hexiel is an AI coding agent for your terminal and browser. It reads your project,
runs your tests, fixes bugs and builds features — on local models running on hardware you
already own, or on any big cloud model when you want one.
AI coding tools are amazing — and most of them are a monthly bill wired to someone else's
servers. hexiel gives you the same kind of agent, but you own it, you choose the model, and it's designed to be
fast on the computer you already have.
⌂ Local-first
Runs on Ollama, vLLM or LM Studio on your own machine or home server. Your code never has to leave your
network. Prefer a frontier model for a hard problem? Switch to Claude, GPT, Gemini or OpenRouter in one
command.
⚡ Fast on modest hardware
Anything that doesn't need a model — searching, mapping the project, waiting on tests, parsing logs —
runs locally in Python. A lean prompt halved the time to process each request on an Intel iGPU mini-PC
(46.5 s → 23.7 s).
♥ Free, and staying that way
Open source under GPLv3 with the Commons Clause. Use it, change it, share it, contribute back — free.
It just can't be repackaged and sold without permission, so no one can turn it into the subscription
it was built to replace.
Everything you'd expect. Plus what you'd wish for.
Two interfaces, one agent
A fast full-screen terminal UI and a browser UI share the same brain — plus one-shot headless runs
for scripts and an OpenAI-compatible API, so tools like OpenWebUI can talk to it.
Type / for a command menu with descriptions
A live activity line shows what it's doing, how long, how many tokens
Edits and commands ask first — or go hands-free with /auto
Remembers, plans and picks up where it left off
Reads your project's AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md, keeps file-based memory, and
tracks multi-step work in a todo.md that it maintains automatically — so if your
laptop dies mid-task, hexiel -c resumes from an accurate checkpoint.
Auto-compaction at a Claude-Code-sized context window
Durable facts are saved to memory automatically
Each project keeps its own history and state
Every model you can use — right now
Press Ctrl+P: hexiel asks every provider you're connected to what's available at that
moment — your local Ollama, Ollama Cloud, Claude, OpenAI, OpenRouter — and lets you search and switch.
Never a stale list.
You're in control of every setting
Open /config (or ⚙ Settings in the browser), click a value, pick from the real options —
including the models your server actually has — and choose this session or
save permanently.
Edits one line of your config and keeps your comments
Updates itself with /update and resumes your conversation
Researchers, analysts and small-business owners: ask in plain English. hexiel does
the work locally — the AI only sees summaries, so it's fast on a small computer and cheap on a cloud model.
▦ Spreadsheets & data
"Which region beat its target — sales.csv vs targets.xlsx?" hexiel answers with real SQL over your
CSV, Excel and Parquet files and edits Excel without breaking your formatting.
⛁ Your own database
"Keep a list of my customers and invoices." hexiel creates and maintains a private local
database for you — no servers, no setup — or connects to Firebase and Supabase.
⏰ Jobs on a schedule
"Every Monday at 8am, summarise last week's sales and flag anything odd." It runs even when hexiel
is closed — on Linux, macOS and Windows — and the result lands in your inbox.
◔ Charts in seconds
"Chart revenue by month." You get an interactive chart that opens in any browser.
⌕ Research with sources
Ask a big question: hexiel reads many pages at once and writes a report with numbered sources.
Or drop in your PDFs and Word files and get answers that cite the exact page.
⚙ Connect your tools
One command adds Firebase, Supabase, Notion, GitHub or a real browser — plus any MCP server you already use.
How hexiel compares
Claude Code, opencode and Aider are excellent tools — we use and respect them. Here's an
honest look at where hexiel fits. Facts checked against each project's official docs on
.
hexiel compared with Claude Code, opencode and Aider
Measured on an Intel iGPU mini-PC, not a datacenter. Searching, mapping, waiting on tests and parsing
run in Python; a python tool batches many steps into one local script; the prompt is kept lean.
Thinking can be switched off per model for speed.
Upkeep it does for you
Multi-step requests become tracked tasks with a checkpoint refreshed after every step, and durable facts
are saved to memory during compaction — in Python, at zero token cost.
Fits into OpenWebUI
Serve hexiel as an OpenAI-compatible model that OpenWebUI (or any OpenAI client) can connect to, and run
existing OpenWebUI tool, pipe and filter plugins inside hexiel without porting them.
