Exponent Local connects a web UI to your local development environment through the Exponent CLI.
If you’re just getting started with Exponent, we recommend following the Walkthrough first to get familiar with the core capabilities. This page is intended to be more of a reference sheet.

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Overview

Exponent Local connects the Exponent web interface to your local machine, allowing you to:
  • Execute shell commands directly from the chat interface
  • Search, read, and modify files in your codebase
  • Chain multiple operations together for complex tasks
  • Maintain persistent sessions that you can reconnect to

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Getting Started

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Prerequisites

Before using Exponent Local, make sure you have:
  1. Installed the Exponent CLI (see Quickstart)
  2. Authenticated with your Exponent account
  3. A project you want to work on

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Starting a Session

To start using Exponent Local:
  1. Navigate to your project directory:
cd my-project
  1. Start Exponent:
exponent run
This opens the Exponent web interface in your browser and connects it to your local environment. You’ll know the connection is established when you see the “Connected” status in the center of the screen. Exponent web interface showing the connected status

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Core Capabilities

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Command Execution

Exponent can run shell commands on your machine through the chat interface. For example, to list files in your current directory:
List all files in this directory
Exponent proposing a command to list files with a confirmation button When Exponent proposes a command, you can:
  • Press Ctrl/Cmd-Y to confirm and execute it
  • Edit the command if needed
  • Reject it and provide additional context

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File Operations

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Reading Files

Exponent can search for and read files in your codebase:
Find all typescript files

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Creating and Editing Files

Exponent can create new files or modify existing ones:
Create a basic test harness for this codebase
Update the README to include troubleshooting steps
When you confirm, it will write the file directly to your filesystem. You can view and further modify the contents of the file in your terminal, file explorer, or text editor.
Before making any changes to your files, Exponent will always show you exactly what changes it’s proposing.
Exponent writing a file to the filesystem

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Chaining Commands and File Operations

As you get comfortable with Exponent, you can start to work with it to chain commands and file operations together to accomplish more complex tasks:
Find all TODO comments in this codebase and create a task list from them
Create unit tests for the untested functions in src/utils/
Explore this codebase and write an exponent.txt file for it

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Additional Options

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Reconnecting to Sessions

If you close your browser or need to shut down your terminal, you can reconnect to an existing session:
  1. Find your chat ID from:
    • The reconnect message above the text input box in the Exponent web interface
    • The URL of your chat session: https://exponent.run/chats/<your-chat-id>
    • The terminal output when you first ran exponent run
  2. Reconnect using: 
exponent run --chat-id <your-chat-id>

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Running with a Prompt

You can start Exponent with a specific prompt: 

exponent run --prompt "Draw a Mermaid diagram showing the payment flow for this app"

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More Features

Auto-confirm

Let Exponent execute multiple actions automatically

File Referencing

Include files from your codebase in conversations

exponent.txt

Teach Exponent about your codebase

Checkpoints

Save and restore your code state safely

Chat Summaries

Condense long conversations into focused summaries

Message Editing

Refine tasks iteratively with message edits and re-runs

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Other Environments

Exponent Shell

Use Exponent directly in your terminal

Exponent CI

Integrate Exponent into your CI/CD pipeline