I have been building Phonton CLI , an open-source local-first AI coding agent.

The idea is simple: instead of treating an AI coding tool like a chat box, Phonton treats it like an engineering workflow.

It tries to follow this loop:

You give it a goal.

It creates a plan.

It works against your local repo context.

It verifies the generated diff.

You review the result before accepting it.

Most AI coding tools are optimized for speed and convenience. Phonton is more focused on making AI-generated changes easier to trust.

Why I built it

I wanted a CLI agent that was:

local-first

BYOK, so you use your own provider keys

review-oriented

built around verification

able to remember repo decisions locally

useful from the terminal

The goal is not to replace every tool like Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or OpenCode.…