IOSM CLI?
IOSM CLI is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to ai engineering runtime for professional developers — terminal coding agent with iosm methodology, mcp, checkpoints, orchestration, and extensions
AI Engineering Runtime for Professional Developers — terminal coding agent with IOSM methodology, MCP, checkpoints, orchestration, and extensions
This server falls under the Coding Agents category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- AI Engineering Runtime for Professional Developers — termina
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx iosm-cliConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use IOSM CLI
IOSM CLI is a terminal-native AI engineering runtime for professional developers that brings structured, measurable code improvement to real codebases through the IOSM methodology — Improve, Optimize, Shrink, Modularize. It provides a rich tool suite including file operations, grep, AST analysis, test running, linting, and Git integration, with multi-agent orchestration, Git-based checkpointing for rollback, and a cycle-based artifact system that records every hypothesis and outcome. Senior engineers and team leads who want disciplined, trackable AI-assisted refactoring with safety guarantees will find IOSM CLI's structured approach to codebase improvement more reliable than ad-hoc AI coding sessions.
Prerequisites
- Node.js 20.6.0 or later installed
- An API key for at least one supported LLM provider: Anthropic (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY), OpenAI (OPENAI_API_KEY), Google Gemini (GEMINI_API_KEY), or Groq (GROQ_API_KEY)
- Git installed and initialized in the project you want to work with
- npm for global installation
Install IOSM CLI globally
Install the IOSM CLI globally via npm to make the `iosm` command available system-wide.
npm install -g iosm-cliVerify installation
Check the installed version to confirm the installation succeeded.
iosm --versionSet your LLM provider API key
Export the API key for your preferred LLM provider. Anthropic's Claude is the recommended provider for IOSM CLI.
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-your-key-here"
# Alternatives:
# export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
# export GEMINI_API_KEY="AI..."
# export GROQ_API_KEY="gsk_..."Authenticate interactively (optional)
Alternatively, run the interactive login command inside an IOSM session to configure your provider through a prompted wizard.
iosm
# Then inside the session:
/loginStart an interactive engineering session
Navigate to your project directory and launch IOSM in interactive mode. The agent has access to your filesystem, can run tests, grep code, and execute shell commands with your approval.
cd /path/to/your/project && iosmRun a one-shot task
For non-interactive use, pass a task directly with the `-p` flag. IOSM will execute it and store artifacts in `.iosm/cycles/<cycle-id>/` for review.
iosm -p "Audit src/ for unused exports and generate a report"Use read-only planning mode
Run in planning mode to get an improvement plan without making any file changes. Useful for reviewing what IOSM would do before authorizing modifications.
iosm --profile planIOSM CLI Examples
Client configuration
IOSM CLI runs as a standalone terminal agent, not as an MCP server with a JSON config block. The following shows the standard Claude Desktop MCP config if using it as an MCP integration.
{
"mcpServers": {
"iosm-cli": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["iosm-cli"],
"env": {
"ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "sk-ant-your-key-here"
}
}
}
}Prompts to try
Use these task descriptions in interactive mode or with the `-p` flag for structured codebase improvement:
- "Audit src/ for unused exports and remove them, creating a checkpoint before changes"
- "Identify the top 3 performance bottlenecks in the database module and propose optimizations"
- "Shrink the UserService class by extracting helper methods into a separate utility module"
- "Run the test suite and fix all failing tests without changing test assertions"
- "Analyze the codebase for modules with more than 500 lines and propose a modularization plan"Troubleshooting IOSM CLI
`iosm` command not found after global npm install
Check that npm's global bin directory is in your PATH. Run `npm bin -g` to find the directory and add it to your shell's PATH configuration (e.g., in ~/.zshrc: `export PATH="$(npm bin -g):$PATH"`). Alternatively use `npx iosm-cli` to run without global installation.
Node.js version error on startup
IOSM CLI requires Node.js 20.6.0 or later. Check your version with `node --version`. Use nvm (`nvm install 20 && nvm use 20`) or download the latest LTS from nodejs.org to upgrade.
Agent makes file changes without expected checkpoint
IOSM stores cycle artifacts in `.iosm/cycles/<cycle-id>/` and uses Git for checkpointing. Ensure your project is a Git repository (`git init` if not). Run in `--profile plan` mode first to review planned changes before authorizing modifications.
Frequently Asked Questions about IOSM CLI
What is IOSM CLI?
IOSM CLI is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that ai engineering runtime for professional developers — terminal coding agent with iosm methodology, mcp, checkpoints, orchestration, and extensions It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install IOSM CLI?
Follow the installation instructions on the IOSM CLI GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with IOSM CLI?
IOSM CLI works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is IOSM CLI free to use?
Yes, IOSM CLI is open source and available under the MIT license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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