CrabTalkREPL
Interactive chat with your agent — slash commands, tab completion, streaming output.
The REPL is your primary interface for talking to agents. Streaming responses, Markdown rendering, tool call visualization, and slash commands for loading skills.
Starting
crabtalk # connect to default agent
crabtalk --agent researcher # connect to a specific agentSlash commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/help | Show available commands |
/clear | Start a new conversation (clears chat buffer) |
/resume | Browse and resume a previous conversation |
/exit | Exit the REPL |
/<skill-name> | Load a skill into the current session |
Skill names support tab completion — start typing and press Tab.
Input
Type a message and press Enter to send. For multi-line input, end a line with \ to continue on the next line:
> Write a haiku about \
Rust programming \
and memory safetyPress Ctrl+C to cancel a streaming response. Press it again to exit.
Output
Responses stream in real time with Markdown syntax highlighting. When an agent calls a tool, you'll see the tool name and status as it executes.
If the agent has thinking = true, reasoning blocks are displayed separately from the response text.
Sessions
Each conversation is saved as a JSONL file in ~/.crabtalk/sessions/. Sessions auto-resume — when you attach, the daemon picks up the most recent conversation for that agent.
Use /clear to start a fresh conversation, or /resume to open the session browser and pick a previous one. The session browser shows conversations grouped by identity, with titles, message counts, and last-active dates.
Session titles are auto-generated after the first exchange.
History
Command history is saved to ~/.crabtalk/history and persists across sessions. Use up/down arrows to navigate previous messages.