ChainLayerTwo reads, edits and runs code in your project from the command line. It works on the hosted gateway out of the box, on a model running on your own machine, or on DeepSeek, Kimi and Anthropic with your own key. Every turn is journalled while it runs, so a crash resumes instead of starting over.
ChainLayerTwoirm https://chainlayertwo.online/install.ps1 | iex
curl -fsSL https://chainlayertwo.online/install.sh | sh
chainlayertwo updatenew in 0.5
Release 0.5 changes what the agent can talk to and how you move around it. The full list ships with the CLI in its changelog.
/localmodel (or /local) finds the models running on this machine under Ollama, llama.cpp or LM Studio and switches to the best one: a model that is already loaded first, then a coding model.
/localmodel hf coderSearch Hugging Face live for GGUF models./localmodel hf info <repo>The largest quant that fits your VRAM or RAM./localmodel pull <repo[:quant]>Download it. If Ollama refuses the hf.co redirect, the CLI fetches the file and imports it.chainlayertwo --localStart a session on the best local model.Direct providers work without the gateway in between: Ollama, llama.cpp, LM Studio, DeepSeek, Kimi and Anthropic. Switch mid-session with /provider use and the conversation is kept.
The Recursive Cyclic Perceptron runs over every agent run, whichever model is active. We call it “him”. He reads each step through a ternary cube, an eleven-node wheel and a nine-by-nine lattice, learns online from outcomes, and by default adds a short grounding note. He does not generate text.
In steer mode, which you turn on yourself, he can compact context and move along a model ladder. He always asks before switching to a paid provider and never bypasses the approval, policy or budget gates. Open the /rcp panel to watch him.
Press Ctrl+K, or type /, for every command grouped by category with fuzzy search and your recent ones first. /keys lists every shortcut.
Ctrl+G opens the git panel: status, coloured diffs, staging, commits with an optional suggested message, the log and branches. Every write goes through the approval gate, and nothing ever pushes or force-resets.
The ball and chain rolls out in the startup banner, turns in the busy line and appears full size in /about. Legacy consoles get a glyph version.
chainlayertwo doctora captured run
A real session, reproduced verbatim: the launcher brings up the local stack, health-checks both gateways, then runs doctor. Nothing here was written for the website.
✓ Node v24.13.0 (recommended) ✓ OmniRoute service key resolved ✓ MCP bearer token resolved Bringing up the local ChainLayer stack… ● OmniRoute (model gateway) already running — http://localhost:20128/v1 (reusing) ✓ hardened: no-key → 401, service-key → 200 ● ChainLayer2 MCP (tool gateway) already running — http://localhost:8930/mcp (reusing) ✓ /health → 200, /mcp no-token → 401 (bearer-gated) ✓ Local ChainLayer stack is up. ▶ chainlayer doctor (composition health) ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── [PASS] omniroute.health 25ms reachable at http://localhost:20128/v1 (HTTP 401) [PASS] omniroute.auth 21ms no key → 401, service key → 200 [PASS] omniroute.catalog 20ms 115 models (auto/best-coding, auto/best-reasoning, auto/best-fast, …) [PASS] omniroute.completion 2384ms auto/best-coding → "pong" [PASS] mcp.health 2ms http://localhost:8930/health → 200 [PASS] mcp.auth 4ms no token → 401, token → HTTP 200 (reaches init) [PASS] mcp.initialize 15ms initialized "chainlayer2-local" (http://localhost:8930/mcp) [PASS] mcp.tools 0ms 12 tools (math_eval, math_simplify, math_derivative, math_solve, unit_convert, matrix_op, …) [PASS] mcp.math_eval 3ms math_eval(173 * 419) = 72487 [WARN] mcp.protocol_inspect 3ms RE plane disabled / requires host binary (expected) [WARN] unreal.availability 0ms Unreal MCP not federated/reachable (expected in this deployment) summary: 9 pass, 2 warn, 0 fail — OK (exit 0)
NO_COLOR=1. Both services were already running, so the launcher reused them.173 × 419 = 72487 has no local shortcut. A correct answer means the call really crossed the MCP server the launcher had just checked.
The reverse-engineering tools stay off until you set RE_ALLOWED_DIRS, and no Unreal MCP was connected. doctor exits 1 only on a real failure.
The catalog count is what /v1/models returned on that machine. It moves with which providers are reachable.
This capture predates the current MCP server, which registers 46 tools. tools/list on an endpoint is the only authority.
trace_idhow it fits together
A task enters at the CLI, which mints one trace_id and carries it through every hop. The policy set at the top (sandbox, approval gate, budgets) is inherited by everything below it and never decided again.
