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Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md and the repository AGENTS.md for contribution rules.

Setup

Use Node.js ^22.12.0 || >=23.3.0 and a compatible npm version:

git clone https://github.com/BaseModelAI/base-context.git
cd base-context
npm ci
npm run build:source
node packages/coding-agent/dist/bundle/cli.js

To use a checkout in another project, change to that project and run the built CLI by its absolute path:

cd /path/to/project
node /absolute/path/to/base-context/packages/coding-agent/dist/bundle/cli.js

See installation for Python bootstrap and manual runtime options.

Product and package names

The public CLI package is @ponythewhite/base-context; the binary is base-context. The other public packages are @ponythewhite/base-context-ai, @ponythewhite/base-context-agent, and @ponythewhite/base-context-tui. The bundled Python distribution is base-context-runtime; its import remains rlm.

Some extension interfaces and package manifests retain the pi API/key. Provider identifiers such as prime-inference and PRIME_API_KEY keep their real provider meaning. Do not rename these just because the product is a fork.

Local configuration

Global configuration lives under ~/.base-context. Project settings and resources use .base-context/. BASE_CONTEXT_HOME selects a separate absolute global root; BASE_CONTEXT_SESSION_DIR controls session storage independently.

Use an isolated root for development sessions:

BASE_CONTEXT_HOME=/absolute/path/to/dev-state \
  node /absolute/path/to/base-context/packages/coding-agent/dist/bundle/cli.js

This separates product state. It is not a security or network sandbox.

Daemon protocol changes

Classify daemon command, event, and response-shape changes by their compatibility impact. Follow the protocol and schema requirements in the repository instructions before changing the wire contract.

Package assets

Use src/config.ts helpers for packaged assets rather than resolving them directly from __dirname:

import { getPackageDir, getThemeDir } from "./config.js";

Debugging

Daemon, worker, client, and provider diagnostic logs are under ~/.base-context/logs/. Logs and session exports can contain private work; inspect them before sharing.

base-context status
base-context doctor
base-context doctor --fix
base-context shutdown

Local checks

The repository check formats files, lints, checks types, and runs installer/browser smoke checks. It does not run the test suite:

npm run check

Run only the focused tests relevant to a change. From the coding-agent package:

cd packages/coding-agent
npx tsx ../../node_modules/vitest/dist/cli.js --run test/specific.test.ts

Use the repository's test harness and faux providers rather than live provider credentials. Benchmark reproduction is documented separately in the benchmark guide; ordinary source setup does not require a benchmark run.