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Run Aider on a Repo

Aider is an AI pair programming tool that works directly in your terminal with deep git integration. This recipe sets up Aider in an isolated Caged sandbox.

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Prerequisites

  • Caged CLI installed (brew install caged-dev/tap/caged or curl -fsSL https://get.caged.dev | sh)
  • Caged account with API key (caged login)
  • An OPENAI_API_KEY or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY stored in your Caged secrets

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Quick Start Examples

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Basic: Sandbox with Aider

# Create sandbox with Aider pre-installed
caged up --template python-312 --agents aider

# Connect to the sandbox
caged connect cage_xxxxx

# Inside the sandbox, Aider is ready
caged> aider

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Clone a Repo + Aider

# Clone your repo and install Aider
caged up \
  --template python-312 \
  --repo https://github.com/your-org/your-project \
  --agents aider \
  --env "OPENAI_API_KEY=$OPENAI_API_KEY"

# Connect and start pair programming
caged connect cage_xxxxx
caged> aider --message "Add tests for the user module"

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Full Example with All Options

caged up \
  --template python-312 \
  --cpus 2 \
  --memory 1024 \
  --repo https://github.com/your-org/your-project \
  --budget 5 \
  --agents aider \
  --env "OPENAI_API_KEY=$OPENAI_API_KEY"
The --agents aider flag automatically installs aider-chat via pip — no manual setup needed.
Create .caged.yaml in your repo root: 
# .caged.yaml
template: python-312
resources:
  cpu: 2
  memory: 1024
  disk: 10
timeout: 3600
budget: 5.00

agents:
  - aider

secrets:
  - OPENAI_API_KEY      # or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for Claude

network_mode: allowlist
allowed_hosts:
  - api.openai.com
  - api.anthropic.com
  - github.com
  - pypi.org
Then run: 
caged up
caged connect cage-xxxxx

# Inside the sandbox
aider

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Option 3: Use Aider with Claude

Aider works great with Claude models too: 
caged run \
  --template python-312 \
  --agents aider \
  --env "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"
Inside the sandbox: 
# Use Claude Sonnet (default for Anthropic)
aider --model claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022

# Or Claude Opus for complex tasks
aider --model claude-3-opus-20240229

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Aider Configuration

Create .aider.conf.yml in your project for persistent settings: 
# .aider.conf.yml
model: claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022
auto-commits: true
dark-mode: true
show-diffs: true

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Monitoring Progress

# Watch Aider's git commits in real-time
caged logs cage-xxxxx --follow

# Check cost
caged status cage-xxxxx

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Tips

Auto-commits: Aider commits each change with descriptive messages. Review the git log to see exactly what it changed.
Add files to context: Use /add filename.py in Aider to include specific files in the conversation context.
Undo mistakes: Aider’s /undo command reverts the last change. Or use caged snapshot restore to go back further.