Quickstart
koda needs two things: the koda binary, and a model for it to talk to. This page gets you both and then puts them to work.
From nothing to a fixed bug
Section titled “From nothing to a fixed bug”-
Install koda
Section titled “Install koda”The installer builds from source and offers to install Rust first if you do not have it. It puts the binary in
~/.local/bin— nosudo, no system directories.Terminal window curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simpletoolsindia/koda/master/install.sh | bashTerminal window irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simpletoolsindia/koda/master/install.ps1 | iexIf the bin directory is not on your
PATH, the installer tells you the one line to add. Full options — system-wide installs, the interactive menu, building by hand — are on the Installation page. -
Get a model running
Section titled “Get a model running”Ollama is the shortest path. Any OpenAI-compatible server works — see LLM providers for LM Studio, llama.cpp, vLLM, MLX and the cloud.
Terminal window brew install ollama # or: curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | shollama serve # leave this runningollama pull qwen2.5-coder:14bqwen2.5-coder:14bwants roughly 10 GB of RAM. On a 16 GB machine useqwen2.5-coder:7binstead and expect weaker tool use. -
Point koda at it
Section titled “Point koda at it”Terminal window cd ~/your-projectkoda -u http://localhost:11434/v1 -m qwen2.5-coder:14bOr run
koda, type/setup, and fill in the endpoint, model and API key in the form — it fetches the model list from whatever URL you type and writes your config, so you never pass those flags again. -
Ask for something
Section titled “Ask for something”Type a request the way you would say it to a colleague. koda decides which files to read and which tools to use.
the discount test fails — fix itIt will read the failing test, look up the function in the symbol graph, and propose an edit.
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Approve the change
Section titled “Approve the change”Before any file is written you get a diff and a prompt:
edit cart.py@@ -14,3 +14,3 @@14 def apply_discount(amount, percent):15 - return amount - percent15 + return amount * (1 - percent / 100)apply this edit? y once · a always · n denyPress y to apply it once, a to stop being asked about this tool for the rest of the session, or n to deny — which tells the model to ask you what to do instead.
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Let it check its own work
Section titled “Let it check its own work”Ask it to run the suite. Commands ask for approval the same way.
run the tests
What to try next
Section titled “What to try next”- ctrl+p cycles the mode.
PLANremoves the write and command tools entirely, which is the right place to start an unfamiliar task — see Modes & autonomy. - Type
/to see every command./settingsopens one page holding everything koda can be configured to do. - Prefix a line with
!to run a shell command yourself with no model call and no tokens spent:!git status. - Mention a file with
@to pull it into the message —@report.pdf summarise thisworks on PDFs, spreadsheets and screenshots too. /undoputs back every file the agent changed in the last turn.