Neuron
Neuron by Zero-X is an open-source AI coding agent
that runs in your terminal. It reads your project, edits files and runs commands, and
asks before it does anything your permission mode does not allow. It is a single
native binary written in Rust. New to coding agents? Read
how an AI coding agent works.
By default Neuron talks to models through the Zero-X gateway.
You sign in once with neuron auth login; the provider API keys stay on the gateway
and never reach your machine. You can also use your own provider key instead.
7.0.0-alpha.2 is Neuron's second alpha, built and published by this repository's
release pipeline, and the first on npm and PyPI. Its known limitations are listed in
the changelog.
It is a GitHub prerelease, so the install scripts need the versioned commands below.
The npm 6.2.0 and PyPI 6.2.4 (and earlier) packages were built outside the pipeline
and are not supported.
Install
Every method installs the same neuron binary from
GitHub Releases and checks
its SHA-256 checksum before using it.
A prerelease is never the "latest" GitHub release, so the install script commands below
name the alpha's version. Without one, the install scripts look up the latest release,
and there is none until the first stable release is out.
macOS and Linux
curl -fsSL https://github.com/RAHUL-DevelopeRR/neuron-v2/releases/download/v7.0.0-alpha.2/install.sh | sh -s -- --version 7.0.0-alpha.2
The script installs to ~/.local/bin and tells you if that directory is not on your
PATH. Pass options after sh -s --, for example
sh -s -- --version 7.0.0-alpha.2 --install-dir "$HOME/bin", or set NEURON_VERSION
and NEURON_INSTALL_DIR.
Windows (PowerShell 5.1 or 7)
& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://github.com/RAHUL-DevelopeRR/neuron-v2/releases/download/v7.0.0-alpha.2/install.ps1))) -Version 7.0.0-alpha.2
The script installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Neuron\bin and only changes your
PATH if you ask it to:
& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://github.com/RAHUL-DevelopeRR/neuron-v2/releases/download/v7.0.0-alpha.2/install.ps1))) -Version 7.0.0-alpha.2 -AddToPath
npm (Node.js 22.14 or later)
npm install --global @zero-x.live/neuron
pip (Python 3.9 or later). The alpha is a pre-release on PyPI, so pip needs
--pre:
pip install --pre neuroncli
The npm and pip packages are small launchers. The first run downloads the binary for
the package's exact version, verifies it and caches it; later runs start without
network access. Ctrl+C goes to Neuron, and the launcher exits with Neuron's exit code.
On a terminal, neuron with no prompt opens the full-screen UI, neuron-tui. The
installers put it beside neuron, and the launchers fetch it the same way, verified
by checksum. neuron --no-tui (or NEURON_NO_TUI=1) keeps the line REPL. Without
the UI, for example after a failed download, neuron runs the line REPL as
before. Prompts (neuron "fix the test", neuron -p ...) and subcommands never
start it.
From source
git clone https://github.com/RAHUL-DevelopeRR/neuron-v2.git
cd neuron-v2/rust
cargo build --release -p rusty-claude-cli
./target/release/neuron --version
Supported platforms
| Platform | Release assets |
|---|
| Linux x64, glibc 2.35 or later | neuron-linux-x64, neuron-tui-linux-x64 |
| Linux arm64, glibc 2.35 or later | neuron-linux-arm64, neuron-tui-linux-arm64 |
| macOS, Apple silicon | neuron-macos-arm64, neuron-tui-macos-arm64 |
| macOS, Intel | neuron-macos-x64, neuron-tui-macos-x64 |
| Windows x64 | neuron-windows-x64.exe, neuron-tui-windows-x64.exe (Windows on Arm runs them under emulation) |
glibc 2.35 or later means Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 36 or newer. On older
distributions (for example Ubuntu 20.04, Debian 11 or RHEL 9) the binary may not
start; the installers check that before they install anything, and you can build
from source instead. musl-based Linux such as Alpine is not supported. The binaries are not code-signed or
notarized. Each release lists SHA-256 checksums (SHA256SUMS, plus a .sha256 file
per binary) and GitHub build provenance, which you can check with
gh attestation verify neuron-linux-x64 --repo RAHUL-DevelopeRR/neuron-v2.
