CLI

PanCode provides a command-line interface for session management and orchestrator configuration.

Commands

pancode

Start a new PanCode tmux session.

pancode
pancode --preset local
pancode --model localhost-ollama/llama3.2 --safety full-auto

Creates a tmux session named pancode-<hash> (where hash is the first 6 characters of the SHA-256 digest of the working directory) and attaches to it. Each project gets its own session namespace. Multiple sessions can coexist.

If a session already exists for the current directory, a new one is created with an incrementing suffix: pancode-a3f2b1-2, pancode-a3f2b1-3, etc.

pancode up

Attach to an existing PanCode tmux session.

pancode up                # Attach to most recent session
pancode up pancode-a3f2b1 # Attach to specific session by name

If the session is already attached in another terminal, the command fails with a message.

pancode down

Stop PanCode tmux sessions.

pancode down              # Stop most recent session
pancode down pancode-a3f2b1  # Stop specific session
pancode down --all        # Stop all PanCode sessions

Shutdown is graceful: PanCode sends Ctrl+C to trigger the ShutdownCoordinator, waits up to 5 seconds for clean exit, then force-kills if needed. This gives workers time to receive SIGTERM and flush state.

pancode sessions

List all running PanCode tmux sessions.

pancode sessions

Output:

2 sessions:

  pancode-a3f2b1   detached
  pancode-7e4c89   attached

pancode version

Print the PanCode version number.

pancode version
# 0.3.0

Display instructions for in-shell provider authentication.

pancode login
# Use /login inside the PanCode shell to authenticate with providers.

pancode reset

Clear runtime state while preserving user configuration.

pancode reset

Cleared:

.pancode/runs.json, metrics.json, budget.json, tasks.json
.pancode/runtime/ (board.json, worker results)
~/.pancode/agent-engine/sessions/

Preserved:

~/.pancode/panpresets.yaml
~/.pancode/panagents.yaml
~/.pancode/panproviders.yaml
~/.pancode/settings.json
~/.pancode/agent-engine/auth.json

Orchestrator Flags

These flags are passed to the orchestrator process when starting a new session. They can be combined with the base pancode command.

Flag	Argument	Description
`--preset <name>`	Preset name	Apply a boot preset (local, openai, openai-max, hybrid)
`--cwd <path>`	Directory path	Working directory for the session
`--provider <name>`	Provider name	Preferred provider for model resolution
`--model <id>`	Model reference	Model override in `provider/model-id` format
`--profile <name>`	Profile name	Config profile name
`--safety <level>`	Safety level	`suggest`, `auto-edit`, or `full-auto`
`--theme <name>`	Theme name	TUI theme name
`--rediscover`	(none)	Force full engine discovery, ignoring cache
`--fresh`	(none)	Clear runtime state before boot
`--help`	(none)	Show usage information

Flag Precedence

CLI flags override preset values. If you specify both --preset local and --safety full-auto, the safety level from the flag wins.

Priority: CLI flag > preset value > environment variable > project config > global config > default.

Examples

# Start with local preset
pancode --preset local

# Override model from preset
pancode --preset local --model dynamo-lmstudio/qwen2.5-coder-32b

# Fresh start with full-auto safety
pancode --fresh --safety full-auto

# Force rediscovery on a specific project
pancode --cwd /path/to/project --rediscover

# Show help
pancode --help

Session Naming

Session names use a project-specific hash to prevent collisions:

pancode-<hash>       # First session for a project
pancode-<hash>-2     # Second session for same project
pancode-<hash>-3     # Third session

The hash is the first 6 hex characters of the SHA-256 digest of the working directory path.

tmux Integration

PanCode auto-configures tmux extended-keys for proper key handling:

extended-keys = on
extended-keys-format = csi-u

This enables keyboard shortcuts like Alt+A and Ctrl+Y to work correctly. The configuration is applied globally on session creation and silently fails on older tmux versions.