Virgil

The AI guide
for your terminal.

He reads, writes, runs and fixes — right in your shell. No subscription, no limits, no signup. Pay only for what he does.

$npx virgil-cli
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macOS · Linux · Windows · needs Node 18+
Honest by design

You pay for work, not for waiting.

No subscription, no ceiling. Every task shows what it cost the moment it finishes — one credit is one cent. Start with sixty free, no card, no account.

1¢
is one credit. You spend it only when he works.
60
credits are already yours. No card, no email.
0
is what you owe the months you don't use him.
What he handles

Real work, not just chat.

Virgil doesn't only answer — he does. Point him at a mess and he sorts it, in the folder you're already in.

Fix what's broken

Reads the error, finds the cause, patches it, and re-runs until it's green.

Build a quick tool

Turn a sentence into a working script — then run it to prove it works.

Wrangle your files

Rename by date, convert, sort, clean up — hundreds at once, safely.

Understand a codebase

Search it, explain what a file does, trace where something goes wrong.

Reach the web

Look something up, pull a fact or a page, and use it in the task at hand.

Automate the boring

The repetitive shell work you keep putting off — handed to him once.

How he works

Tell him. He looks, acts, and shows the bill.

You ask, in plain words

“Read this log and tell me what broke.” “Turn these files into a zip named by date.” No flags, no syntax to memorise. He works in the folder you're standing in, understands your language, and figures out the steps himself.

He acts — with your say-so

Reading and listing files is free and instant. Before he changes a file or runs a command, he asks — and shows you exactly what he's about to do. Approve it once, or say “always” for that kind of step and he stops asking. You're never surprised.

You see the cost

The moment a task finishes, the exact credits it used and your remaining balance print right in the terminal — “this task: 2.4 credits · 57.6 left.” No monthly statement, no meter running while you think, no guessing where your money went.

V I R G I L
your guide in the terminal
› rename these photos by the date they were taken
⏺ run_shell  exiftool -T -DateTimeOriginal *.jpg
  ✓ read 23 files
⏺ write_file  rename.sh
Done — rename.sh will rename all 23 by capture date. Run it when ready.
  · this task: 2.4 credits · 57.6 left
Under the hood

An honest agent, by design.

Virgil runs on your own machine — your shell, your files, your folder. He reaches out only for the thinking, and nothing runs in the background billing you. Everything he does happens in plain sight, so you always know what he touched and why.

Local and visible. Runs in your shell; every action is shown before it happens.
Asks first. He never changes a file or runs a command without your say-so.
Remembers your work. Picks up where you left off, and learns how you like to work.
A real task, start to finish

He works it out — and fixes his own mistakes.

This is an actual run. Asked to build a weather tool, Virgil worked out the API himself, hit an error, read his own code, fixed it, and verified two cities — before handing it back with the cost.

01
Understands the goal. No API docs handed to him.
02
Writes, runs, hits an error. A missing field in the response.
03
Reads his own code, fixes it. No hand-holding needed.
04
Verifies, reports the cost. Both cities, in real numbers.
V I R G I L
› build a CLI that shows a city's temperature, run it for Berlin and Frankfurt
⏺ write_file  wetter.py
⏺ run_shell  python3 wetter.py Berlin
  ✗ KeyError: 'current'
⏺ read_file  wetter.py
⏺ edit_file  wetter.py
⏺ run_shell  python3 wetter.py Berlin
  ✓ Berlin: 12.7 °C
⏺ run_shell  python3 wetter.py Frankfurt
  ✓ Frankfurt: 7.9 °C
Done — wetter.py works for both, with error handling for unknown cities.
  · this task: 3.1 credits · 54.5 left
Coming from Claude Code?

Same shell. A different deal.

 
Virgil
Claude Code
What you pay
Per task, 1¢ a credit — each cost shown
Monthly subscription with usage limits
Getting started
npx virgil-cli — instant, no account
Sign up, sign in, then install
Cost visibility
Shown after every task, live balance
Opaque against a plan
Who runs it
Independent — not a US megacorp
Anthropic
Wherever you work

Every terminal, every machine.

Virgil detects your system and speaks its language — the right commands on each, automatically. One install, everywhere.

macOS

Terminal, iTerm — pixel-perfect.

Windows

Windows Terminal, PowerShell.

Linux

Any shell, any distro.

Straight answers

Questions worth asking.

Is it really pay-per-use?

Yes. No subscription. You buy credits (1 credit = 1 cent) and spend them only when Virgil does work. A short question costs a fraction; a real multi-step task, a few. Reading and listing files are free.

What does a typical task cost?

A quick question is around 0.03 credits. A hard, self-correcting task — write a script, run it, fix errors, verify — is roughly 3 credits, about three cents. The exact number is shown when it finishes.

Which operating systems?

macOS, Linux and Windows. Virgil detects your OS and uses the right commands. You need Node 18 or newer; then npx virgil-cli or npm i -g virgil-cli.

Is my code sent anywhere?

Virgil runs on your machine and only sends what a task needs to its reasoning model, like any AI CLI. Nothing runs in the background, and he asks before changing or running anything.

How is this different from Claude Code?

Same idea — an agent in your terminal — but pay-per-use instead of a subscription with limits, no account to start, every task's cost shown, and run independently rather than by a large US provider.

Light a lantern in your terminal.

$npx virgil-cli
Try in browser
60 free credits · no signup