Sign in
neuron login # shows a code; approve it on neuron.zero-x.live/device
neuron auth status
neuron logout # revokes the session on the gateway and deletes the local copy
Login prints a link and a short code and opens the link in your browser when it can.
Approve the code there (or on any other device, such as your phone) and Neuron
continues on its own; no local port is opened, so it also works over SSH. It stores the
session in the operating system's credential store on macOS and Windows. On Linux (or
when that store is unavailable) it goes to ~/.neuroncli/credentials.json, readable
only by you; protect that directory like a password file. The
security policy
explains what to do if it leaks. On CI and machines without a browser,
create a personal API key (nzx_…) in the Zero-X dashboard and pass it with
neuron auth login --with-token or the NEURON_TOKEN environment variable. See
Sign in
in the usage guide.
Plans and limits
Free. No card needed. Free-plan requests run on free tiers of upstream providers
whose terms allow serving an application's users: Groq, the Gemini API free tier and
Cloudflare Workers AI. The limits are real and you will run into them:
| Free plan | Limit |
|---|
| Requests per day | 100 |
| Tokens per day | 500,000 |
| Requests per minute | 10 |
| Concurrent requests | 2 |
- Everyone on the free plan shares the same upstream capacity. When a shared pool
runs out, requests fail with
capacity_exhausted and a time to retry.
- Some free models have small per-minute token budgets, so a long prompt may fit on
only some models, or on none.
- The Gemini free tier is not offered to callers in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland.
- Which models are free depends on what the providers offer, and can change at any
time.
/model lists what is available to you now.
Pro and Max. Paid plans raise the daily and per-minute limits and add paid
upstream capacity, billed against monthly credits included with the plan; credit
top-ups are also sold. Prices and current limits are at
https://zero-x.live/pricing. In Neuron, /upgrade opens that page, and
neuron usage (or /usage) shows your plan, today's usage and your credit balance.
Bring your own key
You can bypass the gateway with a provider account of your own: for example
OPENAI_API_KEY (plus OPENAI_BASE_URL for any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including
a local model server), ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, XAI_API_KEY, Azure AI Foundry or
OPENROUTER_API_KEY. OpenRouter is available only this way. While you are signed in
to Zero-X the gateway stays the default; a provider key is used when you select that
provider (--provider, NEURON_PROVIDER or the provider setting) or when you are
not signed in. Neuron prints which provider and credential it uses when it starts.
See
Bring your own key.
Privacy
What you send in a session (prompts, the contents of files Neuron reads, command
output) is processed by third-party model providers: the upstream provider the
gateway routes to (Groq, Google, Cloudflare or a paid upstream), or the provider whose
key you configured. Their terms apply. Free tiers can have different data-use terms
from paid ones; Google, for example, may use Gemini API free-tier content to improve
its products. Paid Zero-X plans also use the free pools first and fall back to paid
capacity, so if your code must stay under one provider's terms, use your own key for
that provider.
The gateway forwards each request to the upstream provider and records usage metadata
(model, token counts, latency, status) for quotas and billing. Neuron sends no
analytics of its own. Tools you allow, such as shell commands, web fetches and MCP
servers, can contact other services.
Using Neuron
cd your-project
neuron # interactive session
neuron prompt "explain src/main.rs" # one prompt, then exit
neuron --permission-mode read-only # read and search only
Neuron asks you to trust a directory before working in it. The default permission
mode, workspace-write, lets it read and edit files in the workspace and run shell
commands that only read; it asks before any other command, before fetching from a new
web domain and before other tools that need full access. The
usage guide covers
commands, slash commands, permission modes, models, sessions and configuration.
Documentation
The parity, roadmap and architecture documents describe the upstream project Neuron
grew out of and may still use its claw command names.
License
MIT; see LICENSE.
Neuron is derived from Claw Code, also
MIT. The full-screen UI (ui/neuron-tui, the neuron-tui binaries) is derived from
Freebuff and is under the Apache License 2.0.
NOTICE records both
lineages and the bundled third-party skills, and every release attaches
THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md with the licenses of the Rust crates compiled into neuron
and of the Bun runtime and npm packages compiled into neuron-tui.
Neuron and Zero-X are not affiliated with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Groq, Cloudflare
or any other model provider.
