CLI
navin-cli: Claude Code, OpenCode and Oh My Pi alternative
September 4, 2026 · 4 min read · Navin team
Free terminal AGI. Same engine as the desktop. Modes, sessions, git, your keys. Why navin-cli wins against Claude Code, OpenCode and Oh My Pi.
You are not shopping for a prettier prompt. You want a Claude Code alternative, an OpenCode alternative, an Oh My Pi alternative that you can run today without a vendor cage and without a weekend of glue.
navin-cli is that AGI. Same agent as the Navin desktop. Modes, sessions, git, tools, your keys. Install is $0. Windows, Linux, macOS.
This page is the honest split: what Claude Code, OpenCode and Oh My Pi do well, and why builders who want a product (not a kit) land on Navin.
The job is the mission, not the mascot
Claude Code taught the market that a coding agent belongs in the terminal. OpenCode proved you can assemble an open TUI. Oh My Pi (omp) showed that a Pi fork can swallow LSP, a debugger and subagents.
None of that is the mission. The mission is: open the folder, change the product, resume tomorrow, keep the keys, open a GUI when the terminal is the wrong surface.
navin-cli is built for that loop. It is not a wrapper around someone else's REPL. It is the Navin engine in a framed TUI.
What you pay today
| Tool | Form | Public cost | Lock-in | What you assemble |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | Terminal agent | Claude plan or API, often ~$1,200 / year listed | Anthropic first | Almost nothing. You rent the loop. |
| OpenCode | Open TUI | $0 + your keys | None, you own the kit | Providers, UX, the rest of the week |
| Oh My Pi | Pi fork (omp) | $0, MIT | Fork velocity | Dense IDE-in-terminal, you keep up |
| navin-cli | Product TUI | $0 install | Your keys or a Navin plan | Nothing. Desktop is the same config. |
Those annual figures are published lists, not your invoice. Claude still wins if you already pay for Claude and you only want that loop. Navin wins if you want the harness without renting it.
navin-cli is not a thin skin
cd your-project && navin-cli opens a framed composer:
- ctrl+t or a click on
● agentopens the mode list (agent, ask, plan, review, security, debug). - ctrl+s resumes any session. The last one comes back on launch.
- The panel shows provider, model, git branch, workspace, account.
- ctrl+i / ctrl+o / ctrl+w open provider, model and project folder.
- Settings, skills, MCP, guardrails: the same hub as the desktop.
Config lives in ~/.navin/config.json. Desktop and CLI share it. You do not keep two brains.
Install: navin.live/download#cli. Docs: CLI overview.
Claude Code: the paid terminal
Claude Code is excellent at repo-wide Anthropic work. If your team already bought Claude Max and lives in tmux, stay there.
What it does not give you:
- a free harness you can point at GLM, Kimi, DeepSeek, Qwen, Grok or a local model
- a desktop that continues the same session when you need preview, scrape or a deck
- a product settings surface that is not "read the source"
Navin does not pretend to be "more Claude than Claude" on raw Anthropic taste. It claims the harness job: any model, local files, a TUI you can operate, a GUI when you must.
Bring Claude into Navin with BYOK if you like the model. Stop renting the whole cage.
Deep dive: Navin vs Claude Code.
OpenCode: the kit
OpenCode is for people who enjoy assembling agents. BYOK, community pipelines, a stack you can fork. That is a real win.
Monday morning is a different test. You need the agent in the folder, slash commands, a session that comes back, git on the panel, and a desktop when a designer sits down.
navin-cli is that product. It is not sold as an open-source twin. Official builds, a license on navin.live, a CLI that is free to install.
Deep dive: Navin vs OpenCode.
Oh My Pi: the dense fork
Oh My Pi (omp) is Can Boluk's fork of Pi. Pi stays four tools. omp ships LSP, DAP, hash-anchored edits, subagents. If you want an IDE stuffed into the terminal, that is the honest pitch.
Navin is not a Pi fork. The TUI is thinner. The product is thicker: one account, one config, studios for scrape / leads / marketing / documents, Heartbeat, channels.
Pick omp if your joy is a MIT IDE-terminal you can patch. Pick navin-cli if your joy is shipping in a folder and opening the same brain in a window.
One week with one harness
Monday: navin-cli in the repo, agent mode, tests green. Tuesday: plan mode, then review. Wednesday: the desktop for preview. Thursday: leads if the message must leave. Friday: the same keys, the same session log.
That is why "Claude Code alternative" and "OpenCode alternative" and "Oh My Pi alternative" land here. The job is not a mascot. It is the mission.
Start
curl https://navin.live/install | bash
cd your-project && navin-cli
Windows PowerShell is on the download page. Desktop installers sit on the same page: Windows, Linux, macOS.
Download Navin · CLI docs · All comparisons
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