panto/docs CLI
Source

Getting started

panto

terminal agentziglua

panto is a terminal coding agent with a small Zig core and a Lua extension surface. Run it interactively in a project directory, or use -p/--print for one-shot non-interactive turns. These pages cover the current CLI, configuration layers, key bindings, and extension API.

Overview

The default entry point is just panto: it opens the TUI in the current directory, selects a model from your layered config, and lets the agent work through tools. The shipped file tools are themselves Lua extensions, so the same loader that powers your own add-ons also powers std.read, std.write, std.edit, and std.shell.

The first argument also dispatches subcommands. panto sessions, panto auth, panto models sync, panto bootstrap, panto update, and panto lua all short-circuit before the chat loop; panto -p runs a single non-interactive turn and exits.

Install

panto builds from source with Zig. Clone the repository and build the binary:

shellbash
git clone https://code.tjp.lol/pantograph.git
cd pantograph
zig build            # native binary at zig-out/bin/panto

The first real run bootstraps panto's bundled Lua runtime automatically, so most users can go straight to panto. The explicit bootstrap command is still useful for CI, fresh-machine setup, or forcing the rocks tree to exist before you start a session:

shellbash
panto bootstrap
# or: panto bootstrap --force

Where things live

The data home is $XDG_DATA_HOME/panto (or ~/.local/share/panto when XDG_DATA_HOME is unset). User config lives under $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/panto (or ~/.config/panto). Project-local overrides live in ./.panto/.

First run

Start an interactive session with no arguments:

shellbash
cd ~/code/ledger
panto

Useful first-day flags:

panto --resume
Reattach the most recent conversation in this directory. --resume <id> resumes a specific session by id prefix; -c / --continue is an alias for bare --resume.
panto -p "prompt"
Run one turn non-interactively, print only the assistant text, and exit. The prompt may also come from piped stdin.
panto -m openai:gpt --effort high
Override the model and reasoning level for just this run.
panto --no-extensions
Skip the Lua runtime entirely. This disables shipped tools too, but it is a useful escape hatch when an extension breaks startup.

The TUI requires an interactive terminal. If you only want a single answer in a script or CI job, use -p instead of trying to pipe the full-screen UI.

Authenticate

Providers draw credentials from named auth sessions in config.toml. API-key sessions usually resolve from the environment:

shellbash
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-…
panto auth status

OAuth device sessions are logged in explicitly once, then cached on disk:

shellbash
panto auth login github_copilot
panto auth status

If a provider seems missing

An api_key auth session that resolves to the empty string leaves its provider unavailable, so exporting the missing environment variable is often enough to make it appear. OAuth providers stay configured and resolve at use time.