# Crush review

> Crush is a terminal-based AI coding agent from Charm that connects your tools, code, and workflows to the LLM of your choice.

Devtoolwatch Board, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026. Canonical page: https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/crush/

## TL;DR

Crush is an agentic coding tool that runs in the terminal and works with many LLM providers. It is for developers who want to pick or switch models mid-session, use LSPs for context, and extend the agent with MCP servers. Crush runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Android, and the BSDs.

## Crush at a glance

- **Category:** [Coding agents](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/categories/coding-agents/)
- **Maintained by:** Charm (organization, [@charmbracelet](https://github.com/charmbracelet) on GitHub)
- **Language:** Go, Go Template, JavaScript
- **Repository:** [github.com/charmbracelet/crush](https://github.com/charmbracelet/crush)
- **npm package:** [@charmland/crush](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@charmland/crush) 0.98.2
- **Latest release:** [v0.98.2](https://github.com/charmbracelet/crush/releases/tag/v0.98.2) on GitHub, Oct 23, 2026
- **First published:** May 21, 2025

## What Crush does

- Crush lets you choose from many LLMs or add your own through OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible APIs.
- Crush can switch LLMs mid-session while preserving context.
- Crush maintains multiple work sessions and contexts per project.
- Crush uses language servers (LSPs) for additional context when making decisions.
- Crush adds capabilities through MCP servers over stdio, http, and sse, including OAuth for HTTP and SSE servers.
- Crush supports local models, such as an Ollama provider added in a crushrc config file.
- Crush ships with built-in color themes and lets you edit or create custom themes with live preview.

### How it works

Crush runs as an interactive app in your terminal. You pick a model with ctrl+l and paste an API key, or set provider environment variables. Optional configuration lives in a crushrc file, which is Bash with Crush-specific builtins. Crush runs it through a built-in Bash interpreter on every platform, including Windows. Through crushrc you can register providers, models, LSPs, MCP servers, and tool permissions.

## How to install Crush

**With Homebrew**

```
brew install charmbracelet/tap/crush
```

**With npm**

```
npm install -g @charmland/crush
```

**With Go**

```
go install github.com/charmbracelet/crush@latest
```

### Requirements

- An account or API key for an LLM provider, such as Hyper, Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, or OpenRouter, unless you use a local model.
- Hyper, the official Crush provider, is subscription-based.
- On Oracle Solaris, installing with Go requires the -tags sqlite3_dotlk build tag.

### First steps

1. Launch Crush and choose a Hyper model from the model picker, then follow the steps to authenticate.
2. To use another provider, press ctrl+l to open the model picker, choose a provider, and paste your API key.
3. Optionally, add a crushrc file in your project or in ~/.config/crush/ to configure providers, LSPs, and MCP servers.

## Who Crush is for

- Developers who want a coding agent inside the terminal on macOS, Linux, Windows, Android, or BSD.
- Developers who want to switch between many LLM providers, or local models, without losing session context.
- Teams that extend agents with MCP servers and language servers.

### Limitations

- Crush config files are trusted code. A crushrc runs in a full shell, so review a directory's config before launching Crush there.
- The older JSON config format still works but is deprecated in favor of crushrc.
- On illumos, Crush cannot show native OS notifications. Terminal-based notifications and the terminal bell still work.
- The npm package uses the FSL-1.1-MIT license, not a standard permissive open source license.

## Usage data (the week of Oct 25–31, 2026)

- Board rank: #127 overall, #52 in Coding agents, momentum score 57
- Downloads that week: 26.7k (+124% vs 4-week average)
- New GitHub stars per week (last 12 weeks): Aug 9: 230; Aug 16: 215; Aug 23: 223; Aug 30: 168; Sep 6: 156; Sep 13: 176; Sep 20: 154; Sep 27: 185; Oct 4: 131; Oct 11: 134; Oct 18: 147; Oct 25: 134

## Crush alternatives

| Rank | Tool | Stars | Downloads/wk |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | [Cindy](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/makecindy-cindy/) | 8.8k | – |
| #2 | [OpenMausBot](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/milind-soni-openmausbot/) | 9.6k | – |
| #3 | [Orca](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/stablyai-orca/) | 111.7k | – |
| #4 | [OpenBot](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/copilotkit-openbot/) | 9.1k | – |
| #5 | [Agent Reach](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/panniantong-agent-reach/) | 107.2k | – |
| #6 | [Skill Recorder](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/microsoft-skill-recorder/) | 5.6k | – |

## Crush FAQ

### Is Crush free and open source?

Crush's code is on GitHub (charmbracelet/crush), but the repository doesn't declare a standard open-source license. Check its license file before using it commercially.

### How do I install Crush?

Run `brew install charmbracelet/tap/crush`. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

### Is Crush still maintained?

Yes. The charmbracelet/crush repository was last updated on Oct 25, 2026, and the latest release, v0.98.2 on GitHub, came out on Oct 23, 2026.

### How popular is Crush?

Crush has 28.9k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 134 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 171 a week. Its main package had about 26.7k downloads that week, +124% against its own 4-week average. That made it #52 among AI coding agents on the Devtoolwatch Board.

### Crush vs OpenCode: how do they compare?

Crush and OpenCode are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as AI coding agents. Crush has 28.9k GitHub stars and OpenCode has 223.6k. OpenCode is an open source AI coding agent that helps you write and run code in a terminal, desktop app, or IDE extension. [OpenCode review](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/opencode/)

### What are the best alternatives to Crush?

Other AI coding agents on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: Cindy (#1), OpenMausBot (#2), Orca (#3), OpenBot (#4), Agent Reach (#5). The alternatives table above has their numbers.

### Which LLM providers does Crush support?

Crush supports many providers, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter, Groq, Amazon Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, VertexAI, xAI, and Charm's Hyper. Crush also accepts any OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible API, and local models such as Ollama.

### Can Crush use local models?

Yes. Crush can use local models. You add a provider such as Ollama in a crushrc with a local base URL, then register models with a context window.

### How do I configure Crush?

Crush works without configuration. To customize it, use a crushrc file, which is Bash with Crush builtins. Crush reads ./.crushrc, then ./crushrc, then ~/.config/crush/crushrc. Crush also includes a built-in skill that can configure itself when you describe what you want.

### Does Crush support MCP servers?

Yes. Crush supports MCP servers over stdio, http, and sse transports. HTTP and SSE servers can use a built-in OAuth authorization-code flow. Since v0.97.0, you can also turn MCP servers off from the UI, either globally or locally.

### Can I switch models during a Crush session?

Yes. Crush lets you switch LLMs mid-session while preserving context. It also keeps multiple sessions and contexts per project.

## Sources

1. [charmbracelet/crush on GitHub](https://github.com/charmbracelet/crush)
2. [Crush README](https://github.com/charmbracelet/crush/blob/main/README.md)
3. [@charmland/crush on npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@charmland/crush)
4. [Release nightly (Oct 25, 2026)](https://github.com/charmbracelet/crush/releases/tag/nightly)
5. [Release v0.98.2 (Oct 23, 2026)](https://github.com/charmbracelet/crush/releases/tag/v0.98.2)
6. [Release v0.98.1 (Oct 9, 2026)](https://github.com/charmbracelet/crush/releases/tag/v0.98.1)
7. [Hacker News: Crush: Glamourous AI coding agent for your favourite terminal](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44736176)
8. [Devtoolwatch Board, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/)