HeyCode

Overview

HeyCode is a local-first, AI-powered coding assistant built to help developers build and edit codebases directly from their command line. Instead of switching context to a browser, HeyCode lives inside your terminal workflow and brings AI assistance to the code you are already working on.

Key Features

• Local-first architecture — your code context stays on your machine. The assistant operates on your codebase without requiring your source to be uploaded to a third-party service.
• Terminal-native experience — built with an Open TUI interface so it feels like a natural extension of your CLI workflow.
• Multi-model support — integrates the Vercel AI SDK to route requests to multiple model providers.
• Persistent local storage — uses SQLite for storing project state and history locally, with a WAL mode configuration for better concurrency.
• Codebase-aware editing — uses the Model Context Protocol to give the model well-scoped, relevant context about the repository.

Architecture

The project is structured as a monorepo, with the terminal UI, the backend server written in Hono.js, and a shared set of developer tooling.

// Example of wiring a model through the AI SDK in HeyCode
import { generateText } from "ai";
import { openai } from "@ai-sdk/openai";

const result = await generateText({
  model: openai("gpt-4o"),
  prompt: "Summarize the changes in this diff",
});

Tech Stack

• Open TUI — terminal user interface
• Hono.js — lightweight backend framework
• Drizzle ORM — typed database access
• AI SDK — model-agnostic AI integration
• SQLite — local, file-based persistence
• MCP — Model Context Protocol for tool grounding