Toad HF Inference Explorers

Explore the best open models with Toad and Hugging Face Inference Providers.

What is Toad?

Toad is a terminal-based interface for AI agents from Will McGugan, creator of Rich and Textual. It connects to AI models via the Agent Client Protocol (ACP).

Quick Start

1. Install (or update) Toad

curl -fsSL batrachian.ai/install | sh

Or for Python developers:

uv tool install -U batrachian-toad

2. Authenticate with Hugging Face

hf auth login

Or set your HF_TOKEN environment variable.

3. Launch and select HF Inference Providers

toad

Select "Hugging Face Inference Providers" from the Recommended section.

4. Switch models

Use /set-model in the chat to change the active model.

5. Explore Skills

Install and manage agent skills from the Hugging Face Skills repository with the /skills command:

Once added the skill is immediately available to use.

6. Try Examples

Enter setup mode (use ctrl+o to switch modes) and type /quickstart to install the following hackable examples:

• ACP/MCP Expert Agents -- conversationally query the Specification and Python SDK, and return responses with citations.
• Ripgrep Search Tool -- context efficient Search Tool
• Hugging Face Hub Search Tool -- Ask complex questions about the Hub, powered by the hf CLI.
• Blog Post PR Skill -- Extract suggestions and comments from draft through to publication.

7. Agent Builder

Coming Soon.

Your Free Credits

Resources

• Toad on GitHub
• Inference Providers Docs
• Available Models