Migrating from Aider

Aider pioneered the repo map (PageRank over a tree-sitter symbol graph) and edit-format-per-model (whole / diff / udiff / editor formats). Me Write Code ships both, with the same defaults and ablation tables.

TL;DR

# 1. Install
npm install -g @zhachory1/mewrite-code

# 2. Use your existing API keys
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=...
export OPENAI_API_KEY=...

# 3. Tell Me Write Code what files you'd manually /add in Aider
mewrite @src/main.py @src/utils.py "Help me with this"

# 4. Use it
mewrite

What maps

Aider	Me Write Code	Notes
/add <file>	@file in TUI	Adds to chat context
/drop <file>	/drop	Removes from chat context
/run <cmd>	!cmd (in TUI)	Or use Bash tool directly
/diff	/diff	Show pending diff
/architect	/architect	Architect/editor split
--map-tokens N	/repomap set mapTokens=N	Same default (1024)
--edit-format	--edit-format	whole/diff/udiff/editor-diff/editor-whole
.aider.conf.yml	~/.mewrite/agent/settings.json	Different format, same options
Conventions file	AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md	Read on session start

Repo map

Aider's repo map is best-in-class. Me Write Code matches it:

• Tree-sitter parsers for TS/JS/Python/Go/Rust/Java/C++/Ruby/PHP.
• Symbol graph: files = nodes, references = edges.
• PageRank with chat-state personalization (added files + recently mentioned files = personalization vector).
• Send signatures only; bodies on demand.

/repomap set mapTokens=2048    # bigger map
/repomap                  # show the current ranked list

Edit formats

Auto-selected per model based on proof-bench ablation results. Override with --edit-format:

Format	Description	Best for
whole	Replace entire file	small files, clean state
diff	Search/replace blocks	most tasks
diff-fenced	Fenced search/replace	models that strip fences
udiff	Unified diff	weak models, stable across revisions
editor-diff	Editor model emits diff after architect	architect/editor split
editor-whole	Editor model emits whole files	architect/editor split

Me Write Code's defaults are pinned to Aider's published ablation winners and updated when new models ship. See Models.

Architect / editor split

Same UX as Aider:

/architect set architectModel=claude-opus-4-7 editorModel=claude-haiku-4

Architect plans, editor executes. Drops cost ~3-5× on long sessions. See Plan Mode.

Differences

Caveman Mode compression

Aider compresses by selecting smaller context (repo map). Me Write Code additionally compresses tool output post-hoc (~85% reduction on bash, grep, file reads). The two are complementary; both are on by default.

Watch mode

Aider's // ai! and // ai? magic comments — Me Write Code uses // mewrite! and // mewrite?:

mewrite --watch

Trailing ! triggers code edits with cwd + comment + surrounding lines as context.

Session model

Aider sessions are tied to a chat history file. Me Write Code sessions are JSONL files under ~/.mewrite/agent/sessions/. Branchable via /tree and /fork.

Conventions file

Aider reads <repo>/.aider/conventions.md. Me Write Code reads AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md as project context. Move your conventions file to one of those names and you're done.

Cost tracking

Aider was first to surface per-message cost inline. Me Write Code does the same:

[$0.0042 (cached: $0.0001)] Sonnet 4 · 12,431 in / 412 out

/tokens opens a live breakdown. /cost daily and weekly totals include completed assistant messages from active, unclosed sessions; legacy totals are stored in ~/.cave/cost-totals.json and new per-message records in ~/.cave/cost-ledger.jsonl.