Nanocoder 1.18.0: Multi-Step Tool Calls, Better Debugging, and a Smarter Model Database

We're excited to announce Nanocoder 1.18.0, a release packed with improvements to how the AI agent handles tool calls, new debugging capabilities, and a completely revamped model discovery experience.

AI SDK v6 Beta: Multi-Step Tool Calls Are Here

The headline feature of this release is the upgrade to AI SDK v6 beta. This brings significant improvements to model and tool calling performance, but more importantly, it introduces multi-step tool calls support.

What does this mean in practice? Previously, when Nanocoder needed to perform multiple operations, each tool call was handled sequentially with the model reasoning between each step. With multi-step tool calls, the agent can now chain operations more efficiently, leading to faster task completion and more coherent workflows.

This upgrade was contributed by @DenizOkcu, who also fixed locale-related test failures that were affecting some users.

New `/debugging` Command

Sometimes you need to see exactly what's happening under the hood. The new /debugging command toggles detailed tool call information, showing you the raw data being passed between the model and tools. This is invaluable when:

Troubleshooting unexpected behavior
Understanding how the model is interpreting your requests
Contributing to Nanocoder development

Thanks again to @DenizOkcu for this addition.

From `/recommendations`, to `/model-database`

We've replaced the /recommendations command with a more powerful /model-database command. Instead of static recommendations, you now have access to a searchable database of models with up-to-date information about capabilities, context sizes, and more.

This change makes it significantly easier for us to maintain accurate model information and for you to find the right model for your use case.

Cleaner Status Display

LSP and MCP server connection status is now displayed directly in the Status component. This provides much cleaner visibility into your connected services without cluttering the main UI with verbose connection messages. Thanks to @Avtrkrb for this improvement.

GitHub Issue Templates

We've added structured issue templates for bug reports and feature requests. If you encounter problems or have ideas, these templates will help you provide the information we need to act quickly.

A Note on Streaming

We've temporarily removed streaming output. The AI SDK v6 upgrade introduced some layout and flickering issues that affected the user experience. We're working on bringing streaming back in a future release once these issues are resolved.

Breaking Changes

None! This is a drop-in upgrade.

Get It Now

# npm
npm update -g @nanocollective/nanocoder

# homebrew
brew upgrade nanocoder

# nix
nix flake update

Community

Nanocoder is built by a growing community of contributors. Special thanks to @DenizOkcu and @Avtrkrb for their contributions to this release.

Have feedback or found a bug? Open an issue

Nanocoder is a local-first AI coding agent that works with any OpenAI-compatible API. It's open source, privacy-respecting, and designed for developers who want AI assistance without vendor lock-in.