Aider - AI Pair Programming Assistant Complete Guide

Let AI write, refactor and debug code directly in your repository, with automatic Git commits, supporting GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 and other models

Auto Edit Files

Directly modify local code files

Git Integrate

Automatically commit with meaningful messages

Voice Input

Support voice description of requirements

Multi-Model Support

GPT-4o, Claude, DeepSeek

1. Quick Installation

Install Aider

pip install aider-chat

2. Configuration File Details

.aider.conf.yml Configure

# .aider.conf.yml
model: gpt-4o
auto-commits: true
auto-test: true
voice: true
watch: true

# Using custom API
openai-api-base: https://api.n1n.ai/v1
openai-api-key: your-api-key-here

# Git Configure
git: true
gitignore: true
pretty: true
show-diffs: true

# File monitoring
watch-files:
  - "*.py"
  - "*.js"
  - "*.ts"

Configuration Description

  • • model: Specify the model to use (gpt-4o/claude-3-5-sonnet)
  • • auto-commits: Automatically commit code changes
  • • auto-test: Automatically run tests after modifications
  • • voice: Enable voice input feature
  • • watch: Monitor file changes

API Configure

  • • openai-api-base: Custom API endpoint
  • • openai-api-key: API key
  • • Support OpenAI, Azure, self-hosted services
  • • Compatible with OpenAI API format

3. Basic Usage

Common Commands

# Basic usage
aider main.py

# Specify multiple files
aider src/*.py tests/*.py

# Using voice input
aider --voice main.py

# Monitor file changes
aider --watch src/

💡 Practical Tips

  • • Use /add command to add new files to the session
  • • Use /drop to remove unnecessary files
  • • Use /undo to undo the last modification
  • • Use /diff to view code changes
  • • Use /run to execute shell commands

4. Practical Example: Building a Complete Feature

Create User Authentication System

# Create a complex feature
$ aider main.py utils.py

> /add Please help me implement a user authentication system, including: 
> 1. JWT token generation and validation
> 2. Password encryption and storage
> 3. User login/registration interface
> 4. Middleware permission validation

# Aider will automatically:
# - Analyze existing code structure
# - Generate required new files
# - Add necessary dependencies
# - Create unit tests
# - Auto commit code changes

✨ Advantages of Aider

  • • Understand the entire project context
  • • Automatically handle imports and dependencies
  • • Generate code that matches project style
  • • Automatically create test files
  • • Smart Git commit messages

🎯 Best Practices

  • • Clearly describe requirements and expected results
  • • Implement complex features step by step
  • • Review generated code promptly
  • • Keep commits small and frequent
  • • Use test-driven development

5. Model Selection Recommendations

GPT-4o

✅ Strongest code understanding capability

✅ Complex logic implementation

✅ Architecture design

💰 Higher cost

aider --model gpt-4o

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

✅ Excellent code quality

✅ Detailed explanations

✅ Higher security

💚 Cost-effective

aider --model claude-3-5-sonnet

DeepSeek Coder

✅ Focused on code generation

✅ Fast speed

✅ Low cost

🚀 First choice for daily development

aider --model deepseek-coder

6. FAQ Solutions

How to use custom API endpoint?
export OPENAI_API_BASE="https://api.n1n.ai/v1" export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key" aider --model gpt-4o main.py
How to limit modification scope?

Use --read parameter to specify read-only files:

aider main.py --read lib/*.py tests/*.py
How to handle large codebases?

Use map mode to reduce token consumption:

aider --map-tokens 1024 --model gpt-4o-mini src/

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