Fixes and ships through merge requests
Crashes are recorded as incidents; /heal reproduces, fixes, tests and proposes a merge
request, and /ship turns your work into one. Nothing merges without a human.
Which one is right for you?
If you live on Claude models and want deep IDE and desktop integration, Claude Code is
superb. If you want a permissive MIT license, opencode is a great choice. If you want a lightweight git-centric pair programmer, Aider is proven. If you want
an agent that is free, runs well on modest local hardware, maintains its own memory and todo, and plugs
into OpenWebUI — that's what we built hexiel for.
Try it in two minutes
You need Python 3.11+ and a model: Ollama for local, or an
API key for a cloud provider.
pipx install 'hexiel[serve]' # or: pip install 'hexiel[serve]'
ollama pull qwen3.6:35b-a3b-coding # or use a cloud API key
cd ~/your-project && hexiel
winget install Microsoft.PowerShell
pipx install "hexiel[serve]" # or: pip install "hexiel[serve]"
ollama pull qwen3.6:35b-a3b-coding # or use a cloud API key
cd your-project; hexiel
Want to hack on hexiel itself? Install from source.
Run hexiel --doctor any time for preflight checks with copy-paste fixes, or
hexiel --serve for the browser UI.
Who we are, and why hexiel exists
hexiel is designed and built by JKagiDesigns LLC,
a software studio in Kingston, Massachusetts. Our day job is building custom business software for small
companies — software that replaces the subscriptions that cost too much or do too little.
We wanted an AI coding agent that worked the same way: one you own. One that runs on the mini-PC
in the closet instead of a monthly bill, that doesn't waste tokens watching a test suite scroll by, and that
you can open up and improve. So we built hexiel — a guardian angel for your codebase — and we're giving it
away.
The name nods to that idea of a watchful helper; the logo is a pair of wings around an H,
under a halo.
Use hexiel free, at home or at work, on any project
Read, study and modify the source code
Share it and fork it
Contribute improvements back through a merge request
You can't
Sell hexiel, or a product or service whose value comes from it, without permission from JKagiDesigns LLC
License: GPLv3 with the Commons Clause.
Want to build something commercial on top of it? Talk to us.
Questions
Is hexiel really free?
Yes. The tool costs nothing and has no subscription. If you use a cloud model you pay that provider for
what you use; local models are free.
Can it run completely offline / locally?
Yes — point it at Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible server on your machine or LAN. Web search obviously
needs the internet, but everything else works locally.
What hardware do I need for local models?
Our test machine — an Intel mini-PC with integrated graphics — runs a 35B mixture-of-experts coding
model at about 12 tokens/second. That model needs roughly 25 GB of memory, so plan for 32 GB of RAM or more.
Smaller machines can run smaller models, or use a cloud model.
Which local model should I use?
Mixture-of-experts models with ~3B active parameters that support tool calling and vision —
qwen3.6:35b-a3b-coding passed all our checks. Set reasoning_effort = "none" on slow
hardware so it doesn't spend minutes "thinking".
Will my existing Claude Code skills work?
Yes. hexiel reads ~/.claude/skills directly, plus OpenWebUI tool/pipe/filter plugins.
Does hexiel support MCP?
Yes — local (stdio) and remote (HTTP) MCP servers. It reads Claude Code's .mcp.json format,
so existing setups work unchanged, and you can expose only some of a server's tools to keep prompts
small on modest hardware. /mcp shows what's connected.
What happens when hexiel finds a bug in itself?
Run /heal (optionally describing the bug). hexiel fixes and tests it in an isolated copy of
its own source — never in your project — then shows you every changed file with a diff. Untick anything
you don't want, then send it back as a merge request so every user benefits, or
keep it just for yourself.
How fast can I connect my favourite model?
One command: /model add sonnet, gpt, gemini, deepseek,
kimi, openrouter, ollama-qwen and more. hexiel --presets
lists them all, and MODELS.md
has copy-paste config for each.
I'm not a programmer — can I still use it?
Yes. Ask about your spreadsheets ("which product sold best last quarter?"), have it keep a small
database for you, make charts, research a topic with sources, or schedule a weekly report. It works in
the browser too: hexiel --serve.
Is it safe to let an AI run commands?
By default every edit and command asks for your approval first. The browser UI is local-only unless you
explicitly expose it, and it warns you loudly if you do.
How do I contribute?
Fork, branch, open a merge request — or let hexiel do it with /ship. Changes are reviewed
and approved by the maintainers.
