Agent CLIs in Termux

Termux is a sort of linux distro for android. It allows you to use a unix terminal in your phone.

It would be nice to use it to program, but of course the phone keyboard is very awkward for that purpose. You need to write symbols like { and < constantly. But with ✨️AI✨️ you can avoid this problem, by using a coding agent instead, and describing changes in natural language.

So let’s install a coding agent in Termux:

Gemini cli (javascript): when installing, hits this problem: https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/issues/20717 with node-gyp. It can be worked around. If you do, you then get

I am of course already using Termux, therefore already have it installed.

The proper thing to do would be to contribute to this clipboardy thing, but lets try another tool for now.

Aider (python): you have to install an installer instead of installing aider directly via pip. The installer uses uv, which is implemented in Rust

Hmm i dont want to troubleshoot the extra package manager. Lets try a language known for its good portability situation, Go. https://charm.land/ has an agentic tool written in Go. Let’s try to install it

Ooh no it uses cgo and has issues with termux.

Alright we already tried a bunch of open source things lets try claude code (closed source though). The curl | bash installer failed for some reason, but installing via npm worked. Finally! I’ll have to use Claude it seems.

The optimal thing would be to use an agent that exposed a web server i think. Then, usability would be nicer (no awkward control keys) and there could be more clickable things for interaction.

I suppose it’s an idea for a future project.