claude.sh

Claude Code rewritten as a bash script. ~1,500 lines. Zero npm packages.

Why

The original Claude Code is ~380,000 lines of TypeScript with 266 npm dependencies. This does the same core job in bash with just curl and jq.

Features

• Real-time streaming via FIFO pipe — text appears as Claude generates it
• 6 tools: Bash, Read, Edit, Write, Glob, Grep
• Tool chaining — up to 25 tool calls per turn
• Permission prompting — asks before running non-safe commands (y/n/a)
• CLAUDE.md loading — reads project instructions from CLAUDE.md files up the directory tree
• Git-aware context — branch, status, and recent commits in system prompt
• Session save/resume — auto-saves on exit, resume with --resume <id>
• Retry with backoff — exponential retry on 429/529 rate limits
• Cost tracking — per-turn and session totals
• Spinner — with the original spinner verbs (Clauding, Flibbertigibbeting, etc.)
• Slash commands — /help, /cost, /model, /clear, /save, /resume, /commit, /diff
• Pipe mode — echo "explain this" | ./claude.sh

Install

git clone https://github.com/jdcodes1/claude.sh.git
cd claude.sh
chmod +x claude.sh

Dependencies

• curl
• jq
• Optional: rg (ripgrep) for better search
• Optional: python3 for the edit tool

Usage

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
./claude.sh

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	(required)	Your Anthropic API key
CLAUDE_MODEL	claude-sonnet-4-20250514	Model to use
CLAUDE_MAX_TOKENS	8192	Max output tokens
ANTHROPIC_API_URL	https://api.anthropic.com	API base URL
CLAUDE_SH_PERMISSIONS	ask	Permission mode: ask, allow, or deny

Commands

/help      — Show help
/cost      — Show session cost
/model     — Show/change model
/clear     — Clear conversation
/save      — Save current session
/resume    — List/resume saved sessions
/commit    — Auto-generate a git commit
/diff      — Show git diff
/quit      — Exit

Resume a Session

# List saved sessions
./claude.sh
> /resume

# Resume by number
> /resume 1

# Resume from CLI
./claude.sh --resume 20240101-120000-12345

Architecture

claude.sh          # Main REPL loop, slash commands, process_turn()
lib/
  api.sh           # Anthropic API client, SSE streaming via FIFO, retry
  json.sh          # Message construction, session persistence, CLAUDE.md, git context
  tools.sh         # 6 tool implementations + permission system
  tui.sh           # ANSI colors, spinner, display helpers

How It Works

1. Read user input
2. Build JSON request with jq (messages, tools, system prompt)
3. Stream response via curl through a FIFO pipe
4. Parse SSE events line-by-line, print text deltas in real-time
5. When tool_use blocks arrive, execute the tools
6. Feed tool results back as messages
7. Loop until Claude stops calling tools

Comparison

	claude.sh	Claude Code (TypeScript)
Lines of code	~1,500	~380,000
Dependencies	curl, jq	266 npm packages
Binary size	0 (script)	~200MB node_modules
Startup time	Instant	~500ms

License

MIT