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Aider

Pair-programmer CLI with git-aware edits, configured for clawfeeder

Protocol: OpenAILast verified 2026-05-19

Aider edits code in your local git repo with the model in the loop. It speaks OpenAI's API; setting OPENAI_API_BASE plus --openai-api-base wires it to clawfeeder.

Prerequisites

Python 3.9+ with `pip install aider-chat`, and a clawfeeder API key.

Steps

1Install Aider

Install via pipx (recommended for isolation) or plain pip.

pipx install aider-chat
# or:
pip install aider-chat

2Set environment variables

Aider reads OPENAI_API_KEY and OPENAI_API_BASE on every run. Persist in your shell rc to avoid re-exporting.

export OPENAI_API_KEY="cf-sk-***your_key***"
export OPENAI_API_BASE="https://clawfeeder.ai/v1"

3Launch in a repo

Aider must run inside a git repo. Pass --model to pick a clawfeeder model; default is gpt-4o which won't match the catalog.

cd my-repo
aider --model gpt-5.2
# or claude family:
aider --model claude-sonnet-4-6

4Add files to context

Use /add <file> inside the Aider prompt to include files. Aider will only read+edit explicitly added files, keeping prompt size predictable.

/add src/main.py
/add src/utils.py
# now ask for an edit

Verify

Smoke test bypassing Aider — confirms env vars and clawfeeder accept your model choice.

curl -X POST "$OPENAI_API_BASE/chat/completions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"gpt-5.2","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"reply READY"}],"max_tokens":10}'

Expected response includes: "content":"READY"

FAQ

Aider complains 'model gpt-4o not found' — how do I default to a clawfeeder model?

Create ~/.aider.conf.yml with `model: gpt-5.2` (or any other catalog id). Aider reads this on every launch so you don't need --model every time.

Should I use Aider's --no-stream flag?

No — clawfeeder supports streaming on all chat-completion calls. Streaming gives you live diffs which is half of Aider's appeal.

How do I see how many credits a session burned?

Type /tokens in Aider for a token-count summary, then look at /dashboard for credit deduction (token × tier multiplier). Each clawfeeder model has a base credit cost shown at /docs#models.

Aider's edit format — does clawfeeder support both diff and whole-file?

Yes. Both formats are just text in the response body; clawfeeder doesn't parse or modify completion content. Configure --edit-format diff or whole as you prefer.

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