nanopi

No Node. No Python. No node_modules.

A coding-agent CLI you can scp onto a box that has no runtime — a single ~4 MB static Rust binary, ported from Pi. Runs on Alpine, on CentOS 6, and anywhere npm install isn't an option.

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Why nanopi?

• 🚫 Zero runtime dependencies — no Node, no Python, no package manager. Download one file, chmod +x, run.
• 🖥 Runs on ancient boxes — glibc 2.12+ (CentOS 6), or the fully static musl build on Alpine and anything else
• 🪶 ~4 MB static binary — musl + LTO + strip (the download is 1.6 MB, UPX-packed)
• 🧬 PI-parity — mirrors Pi's surface: JSONL sessions, hooks, skills, -p, /fork, /resume
• 🔌 Multi-provider — any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (DeepSeek, ollama, vLLM, …) plus native Anthropic
• 🛠 Streaming tool calls — read / write / edit / bash, rendered live in a ratatui TUI
• 🪝 Claude Code hooks — PreToolUse / PostToolUse / UserPromptSubmit shell hooks
• 🧠 Agent Skills — spec-compliant SKILL.md discovery + /skill:name expansion

Background — why nanopi exists

Pi is a great coding agent, but its upstream chose not to support certain environments that real users need:

Three separate people asked for musl builds, old-glibc compatibility and a lighter startup; upstream closed all three as not planned. That is a reasonable call for them — Pi targets modern machines — but it leaves the old-hardware case unserved. nanopi is a Rust rewrite for exactly that case:

• Static musl build — zero runtime deps, runs in Alpine containers (see release.yml for the CI matrix)
• glibc 2.12+ (CentOS 6) — the dynamic build covers old servers; the musl build covers everything else
• ~4 MB — Rust + LTO + opt-level = "z" + panic = abort + strip; the published binary is UPX-packed down to 1.6 MB
• Prebuilt for linux-x86_64, linux-x86_64-musl, macos-aarch64 and windows-x86_64. Linux ARM is not prebuilt yet — build from source with cargo build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-musl.

Install

Prebuilt binaries

Grab a build from Releases:

# Adjust VERSION to the tag you want (e.g. v0.9.1)
VERSION=v0.9.1
curl -L -o nanopi \
  "https://github.com/ChrisZhangJin/nanopi/releases/download/${VERSION}/nanopi-${VERSION}-linux-x86_64-musl"
chmod +x nanopi
./nanopi --version

Per release, prebuilt binaries ship for:

• nanopi-<ver>-linux-x86_64-musl — fully static Linux, works on anything (recommended)
• nanopi-<ver>-linux-x86_64 — dynamic glibc Linux, slightly smaller
• nanopi-<ver>-macos-aarch64 — Apple Silicon (M1+)
• nanopi-<ver>-windows-x86_64.exe — Windows 10/11

macOS Intel isn't prebuilt (GitHub runner supply is scarce); build from source with cargo build --target x86_64-apple-darwin.

Build from source

# One-time host setup
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y --default-toolchain stable --profile minimal
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"
rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
sudo apt install -y musl-tools build-essential   # Debian/Ubuntu

# Build
cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
./target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/nanopi --version

Quick start

export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
export OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.deepseek.com/v1
export OPENAI_MODEL=deepseek-v4-flash

# Interactive TUI (default)
nanopi

# One-shot -p mode (Claude Code semantics)
nanopi -p "read /etc/hostname and tell me what you see"

# JSON output for scripting
nanopi -p --output json "say hi"

# Prompt piped on stdin
echo "explain this error" | nanopi -p

# Resume: last session / by id / fork
nanopi --continue
nanopi --session <id>
nanopi --fork <id>

CLI

Skills

Nanopi implements the Agent Skills spec. Drop a SKILL.md into ~/.nanopi/skills/<name>/:

---
name: greet
description: Greet the user warmly. Use for hellos.
---
Say "hi, friend" — nothing else.

Invoke explicitly, or let the model discover it via the auto-appended <available_skills> block in the system prompt:

/skill:greet             # expands SKILL.md into the message
/skill:greet in french   # extra args are appended

Locations (earlier wins on name collisions):

• User: ~/.nanopi/skills/
• Project: <cwd>/.nanopi/skills/ (only when trusted via -a or persisted decision)
• CLI: --skill <path> (files or dirs; loads even with --no-skills)

Custom system prompt

--system-prompt <text|path> replaces the built-in identity/guidelines prompt; --append-system-prompt <text|path> (repeatable, values joined by a blank line) adds text after it. Both accept literal text OR a path to an existing file. Either flag suppresses the matching file discovery below entirely — no merge.

Without a flag, nanopi discovers:

• <cwd>/.nanopi/SYSTEM.md (only when the project is trusted via -a or a persisted decision), then ~/.nanopi/SYSTEM.md — for --system-prompt.
• <cwd>/.nanopi/APPEND_SYSTEM.md (same trust rule), then ~/.nanopi/APPEND_SYSTEM.md — for --append-system-prompt.

Project beats global; the global file needs no trust gate (it's your own machine, not a cloned repo). Context files, skills, and the "Current working directory: …" line still apply on top of a custom prompt — only the identity/tools/guidelines section is replaced. Caveat: a replaced prompt drops the auto-generated "Available tools: …" line, and some models skip tool calls without it, so mention the tools you expect the model to use.

Hooks

Shell hooks fire around tool calls, matching Claude Code's PreToolUse / PostToolUse / UserPromptSubmit protocol. Configure in ~/.nanopi/settings.toml:

[[hooks.pre_tool_use]]
matcher = "^bash$"
command = "logger 'nanopi about to shell out'"

Keys are snake_case (pre_tool_use, not PreToolUse). Full protocol in docs/v0.5-research.md §6.

Versions

Sizes are the published musl artifact. From v0.10.0 that artifact is UPX-packed (make), so 1.6 MB is not comparable to the unpacked figures above it — the same build is 4.4 MB before packing.

Roadmap

• v1.0 — full PI parity: themes, compaction, extension system
• Linux aarch64 not yet in the CI matrix (see cargo build --release --target aarch64-unknown-linux-musl above)

Cargo mirror (China)

Add to ~/.cargo/config.toml for faster crate downloads:

[source.crates-io]
replace-with = "rsproxy-sparse"

[source.rsproxy-sparse]
registry = "sparse+https://rsproxy.cn/index/"

[target.x86_64-unknown-linux-musl]
linker = "musl-gcc"

Design notes

• musl + LTO + panic=abort + strip → small static binary. rustls avoids the OpenSSL dep.
• Hand-written SSE parser — no reqwest-eventsource, keeps the dep tree lean.
• JSONL over JSON — append-only files survive crashes mid-write.
• Provider abstraction landed in v0.6; native Anthropic + any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

See docs/v0.5-research.md and docs/PLAN.md for design + implementation notes.

Credits

• Pi — the upstream TypeScript agent nanopi ports.
• Claude Code — hook protocol, -p mode, skills spec.
• ratatui & crossterm — the TUI foundation.

License

MIT © Chris Zhang