# Daemon Backend Kimicode

> Nested daemon-cli-backends reference for the Kimi Code daemon backend's flag surface. Read this only when a daemon task needs Kimi-specific CLI flags (model selection, skills/workspace directories): it routes you to the installed CLI's live help via shell and shows how to translate that help into the generic `backend_options` mechanism. It is not a flag catalog.

- Skill: `lingtai-ai/daemon-backend-kimicode` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add lingtai-ai/daemon-backend-kimicode`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/lingtai-ai/daemon-backend-kimicode/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: lingtai-ai (https://skillmd.com/u/lingtai-ai)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/lingtai-ai/daemon-backend-kimicode

---


# Kimi Code Daemon Backend — Flag Discovery Entrypoint

The installed CLI's own help is the authority for Kimi Code flags; this page is
only the entrypoint. Conversion rules, key safety, and persistence live in the
parent [`reference/cli-backends/SKILL.md`](../../../SKILL.md). `kimi` is the
accepted short alias; persisted daemon entries use the canonical backend name
`kimicode`.

## Discover flags from the installed CLI

1. Run, in bash: `kimi --version` and `kimi --help`. The daemon backend wraps
   the top-level one-shot mode (`kimi --prompt <prompt> --output-format
   text`), so the top-level help is the relevant flag surface — there is no
   `exec`-style wrapper subcommand. Run `kimi <subcommand> --help` only when a
   task actually needs one of the listed subcommands. These are local
   read-only commands; no session is started.
2. Translate what you found into `backend_options` with the parent's generic
   conversion rules. Nothing Kimi-specific is added to that contract here.
   Flag-name note: the output switch is `--output-format`
   (`text` / `stream-json`), not `--format`.

## Example: model selection

`kimi --help` lists `-m, --model <model>` for per-invocation model choice.
Through `backend_options`, a string value becomes `--flag <value>`:

```jsonc
{
  "backend": "kimicode",   // or the accepted alias "kimi"
  "tasks": [{
    "task": "Implement and validate the change.",
    "tools": [],
    "backend_options": {
      "model": "kimi-for-coding"
    }
  }]
}
// argv: kimi --model kimi-for-coding --prompt <prompt> --output-format text
```

The model vocabulary belongs to the installed CLI and its provider
configuration — LingTai does not validate, enumerate, or simulate model names.

## Subscription & auth

Moonshot AI keys: `KIMICODE_API_KEY` / `KIMI_API_KEY` / `MOONSHOT_API_KEY` map
to `KIMI_MODEL_API_KEY` only when unset. Never print key values.

Official docs: https://github.com/MoonshotAI/kimi-code

## Harness boundary

Kimi Code declares a reserved-flag list at the validation layer; passing any
of these in `backend_options` refuses the whole batch before spawn:
`--prompt` / `-p`, `--output-format`, `--yolo` / `-y`, `--session` / `-S`,
`--continue` / `-c`. LingTai owns `--prompt` and `--output-format` (they
drive the non-interactive text-capture harness), forbids `--yolo` (the CLI
refuses `--prompt` combined with `--yolo`), and reserves the
session/continue flags because resume is not wired for this backend: no
stable machine-readable session-id output was verified, so
`daemon(action="ask", input={"id": ..., "message": ...})` returns an explicit unsupported-backend error — start
a new kimicode emanation instead.

Free-form options are inserted between `kimi` and the owned flags (the
prompt travels via `--prompt`, never as a trailing positional). Output is
plain text, not a JSON event stream: stdout is recorded verbatim, line by
line, as `cli_output` events, no session id is captured, and the joined
stdout becomes the result. The run-private MCP loader is not argv-based —
the daemon writes `daemon_common` plus parent stdio and HTTP registrations
to `<run>/kimi-code-home/mcp.json` (path recorded in `daemon.json` under
`backend_harness_files.kimicode_mcp_config`); secret env/header values stay
out of prompts and logs. The CLI's own MCP declaration search paths are
`$KIMI_CODE_HOME/mcp.json`, project-root `.mcp.json`, and cwd-local
`.kimi-code/mcp.json`; the schema accepts `stdio` and `http` transports —
SSE is not exposed by LingTai daemon task registrations.

## Kimi-specific validation steps

In the Generic validation checklist (see
`reference/cli-backends/SKILL.md`), additionally confirm from installed help
that `--yolo` conflicts with `--prompt` (the CLI refuses that pairing). Before
enabling `ask` for this backend, source-cite a stable machine-readable
session-id output plus a tested resume command from local help/code — do not
guess.