Troubleshooting

Open an issue or check existing reports.

If you don't have npm, get Node here.

Codebuff stores files at ~/.config/manicode including the binary codebuff. Sometimes deleting the binary and restarting codebuff will fix issues.

The latest version of the Codebuff client can be found on the npm page.

Run codebuff --version to make sure you're on the latest version.

Codebuff should auto-update. If not, try the steps below.

If npm install -g codebuff gave you an error regarding permissions, try using setting the owner of that directory to your user.

Mac/Linux: sudo chown -R $(whoami) <directory>

Windows: cmd takeown /F <directory> /R /D Y

Otherwise reinstall node with nvm or fnm and rerun the install.

Your conversation history with Codebuff is stored locally (and nowhere else) at ~/.config/manicode/projects/<your-project-name>/chats.

Include recent chats if you ask for help.

If Codebuff keeps trying to update itself in a loop, check the items below:

One common cause is having conflicting Node/npm installations on your system, particularly between Homebrew and nvm. Here's how to diagnose and fix this:

1. Check your Node and npm paths:

   which node
   which npm

   If these point to Homebrew paths (e.g., /opt/homebrew/bin/) instead of nvm paths (e.g., ~/.nvm/versions/), that's the issue.

2. Check what packages depend on Node through Homebrew:

   brew uninstall node

   This will show you any packages that depend on Node.

3. If you don't need those packages anymore, you can uninstall them. This will automatically remove Node as a dependency.

4. After this cleanup, your which node and which npm commands should point to your nvm installation, and Codebuff should work as expected.

If you see "command not found" when trying to run Codebuff:

1. Ensure Codebuff is installed globally: npm install -g codebuff
2. Check that your PATH includes npm's global bin directory
3. Try running which codebuff to verify the installation location

If you see an error like this:

npm ERR! code ENOTEMPTY
npm ERR! syscall rename
npm ERR! path /some/path/to/node_modules/codebuff
npm ERR! dest /some/path/to/node_modules/.codebuff-SOMEHASH
npm ERR! errno -66
npm ERR! ENOTEMPTY: directory not empty, rename '/some/path/to/node_modules/codebuff' -> '/some/path/to/node_modules/.codebuff-SOMEHASH'

It means you have a directory named .codebuff-SOMEHASH in your node_modules directory. This is a temporary directory created by npm when installing packages. You can safely delete this directory and try again:

rm -rf /some/path/to/node_modules/.codebuff-SOMEHASH

If you're trying to automate Codebuff using tmux (e.g., for scripting or testing), standard tmux send-keys won't work correctly. Characters will be dropped or garbled.

The Problem:

# ❌ Doesn't work - characters get dropped
tmux send-keys -t codebuff "hello world"
tmux send-keys -t codebuff Enter
# Result: Only "d" appears in the input!

The Solution:

Use bracketed paste mode by wrapping your input in escape sequences:

# ✅ Works correctly
tmux send-keys -t codebuff $'\e[200~hello world\e[201~'
tmux send-keys -t codebuff Enter
# Result: "hello world" appears correctly!

This tells the terminal that the input is a paste operation, which Codebuff handles atomically.

Helper script:

send_to_codebuff() {
  local session="$1"
  local text="$2"
  tmux send-keys -t "$session" $'\e[200~'"$text"$'\e[201~'
}

# Usage:
send_to_codebuff my-session "fix the bug in main.ts"
tmux send-keys -t my-session Enter

1. Open an issue on GitHub
2. Join the Discord community
3. Contact support@codebuff.com – replies may take a few days