ELU

A full-screen terminal app that runs coding sessions on the AI command lines you already use, with bots that review and do work, and teammates you can ask.

Install

From your home folder, not inside a project you do not trust:

npx -y @elu-labs/elu

This opens ELU and installs the elu command; next time you type elu. To install a given version, name it: npx -y @elu-labs/elu@0.1.12.

You need macOS or Linux, Node 22 or newer, Git, Claude Code signed in, and Codex installed (no sign-in needed; its sandbox runs your project's checks): npm install --global @openai/codex. Using Antigravity? Read its page first. More in Install details.

Start

elu

The first start asks for a project name; later starts open your last project. Type a message and press Enter. That starts a session: the model answers, or edits in a new Git worktree on its own branch. Then the project's checks run and @reviewer reviews the change. Nothing is pushed until you type /publish and confirm.

What installing, building and testing leave in the worktree is not a change when Git ignores the folder itself: node_modules, vendor, .venv, venv, __pycache__, *.egg-info, .eggs, .next, dist, build, coverage, htmlcov, .pytest_cache, .hypothesis, .turbo, .cache, target and the like, and an ignored .coverage file. Nothing in those folders is read, so a link or a large file there never stops a session, and none of it is published. A folder of one of those names that Git does not ignore, such as a tracked src/build, is an ordinary folder. Any other ignored file the model writes fails the no-ignored-output check, and one that looks like a secret, such as .env or src/build/.env, fails secret-paths; a link among them is never followed.

A worktree sits beside its repository, in a folder named after it with .elu-code added (shop.elu-code beside shop). When a Task edits the project folder itself and the folder has no commits yet, ELU first commits its files there as Start project history, running git init if it needs to, and pushes nothing. A file that looks like a secret, such as .env, stops it until .gitignore keeps that file out.

Click a tab's name. Or press Tab until the tab row is selected, choose with ← and →, and press Enter.

Tasks

Ask for a change to code or files, or for work that needs planning, and the first reply is a Task: a title, a description, the goal, the objectives that say when it is done, a priority, a severity, the success criteria that show it is done, and the model's estimate of the work. Nothing is edited yet.

Typing yes and Enter approves too. A question gets a plain answer and no Task. A follow-up inside an approved Task's goal starts at once; a new piece of work gets a Task of its own. An approved Task gives its session its name, unless you named the session yourself.

On the Kanban tab a session with a Task shows as that Task: its title, how far it is, its priority and its severity. One that waits for your approval is under Needs you. Enter opens the whole Task, as does a click: the goal, the objectives, the success criteria, the subtasks and the ETA. Its Go to session button opens its session; Enter presses it. A teammate's card, and one of your other computer's, open the same way.

After you approve, the model splits the work into subtasks and changes them as it likes. The card lists them as a checklist and marks the objectives the model reports met. Its ETA is approval plus the estimate, and follows the minutes left the model reports as it works. The Task is done when every objective is reported met and the turn, with its checks and review, has ended. A new message opens it again.

ELU starts the edit only for a Task you approved. What the model can still do in its first turn depends on the vendor and the mode: docs/permissions.md.

Commands

Type these in the message box. / alone lists every command, and /help explains the keys.

You can send a message at any time. One sent while the session is working waits in the chat and is sent by itself when that turn ends; several go together, in order. ↑ in the empty message box takes the newest one back so you can change it.

A schedule also runs while ELU is closed, through a login item, once ELU is installed (not run through npx). On macOS, while an agent works or a schedule is on, ELU stops the Mac from going to sleep on its own (caffeinate -i); the display can still sleep. Schedules show in the Sessions tab under Scheduled: p pauses one and x deletes it. A time is in 30m, every 2h (15 minutes to 7 days), daily 9:00, weekdays 9am, mon,thu 14:30, tomorrow 15:00 or 2026-12-01 9:00, in this computer's local time. The model cannot make a schedule itself: asked to repeat work, it gives you the /schedule line to type.

Permissions

Each session runs in one of three modes. /permissions ask, auto or full changes it, and /permissions default auto sets what new sessions start with.

• Ask for approval (ask, the default): edits the session's files and asks you before anything else, the internet included. Codex cannot ask you during a turn, so there these are refused and reported.
• Approve for me (auto): edits the session's files; a reviewer model, not you, decides the rest. Commands get no internet unless the reviewer lets one leave the sandbox. On Grok Build, what its reviewer refuses then asks you.
• Full access (full): any file, any command, the internet, with no sandbox. That includes push, tags, merges, publishing and deploys: the never list below does not apply.

When the model asks, y allows and n denies; f allows and gives that session Full access. a allows and keeps a narrow rule, such as npm test or git diff, for this project or all of them, so it is not asked again. Reads in the project, git reads and the project's own test, lint and build scripts run without asking from the start. /permissions rules or elu permissions lists them all and removes any. No rule covers the never list. You can change the mode while a turn runs. When a turn stopped on something a wider mode allows, its Blocked line says which, and raising the mode continues the turn at once, with only what that mode allows. A turn that also stopped on your no, or on the never list, waits for