Use Xaden with other assistants and local models

The rules live in plain Markdown (AGENTS.md), so any tool works. Tool-specific files are thin pointers: CLAUDE.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md, .clinerules, .continue/rules/project.md, .aider.conf.yml.

Xaden needs an assistant that can read and edit your files and run commands. A chat window without file access is not supported; a model on your own machine works through a tool that has that access (Aider, Cline, Continue).

Run a model on your own machine

Small models have small context windows: keep AGENTS.md short, use one prompt at a time, and edit few files per request.

Ollama with Aider

ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:14b
export OLLAMA_API_BASE=http://127.0.0.1:11434
aider --model ollama_chat/qwen2.5-coder:14b

• ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:14b: any coder model your hardware handles Ollama’s default context is small; raise it (e.g. num_ctx 16384) in a Modelfile or via the Aider model settings, otherwise AGENTS.md is silently truncated. Aider reads AGENTS.md and the requirements through .aider.conf.yml.

LM Studio

Start the local server (OpenAI-compatible, default http://localhost:1234/v1), load a coder model with a context length ≥ 16k, then point Aider/Cline/Continue at it as an “OpenAI-compatible” provider with any dummy API key.

Cline or Continue in VS Code

Provider “Ollama” or “OpenAI compatible”. Both pick up the rules from .clinerules and .continue/rules/project.md, which point to AGENTS.md.

What to expect from smaller models

Weaker models skip steps. Counter: ask for the plan first, run xaden check yourself, and never merge without a green check. Security review quality drops with model size — re-run the security review (xaden prompt security-review) with a stronger model before releases.

Which systems these steps cover

Linux and macOS are supported. Scripts are bash and use only POSIX tools. On Windows use WSL (recommended) or Git Bash; native PowerShell is not supported.