What is Crush
Crush is Charm’s open-source coding agent for the terminal. It reads its configuration from a crushrc file, which is Bash with Crush-specific commands. This setup adds Capriole AI as one OpenAI-compatible provider.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure you have:
Installation
Install Crush with Homebrew:
Or install it with npm:
Verify the install:
Configuration
Model validation
Crush 0.98.1 passes a file-read, file-write, and final-answer check through Capriole AI with every model in Supported models, using the configuration below.
Create or update ~/.config/crush/crushrc:
What each setting does:
--type openai-compat sends every model to Chat Completions. Capriole AI serves all of these models on Chat Completions.--api-key "$CAPRIOLE_AI_API_KEY" reads your key from the environment when Crush loads the file, and Crush sends it as a Bearer token.--discover-models false keeps the list to the models you add.model large is the main coding model. model small is the model for light tasks such as session titles.
Run Crush
Set your API key, then start Crush from your project directory:
Press Ctrl+L to switch models. For a non-interactive run, use crush run:
Supported models
Model references use the form capriole/<model-id>.
openai-latest and claude-latest always point to our latest flagship in each family.
Troubleshooting
Why does Crush return an authentication error?
Export CAPRIOLE_AI_API_KEY before you start Crush. Crush reads the variable when it loads crushrc.
Why does a Claude model fail with Unsupported chat model_key?
On Chat Completions, use the anthropic/-prefixed Claude IDs, such as anthropic/claude-opus-5-5. The bare IDs, such as claude-opus-5-5, are for Anthropic Messages.
Why don’t config changes apply?
A .crushrc or crushrc file in the project directory takes priority over ~/.config/crush/crushrc. Check for one, then restart Crush.
Notes
crushrc runs as a shell script. Do not paste your key into it.- To add another Capriole AI model, add one more
model add line. GET https://api.caprioletech.com/v1/models lists every model ID.
- Official references: Crush and Crush configuration.
Last modified on October 20, 2026