One OpenAI-compatible endpoint in front of many providers, with role routes such as auto/best-coding and provider fallback. It always needs a key.
One bearer-gated Model Context Protocol server with 46 tools for math, data, devtools, fetch and search, knowledge, re-grounding and authorized reverse engineering. The tool list
A journalled agent loop fans work out to 2 to 8 sandboxed sub-agents. Each inherits the same policy, all draw on one budget, and one fenced merger combines the results.
A separate control plane, the ChainLayer API, runs durable jobs on a crash-recoverable worker. It is deployed on its own and is not part of the one-line install.
--sandboxsafety by design
No flag, mode or tool exists to weaken a safety control. The policy that governs one task governs every sub-agent it starts.
A run's policy is frozen when it starts. --sandbox blocks writes and the shell, file tools stay in the working directory, and reverse-engineering tools stay inside allow-listed folders.
Parallel runs use an approval gate with no interactive path: a request it cannot approve is rejected. No prompts pile up from sub-agents, and nothing is silently allowed.
Sub-agents inherit the parent's policy and lose spawn_agents, so they cannot start agents of their own.
A task defaults to 200 steps and 500 tool calls, and --deadline adds a hard stop. Four sub-agents share one budget; they cannot spend four times as much.
The CLI classifies every backend before using it. Providers tiered experimental or anonymous are refused unless your policy names them.
A superseded worker's write updates nothing and gets a typed stale_fence. Every MCP request is bearer-checked before dispatch; a missing or wrong token is always 401.
Context fitting pins your original request and the latest summary. Long tool output is trimmed with a marker, and the conversation compacts at 70% of the window.
Progress is written to a journal as the turn runs. After a crash or a closed terminal, the next launch offers /retry to resume it.
install.ps1, install.shinstall and update
The installer chooses one of two paths and prints which one and why. They give you different things, so the difference is worth a minute.
irm https://chainlayertwo.online/install.ps1 | iexcurl -fsSL https://chainlayertwo.online/install.sh | shchainlayertwo updateWhat you get when nothing is serving 127.0.0.1:20128 and you did not ask for more.
chainlayertwo command on your PATHhttps://chainlayertwo.online/v1mcpServers at an endpoint you hold a token forChosen automatically when an OmniRoute checkout sits beside a ChainLayer checkout, or on request:
$env:CHAINLAYERTWO_FULL='1'; irm https://chainlayertwo.online/install.ps1 | iex127.0.0.1:20128, started with REQUIRE_API_KEY=true, seeded with your local and keyed providers127.0.0.1:8930, with a bearer token minted on this machinechainlayertwoThe interactive session.chainlayertwo "add tests to ./src"A one-shot task in the current folder.chainlayertwo doctorA health report for every stage.chainlayertwo --sandbox "…"Read-only: every tool that changes something is blocked.chainlayertwo --deadline 5m "…"A hard stop on top of the step and tool budget./remotePair a phone to drive this session through the remote page.> irm https://chainlayertwo.online/install.ps1 | iex ✓ Node v24.13.0 Path: CLI-ONLY reason: no local stack was found and none was requested Fetching release manifest … ✓ chainlayertwo 0.5.1 Downloading CLI bundle … ✓ Verified SHA-256 d3cca924c9f68071… ✓ Installed chainlayertwo 0.5.1 ✓ Config written (baseUrl: https://chainlayertwo.online/v1) ChainLayerTwo 0.5.1 is installed and verified. TOOLS ARE NOT AVAILABLE on this install. no MCP tool server is configured, so file/shell tools are off.
version.json when a release is built.chainlayertwo loginaccounts, optional
The CLI and the hosted gateway both work without signing in. An account gives you your own daily quota and self-serve gateway keys: one on a free account, up to five on a privileged one. There is no password field in the CLI; chainlayertwo login uses a device code you approve in the browser.
chainlayertwo loginThe CLI asks the account service for a short code and prints it.~/.chainlayer/credentials.json on your machine.Only the SHA-256 of each device code, never the code itself. New accounts start as pending: they can sign in and approve devices straight away, and the gateway answers them once an admin approves.
not shippedroadmap
Everything above ships today. The two agents below do not: no code in the repository implements either one. They are here so you can tell what the product does from what it is aimed at.
Would read the rendered frame as vision input through the gateway, plan toward a goal, act through tool calls, and at a fork try routes with parallel sub-agents. Scoped to automated playtesting, regression runs and research, always under a step and time budget.
Would identify, disassemble and decompile an authorized target, inspect its wire format, then write the interop shim or test. The agent is planned; its guardrails already ship in the MCP server: an authorized: true attestation on every RE tool, RE_ALLOWED_DIRS, a denylist no flag overrides, and an audit log of every call.