Quickstart

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.75+ (2021 edition)
• An API key for a supported LLM provider

Install

From Source

git clone https://github.com/pdg-global/rusty.git
cd rusty
cargo build --release

The binary will be at ./target/release/rusty.

Via Cargo Install

cargo install rusty

First Run

When you run Rusty for the first time, the setup wizard launches automatically:

rusty

The wizard will:

1. Select a provider from Xiaomi, Kimi, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Ollama, or a custom endpoint
2. Enter your API key (masked input)
3. Choose credential storage (OS keyring or settings file)
4. Select a model for the chosen provider
5. Test connectivity to verify the setup works

Configuration is saved to ~/.rusty/settings.json.

Using a Preset

Skip the wizard by specifying a preset and API key directly:

rusty --preset openai --api-key sk-...

Available presets: xiaomi, kimi, openai, deepseek, ollama.

Environment Variables

Set your API key via environment variables instead of flags:

export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
rusty --preset openai

RUSTY_API_KEY takes precedence over OPENAI_API_KEY if both are set.

Common Flags

Flag	Description
--model	Override the default model
--permissions	Set permission mode: default, accept-edits, bypass, plan
--plan-with-tasks	Enable structured task tracking in responses
--thinking-budget	Token budget for reasoning/thinking content
--cwd	Set the working directory
--no-claude-md	Disable discovery of AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md/RUSTY.md context files
--append-system-prompt	Append additional text to the system prompt
--resume	Resume a saved session by ID

Your First Conversation

Once running, just type your prompt and press Enter. Rusty will stream the response in real-time and offer to execute tools when needed.

Try asking:

• “What files are in this directory?”
• “Read the Cargo.toml and explain the dependencies”
• “Create a hello world script in Python”

Use /help to see available slash commands, or /quit to exit (session is saved automatically).