Installation

Lime is distributed as source. Build it once with Cargo, then add the resulting binary to your PATH.

Prerequisites

• A working Rust toolchain. The repository pins a specific toolchain via rust-toolchain.toml, which rustup will install for you on first build.
• An API key for at least one provider:
  • OpenAI — OPENAI_API_KEY (optionally OPENAI_BASE_URL for proxies, Azure, or any OpenAI-compatible server).
  • Anthropic — ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.
  • Google Gemini — GEMINI_API_KEY or GOOGLE_API_KEY.
  • OpenAI-compatible endpoint — set OPENAI_API_KEY to your provider’s key and OPENAI_BASE_URL to its /v1 base URL, or use lime login --provider openai-compat --service NAME to store credentials per service.
• Optional: cloudflared for remote control. Lime can auto-download it on first use.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/squareonesoft/lime
cd lime
cargo build --release

The build produces two binaries:

Binary	Path	Purpose
lime	target/release/lime	CLI / REPL / bridge / remote control
srt	target/release/srt	Sandbox runtime (bwrap on Linux, sandbox-exec on macOS)

Add target/release to your PATH so you can simply type lime:

# bash / zsh
export PATH="$PWD/target/release:$PATH"

# Windows PowerShell
$env:PATH = "$pwd\target\release;$env:PATH"

To embed the current commit hash in lime --version, set GIT_SHA at build time:

GIT_SHA=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD) cargo build --release

Store provider credentials

Credentials live under ~/.lime/ and override environment variables when present. Worker sub-agents inherit the stored key and base URL, so a single login covers the whole session.

lime login --with-api-key                              # OpenAI (default)
lime login --provider anthropic --with-api-key
lime login --provider gemini --with-api-key

# OpenAI-compatible endpoints — each `--service` namespaces credentials,
# so multiple compat providers can coexist (Groq, OpenRouter, Together, …).
lime login --provider openai-compat --service groq --with-api-key \
           --with-base-url https://api.groq.com/openai/v1

lime login --status                                    # Show all providers
lime login --status --provider gemini                  # Show one provider

OAuth flows are available for the three first-party providers — no API key required. Lime reuses the public client IDs from the official first-party CLIs (Claude Code, Codex CLI, gemini-cli):

lime login --provider anthropic --oauth   # Claude.ai paste-back (no listener)
lime login --provider openai --oauth      # Codex loopback on port 1455
lime login --provider gemini --oauth      # Google loopback; override port with OAUTH_CALLBACK_PORT

OAuth credentials take precedence over an API key when both are stored.

Provider names accepted by --provider: openai, anthropic, gemini, openai-compat (alias openai_compat).

To remove credentials:

lime logout                                            # All
lime logout --provider gemini                          # One provider
lime logout --provider openai-compat --service groq    # One compat service

Verify the install

lime --version
lime status
lime sandbox       # snapshot of sandbox isolation

If lime status reports a healthy session and at least one provider, you’re ready to go on to the Quickstart.

Companion surfaces

The CLI is one of three surfaces that share the same engine. You can install the others directly:

• VS Code extension — Lime Code on the Marketplace (ext install ThnhCngNguyn.lime-code).
• Web companion (PWA) — hosted at lime-web.pages.dev; point it at a running lime bridge --ws … and “Install app” from the browser menu.