Intro
Salaam is a coding agent for your terminal and editor that keeps working when you close them. A small local service owns each session: its conversation, approvals, checkpoints and results. Close the terminal, open it again tomorrow, or pick up the same session in Zed, and nothing is lost.
Prerequisites
Section titled “Prerequisites”- macOS or Linux. Windows is untested.
- Node 26.7.0 and npm 11.19.0. With nvm:
nvm install 26.7.0. - An account with a model provider, such as an Anthropic API key or a Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot subscription. Salaam works without one, but only replies offline.
Install
Section titled “Install”curl -fsSL https://salaam.sh/install.sh | shsalaam --versionThe installer checks the release’s checksum before installing. salaam and sal
are the same command. For npm, tarballs, upgrades and removal, see
Install and upgrade.
Connect a provider
Section titled “Connect a provider”Set an API key at a hidden prompt:
salaam auth set anthropicOr sign in with a subscription through the provider’s own login:
salaam auth login openai-codexSalaam ships with 41 chat providers. salaam providers list shows them, and
Providers covers keys, OAuth and cloud accounts.
Start in a project
Section titled “Start in a project”cd /path/to/your/projectsalaam codesalaam code starts the service if it is not running and opens this folder’s
latest session, or a new one. New sessions use Claude Sonnet when you have an
Anthropic key; /model picks any other provider and model.
Salaam reads AGENTS.md (or CLAUDE.md) from the repository automatically. Run
/init to have it draft one for you. See Rules.
Ask questions
Section titled “Ask questions”Type a question and press Enter:
How does authentication work in src/server?Type @ to attach a file by name. Press Ctrl+X to see every tool call and its
output.
Make changes
Section titled “Make changes”Every edit and command asks first. The approval shows the diff or the exact command;
press y to approve once, s for the rest of the session, or f to deny with a
reason the agent reads.
When you trust the direction, press Shift+Tab to change the mode:
| Mode | What runs without asking |
|---|---|
| Review | Nothing. Every edit and command asks. |
| Accept edits | Edits inside the project. |
| Auto | Edits, and commands that stay inside the sandbox. |
Commands run in an OS sandbox: they write only inside the project and have no network. See Permissions and Sandbox.
Undo changes
Section titled “Undo changes”/rewind lists your turns. Pick one to put the files back as they were before it,
go back in the conversation, or both. Salaam checkpoints the folder before every turn
in its own shadow repository, so your .git is never touched.
/undo reverses just the last edit.
Come back later
Section titled “Come back later”Close the terminal, or press Ctrl+D. Work that is running keeps running. Later, from the same folder:
salaam -cThe session picker (salaam code --resume, or Ctrl+P) lists every session, this
folder’s first. To work in an editor, see Editors.
Customize
Section titled “Customize”- Terminal: keys, slash commands and views.
- Permissions: modes, approval rules and full access.
- Commands and Hooks: your own slash commands and scripts.
- MCP servers: extra tools for the agent.
- Specialists and teams: delegate work to other agents.
Something wrong? See Troubleshooting.