AIDA is a lightweight terminal-based AI coding agent that connects to your own model deployment and helps you inspect files, edit code, and work locally with transparent token-based usage.
Think of AIDA as an alternative to tools like Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex, and other coding agent experiences, but with a deliberately simple, local-first terminal interface and a toolset you can clearly see, control, and extend.
AIDA has built-in tools (function-calling) that give it several capabilities:
- Read File - read the contents of a file of any type (txt, pdf, word document, etc.) from the local computer.
- Write File - create a new file on the local computer in the current directory.
- Edit File - edit an existing file by finding and replacing a specific string.
- Delete File - delete a file from the local computer.
- Explore Directory - list all files and sub-directories in a given directory.
- Create Directory - create a new directory (folder) on the local computer.
- Delete Directory - delete an empty directory from the local computer.
- Check Current Time - check the current date and time.
- Read Webpage - make an HTTP GET call to retrieve the contents of a URL endpoint (webpage or document).
- View Image - view an image from a local path or URL.
- Shell - execute a shell command on the host machine (enabled via settings).
In addition to the above capabilities, you can run several commands to manage the interfacing with the LLM (run command /help to list these):
/clear- clear the chat history./tools- list the tools (function calling) available to AIDA./settings- open AIDA's settings menu./auth- authenticate into Foundry if using Service Principal./stats- view usage statistics.
AIDA can be used as a simple, lightweight but effective alternative to enterprise AI Agents like Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot and others.
- Bring your own model - connect AIDA to your own deployment through Microsoft Foundry.
- Transparent token costs - you pay for model tokens directly. No need to familiarize yourself with, or work through, a separate AI coding assistant provider's billing model.
- Transparent tool access - the tools AIDA has are explicit and inspectable, not hidden behind mystery abstractions.
- Local workflow friendly - it can inspect folders, read and edit files, fetch webpages, and optionally use shell commands.
- Open source and easy to modify - if you want to change how it behaves, you can just edit the code.
AIDA is super lightweight and easy to run on Windows and Linux!
To install, download AIDA from the changelog. Place it anywhere you want on your computer. Add it to your path variable so you can call AIDA easily!
You'll then configure AIDA to connect to your model in Microsoft Foundry, choose your authentication method, and optionally enable tools like Shell or built-in Web Search.
If you modify AIDA and want to build it for yourself, here are the dotnet SDK commands you can use!
For windows:
dotnet publish AIDA.csproj -c Release --self-contained true
For linux:
dotnet publish AIDA.csproj -c Release -r linux-x64 --self-contained true