Cetas is a coding agent that runs on your own machine: you state what you want in plain language, it reads files, edits code, and runs commands, showing you everything it does. That sentence holds for everyone; whether it fits depends on where you start. This page answers per starting point.
I don’t write code — can I still use it?
Yes, and no programming experience is required. What individual creators do with it differs from what engineers do, but the path is the same:
- Have it build a small tool or a personal website: you describe the result, it writes, you look and ask for changes;
- Have it organise a batch of local files (renaming, sorting, reformatting) — stating the rules is enough;
- Have it read a long document or a folder and summarise or search it for you.
You need four things, each explained in the glossary: a computer, a terminal, Node.js for the recommended JS host (optional for Native), and an account with a model provider. Then follow Installation & First Run — when a word is unfamiliar, look it up in the glossary.
One thing to be clear about: it edits files; it is not magic. You can see every step it took, and you can rewind — which is exactly why it fits real work better than copy-pasting AI answers.
I write code and I’m switching from another agent
See the next page: How is Cetas different from other coding agents? — four structural differences, and when switching is worth it.
I know this space better than the author does
The docs state what there is to state and stay out of your way:
- A machine-readable site: /llms.txt and
/llms-full.txt, plus a
.mdand.mdxsource for every docs page; - Auditable state: one home directory holding configuration, credentials, and sessions on disk — no second place for state to hide;
- Five permission postures and session rewind, so widening or narrowing needs no product changes.
Its experimental nature is stated plainly: the npm build is the stable one — pin a version, read the changelog, upgrade deliberately.