Ante

Ante is Antigma Labs' self-contained terminal coding agent. Source in that repo (docs, SDK, protocol crates) is Apache-2.0. The prebuilt ante binary is a private-core preview: BINARY-TERMS.md says it is free to run, including commercially, during the preview. The CLI itself is $0. Models are BYOK, subscription OAuth, or a local GGUF via built-in llama.cpp. Docs say macOS and Linux only; Windows users are pointed at WSL. First-party intro post is dated 2026-03-31.

Compare Claude Code if you wanted Anthropic's CLI, OpenCode if you wanted another open harness, and Crush if you wanted Charm's TUI plus Hyper.

Key Features

One Rust binary: install with curl -fsSL https://ante.run/install.sh | bash. README says ~15MB compressed, zero runtime deps. Core harness is still private; this public repo is docs, protocol, and eval adapters.
TUI, headless, serve, gateway: ante, ante -p, ante serve, ante gateway (Slack/Discord).
Providers: Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, local GGUF, plus ~/.ante/catalog.json for custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints. No Antigma account required.
Yolo flag: ante --yolo skips tool approval prompts. --permission-mode yolo is the same class. Docs warn destructive tools normally need approval.
Profiles: --profile pi or bare swaps the whole settings file. Skills, MCP, and memory are first-party.

Limitation: preview software. Breaking changes are expected. The 7x / 9x / 5x footprint claims versus Claude Code are first-party Docker numbers on docs.antigma.ai, not an independent audit. Terminal-Bench 2.1 82.7% is a pinned Ante 0.preview.71 run on DeepSeek V4 Flash, not a forever score.

Use Cases

People who want a Claude Code-shaped loop without Node, and will attach BYOK or a GGUF.
People who will stay offline with ante --offline-model path/to.gguf.
People comparing Rust harnesses before paying Claude Code.

Pricing

Binary is free in preview. Model access on 2026-08-25.

Path	Price	Notes from first-party pages
Public repo	$0	Apache-2.0. 1,846 stars on the check date.
`ante` binary	$0 in preview	Commercial use allowed under BINARY-TERMS. Terms may change after preview.
BYOK / OAuth	Provider bill	Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, and catalog entries.
Local GGUF	$0 inference	Built-in llama.cpp. Hardware is yours.
Antix Console	Confirm live	Optional account/API dashboard at portal.antigma.ai. No public dollar seat on the public pages.

If a leftover blog prints Ante Pro $20, treat this table as the source.

Getting Started

macOS or Linux (or WSL). Run curl -fsSL https://ante.run/install.sh | bash.
Start ante. Pick a provider, or /offline-mode for a local GGUF.
Headless: ante -p "find and fix the failing test".
Do not pass --yolo outside a disposable sandbox.

First-party start: docs.antigma.ai/start/quickstart and the GitHub README.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the binary open source?

Not the core harness. The public repo is Apache-2.0 docs/SDK. The binary is preview terms.

Official on Windows?

Not native. First-party docs say use WSL.

Same as Claude Code?

No. Ante is Antigma's harness. Claude Code is Anthropic's.

Alternatives

Claude Code: Anthropic first-party CLI.
OpenCode: another open harness.
Crush: Charm TUI plus Hyper $0 / $20.

Tips

Quote 1,846 stars and the preview binary terms. Do not call the core MIT.
Confirm antigma.ai/eval before you paste 82.7%.
Skip --yolo on a machine you do not trust.

Conclusion

Ante is a 1,846-star Rust terminal harness with a free preview binary and BYOK or local GGUF, not a leftover $20 seat. Start at github.com/AntigmaLabs/ante, then decide whether Claude Code already covers the workflow you need.