IDE TEA
Just code. Add ice.
A fast, quiet IDE written in pure Rust, built for working side by side with coding agents. Agents ask before they act, and you stay in charge.
Free and open source (Apache 2.0). Before 1.0: built and tested on Linux; macOS and Windows not yet.
An editor that stays out of your way
Fast
Starts in well under 200 ms. A 50 MB file opens in a tenth of a second; a minified file with one giant line opens in a light mode instead of freezing the window.
Quiet
No account, no telemetry, no pop-ups. The network is used only when you ask (push, pull, fetch). Settings live in one plain TOML file.
Complete where it counts
LSP, git, integrated terminal, debugging with gdb, project search, Markdown/SVG/PDF/image tabs, multi-cursor and an optional vim mode.
Predictable
Every shortcut in one place (F1) and changeable. Closing unsaved work always asks. Deleting a file sends it to the trash.
Agents talk to you through the IDE
Many of us now code with an agent in a terminal next to the editor. Instead of a chat box bolted to
the side, IDE TEA gives agents a small, file-based protocol. Any agent that reads AGENTS.md or
CLAUDE.md can use it: Claude Code, Codex, and others.
Questions as real forms
Choices, checkboxes, text, steps for a manual test, images and sounds, in the Interfaces panel. Your answer goes back to the agent.
Terminals you approve
An agent can ask for a terminal. You see the whole command before it runs, and nothing runs until you allow it.
Helpers in their own worktree
Hand a review or a side fix to another agent. It works on its own branch and leaves its answer in a file.
One command each
idetea ask, run, status,
open and history do the file work for the agent, with the same approvals.
A history of it all
Every question and your answer are kept, with when the agent read it. A panel shows the open ones and the answered ones, with search.
Install
Linux, ready to run: download the .tar.gz or the AppImage for your machine (x86_64 or
aarch64) from the latest release.
tar -xzf idetea-*-linux.tar.gz
cd idetea-*-linux
./install.sh # puts idetea in ~/.local/bin and in the app menuFrom source (needs Rust stable):
cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/fabiocmazzo/idetea tea-app
idetea --install-desktop # optional: app menu entry and iconAbout the name
It started as a pun on iced tea, since it is built with iced. In Portuguese, TEA is also the acronym for autism. IDE TEA is made by an autistic developer, and it shows in what it values: low noise, clear text, things that behave the same way every time, and room to focus. Read the manifesto.