kimi-k-cli

A self-improving AI coding assistant for your terminal, powered by Moonshot AI's Kimi K2.5 via NVIDIA NIM API. Kimi-K is a standalone agent that can execute commands, edit code, search the web, and even improve its own source code.

Features

• Interactive terminal chat - Just type kimi-k and start talking
• Full tool use - Bash commands, file read/write/edit, directory operations
• Code search - Grep and glob across your codebase
• Web access - Search the internet and fetch web pages
• Persistent memory - Remembers things across sessions
• Self-improvement - Kimi can read/edit its own source code
• Thinking mode - Toggle reasoning traces on/off
• Safety first - Asks permission before executing actions

Quick Start

1. Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• requests library (pip install requests)
• Free NVIDIA API key (see below)

2. Get your free NVIDIA API Key

1. Go to build.nvidia.com/moonshotai/kimi-k2.5
2. Click Login (top right) and create a free NVIDIA account or sign in
3. Once logged in, click the View Code button (top right)
4. In the modal that opens, click Generate API Key
5. Copy the key (starts with nvapi-...)

The free tier is sufficient for development and personal use.

3. Install

One command — works on Windows, macOS, and Linux:

pip install git+https://github.com/suebi76/kimi-k-cli.git

Then configure your API key:

kimi-k --setup

The setup wizard will ask for your API key and test the connection.

Usage

# Interactive chat (default: thinking mode)
kimi-k

# Fast mode without reasoning
kimi-k --instant

# One-shot question
kimi-k "Create a Python Flask API with user authentication"

# With custom system prompt
kimi-k -s "You are a Go expert"

# Auto-approve all tool executions
kimi-k --auto

# Configure API key
kimi-k --setup

Tools (11 built-in)

Tool	Description
bash	Execute any shell command
write_file	Create or overwrite files
edit_file	Find & replace in existing files
read_file	Read file contents
list_directory	List files and directories
grep_search	Search file contents with regex
glob_find	Find files by pattern
web_search	Search the internet (DuckDuckGo)
web_fetch	Fetch and read web pages
memory	Persistent key-value memory
self_improve	Read/edit own source, backup, changelog

Slash Commands

Command	Description
/thinking on|off	Toggle thinking/reasoning mode
/auto on|off	Auto-approve tool execution
/clear	Clear conversation history
/cd <path>	Change working directory
/memory	List saved memories
/reload	Reload after self-improvement
/version	Show version info
/changelog	Show self-improvement history
/tokens <n>	Set max output tokens
/help	Show help
/quit	Exit

Self-Improvement

Kimi can improve itself. Just ask:

• "Add syntax highlighting to your code output"
• "Read your own code and suggest improvements"

How It Works

User Input -> Kimi K2.5 API (NVIDIA NIM) -> Tool Calls -> Execute Locally -> Feed Results Back -> Response

The CLI implements an agent loop: Kimi decides which tools to use, the CLI executes them locally, and feeds results back until Kimi has a final answer. Up to 25 iterations per turn.

Configuration

File	Purpose
.env	NVIDIA API key
.kimi-memory.json	Persistent memory (auto-created)
.kimi-changelog.json	Self-improvement log (auto-created)

API

Uses the NVIDIA NIM API (OpenAI-compatible). Free tier available for development.

• Model: moonshotai/kimi-k2.5
• Parameters: 1T total, 32B activated (MoE)
• Context: 256K tokens
• Capabilities: Text, image, video input; reasoning; tool use

License

MIT