Interactive Mode (REPL)

Interactive mode is the default when you run yoyo in a terminal. It gives you a read-eval-print loop where you can have a multi-turn conversation with the agent.

Starting

yoyo
# or
cargo run

The prompt

The prompt shows your current git branch (if you're in a git repo):

main 🐙 › _

If you're not in a git repo, you get a plain prompt:

🐙 › _

Line editing & history

yoyo uses rustyline for a full readline experience:

  • Arrow keys: Navigate within the current line (← →) and through command history (↑ ↓)
  • Inline hints: As you type a slash command, a dimmed suggestion appears after the cursor showing the completion and a short description — e.g. typing /he shows lp — Show help for commands. Press Tab or → to accept.
  • Tab completion: Type / and press Tab to see available slash commands with descriptions — each command is shown alongside a short summary of what it does. Partial matches work too — /he<Tab> suggests /help and /health. After typing a command + space, argument-aware completions kick in:
    • /model <Tab> — suggests known model names (Claude, GPT, Gemini, etc.)
    • /provider <Tab> — suggests known provider names (anthropic, openai, google, etc.)
    • /think <Tab> — suggests thinking levels (off, minimal, low, medium, high)
    • /git <Tab> — suggests git subcommands (status, log, add, diff, branch, stash)
    • /pr <Tab> — suggests PR subcommands (list, view, diff, comment, create, checkout)
    • /save <Tab> and /load <Tab> — suggest .json session files in the current directory
    • File paths also complete — type src/ma<Tab> to get src/main.rs, or Cargo<Tab> to get Cargo.toml. Directories complete with a trailing / for easy continued navigation.
  • History recall: Previous inputs are saved across sessions
  • Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl-A (start of line), Ctrl-E (end of line), Ctrl-K (kill to end), Ctrl-W (delete word back)
  • History file: Stored at $XDG_DATA_HOME/yoyo/history (defaults to ~/.local/share/yoyo/history)

How it works

  1. You type a message
  2. yoyo sends it to the LLM along with conversation history
  3. The LLM may call tools (read files, run commands, etc.)
  4. Tool results are streamed back — you see each tool as it executes
  5. The final text response is printed
  6. Token usage and cost are shown after each turn

Auto-continue

If the model stops mid-work (e.g., it says "Next, I'll fix the tests..." but stops), yoyo automatically sends a follow-up prompt to continue. You'll see:

  ⚡ auto-continuing (1/3 — response appears incomplete)...

This happens up to 3 times per user turn. Auto-continue won't fire if:

  • The model encountered an error
  • The session budget is exhausted
  • The response doesn't show clear signs of being incomplete

Tool output

When yoyo uses tools, you'll see status indicators:

  ▶ $ cargo test ✓ (2.1s)
  ▶ read src/main.rs ✓ (42ms)
  ▶ edit src/lib.rs ✓ (15ms)
  ▶ $ cargo test ✗ (1.8s)
  • ✓ means the tool succeeded
  • ✗ means the tool returned an error
  • The duration shows how long the tool took

Token usage

After each response, you'll see a compact token summary:

  ↳ 3.2s · 1523→842 tokens · $0.0234

Use --verbose (or -v) for the full breakdown including session totals and cache info.

This shows:

  • Wall-clock time for the response
  • Input→output tokens for this turn
  • Estimated cost for this turn

Interrupting

Press Ctrl+C to cancel the current response. The agent will stop and you can type a new prompt. Press Ctrl+C again to exit.

Inline @file mentions

You can reference files directly in your prompts using @path syntax. The file content is automatically read and injected into the conversation — no need for a separate /add command.

> explain @src/main.rs
  ✓ added src/main.rs (250 lines)
  (1 file inlined from @mentions)

> refactor @src/cli.rs:50-100
  ✓ added src/cli.rs (lines 50-100) (51 lines)
  (1 file inlined from @mentions)

> compare @Cargo.toml and @README.md
  ✓ added Cargo.toml (35 lines)
  ✓ added README.md (120 lines)
  (2 files inlined from @mentions)

How it works:

  • @path — injects the entire file
  • @path:start-end — injects a specific line range
  • If the path doesn't exist, the @mention is left as-is (it might be a username)
  • Email-like patterns (user@example.com) are not treated as file mentions
  • Images work too: @screenshot.png inlines the image into the conversation