Atomic ships two things that share one workflow runtime. You can use either on its own or both together. Neither depends on the other: you canDocumentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://bastani.mintlify.app/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
bun add @bastani/atomic-sdk in a project without ever installing the global binary, and you can use atomic chat and the built-in workflows without writing any TypeScript.
| Atomic CLI | Atomic SDK | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Global atomic binary | @bastani/atomic-sdk/workflows TypeScript library |
| Install | install.sh / install.ps1 / install.cmd (no runtime prerequisite) or bun install -g @bastani/atomic | bun add @bastani/atomic-sdk inside your project |
| Entrypoint | atomic <command> | bun run src/<agent>-worker.ts |
| Code required? | No — everything is pre-built. You can also ask the agent inside atomic chat to use the workflow-creator skill and build/run a workflow on the fly. | None to start — describe the workflow in natural language and use the workflow-creator skill to generate it, then refine the TypeScript directly. |
| What you get | atomic chat (agent REPL), three built-in workflows (ralph, deep-research-codebase, open-claude-design), session management, the live workflow panel, Atomic skills (/init, /research-codebase, /create-spec, …) | defineWorkflow, createRegistry, runWorkflow, metadata accessors (getName, getInputSchema, …), session primitives (listSessions, getSessionStatus, attachSession / detachSession, nextWindow / previousWindow / gotoOrchestrator), typed errors, ctx.stage, s.save / s.transcript, headless stages |
| When to reach for it | You want autonomous execution of a standard pattern out of the box, interactive chat with your agent’s full toolset, or a CLI agent that can create a purpose-built workflow before doing complex work. | You want to control the outer loop yourself — review flows, deployment gates, custom research pipelines — with full visibility into the TypeScript your team will run identically. |
| Read next | CLI commands | SDK reference |
One runtime
Both surfaces call the same runtime underneath — the tmux/psmux session graph, the provider SDKs, and detach/reattach. They’re two entry points, not two products. A worker CLI built on the SDK primitives, the globalatomic binary, and bunx atomic all see the same running sessions on the shared atomic socket.
Using both
A common setup: install the CLI foratomic chat and the built-in workflows, and bun add @bastani/atomic-sdk in your repo to author team-specific workflows. Register those local workflows with the CLI (see registering workflows) so atomic workflow discovers them alongside the built-ins.
Install
CLI bootstrap, npm, devcontainer, and SDK-only paths.
Why Atomic
The problem workflows solve.