openhuman/gitbooks/features/native-tools/coder.md

description, icon

description	icon
A complete toolset for working on real codebases - read, write, edit, search, git, lint, test.	code

Coder

The coder family is what makes OpenHuman a viable coding partner instead of a chat window that pretends to know the codebase.

Tools in the family

Tool	What it does
file_read	Read a file (with line numbers, like cat -n).
file_write	Write a new file.
edit_file	Targeted edits - match-and-replace with strict uniqueness checks.
apply_patch	Apply a unified diff.
glob_search	Find files by glob pattern.
grep	Ripgrep-style search across the tree.
list_files	Walk a directory tree.
read_diff	Diff between two files or revisions.
git_operations	Status, diff, log, blame, branch, commit.
run_linter	Run the project's linter.
run_tests	Run the project's test command.
csv_export	Export query results as CSV.

Why these are native, not shell-only

A shell tool plus cat/sed/awk could technically do all of this. The native tools exist because:

• Edits go through a uniqueness check, so the agent can't accidentally clobber the wrong line.
• Reads come back with line numbers the agent can refer to in follow-ups.
• Git operations parse output into structured data, instead of leaving the agent to scrape porcelain.
• Lint and test runs are wired to the project's actual commands, not generic guesses.

Workspace scoping

Filesystem tools respect a workspace boundary - the agent can't read or write outside it without explicit permission. Same boundary the rest of the app uses for OPENHUMAN_WORKSPACE.

See also

• System & Utilities - shell, node_exec, npm_exec, python_exec for the rest of the dev loop.
• Agent Coordination - todo_write, spawn_subagent for larger refactors.