px0 is the IDE for humans and AI, optimized for quick, fast code reviews. It boots in under 1 millisecond and uses approximately 20 MB of RAM, turning your browser into a zero-latency code review and inspection console with native Git/GitHub integration and AI harness connectivity.

Can px0 be used to inspect code on remote servers and cloud VMs?

Yes. px0 is remote-first. You can run `px0 -host 0.0.0.0` on any remote server, VM, CI runner, or container and browse the codebase directly from your local web browser over HTTP or TLS, without configuring SSH keys, setting up port-forwarding tunnels, or running heavy server daemons.

Why use px0 instead of a heavy editor like VS Code?

Code increasingly arrives from the terminal via AI coding agents, compilers, or remote test runners. Developers spend most of their time in verification, audit, and navigation. Full desktop IDEs take seconds to boot and consume 1.4+ GB of RAM just to inspect files. px0 starts in under 1 ms with ~20 MB RAM, providing zero-latency code reading and delegated agent editing without editor bloat.

Does px0 require language servers to work?

No. Language servers are completely optional. px0 automatically detects servers like gopls, rust-analyzer, or clangd on your PATH if present, but falls back instantly to a built-in regex-based outline and fuzzy search if no server is installed.

How does px0 handle large repositories?

px0 uses windowed syntax highlighting and virtual DOM rendering (only rendering visible rows on screen), so opening a 400,000-line file costs the same as a 10-line file. It fuzzy-finds across the Linux kernel (95,710 files) in 6 ms.

How do I install px0?

Run `curl -fsSL https://px0.ai/install.sh | sh` on macOS, Linux, or BSD. Prebuilt binaries for 15 OS and architecture targets are also available on GitHub Releases.

How do I avoid sudo prompts when installing or updating px0?

If px0 was previously installed with sudo, remove the active root-owned binary and reinstall cleanly to user space (~/.local/bin) by running: `sudo rm -f "$(which px0)" && curl -fsSL https://px0.ai/install.sh | sh`. All future updates will then run in user space with zero sudo requirements.

Does px0 collect telemetry or send code to the cloud?

No. px0 never transmits code, file paths, symbol names, or search queries. It collects lightweight, anonymous backend session metrics (start and stop times) strictly to measure daily active users and session duration. You can disable telemetry completely with `px0 -no-telemetry`, `DO_NOT_TRACK=1`, or `PX0_TELEMETRY=0`.

Performance Benchmarks & Methodology

px0 is engineered for extreme responsiveness and minimal memory usage. While conventional IDEs allocate over 1 GB of RAM and run 15+ background processes, px0 operates as a single static Go binary utilizing ~20 MB of resident memory.

Benchmark Corpus

Performance is evaluated across seven open-source repositories spanning two orders of magnitude in size:

Repository	Source Size	Files Indexed	Character / Ecosystem
flask	3 MB	235	Microframework: tests sub-millisecond instant path
redis	26 MB	1,855	Systems C codebase with monolithic source files
react	63 MB	7,178	Deep directory trees and nested `.gitignore` files
django	74 MB	7,014	Large Python web framework with sprawling modules
kubernetes	370 MB	25,926	Large enterprise Go monorepo with vendored code
TypeScript	414 MB	66,533	Massive generated test trees and large source files
linux	1,809 MB	95,710	Extreme scale: ~95,000 files and 1.8 GB source text

Benchmark Results (px0 Standalone)

Tested on Linux x86_64 with language servers disabled (-no-lsp):

Repository	Files	Index Time	Fuzzy Search	Full-Tree Regex Scan	Resident RAM (RSS)
flask	235	1 ms	0.8 ms	2.3 ms	16 MB
redis	1,855	13 ms	1.0 ms	18.2 ms	17 MB
django	7,014	39 ms	1.3 ms	26.8 ms	20 MB
react	7,178	52 ms	2.7 ms	32.2 ms	21 MB
kubernetes	25,926	150 ms	13.5 ms	84.6 ms	30 MB
TypeScript	66,533	566 ms	6.2 ms	150.3 ms	69 MB
linux	95,710	370 ms	6.0 ms	451.8 ms	55 MB

Head-to-Head: px0 vs. VS Code Process Model

Measured during live active workspace inspection:

Parameter	px0	VS Code (Server/Remote)	Comparison
Base Memory (RSS)	~20 MB	1,166 - 1,440 MB	px0 is ~70x lighter
Cold Startup Time	< 1 ms	3 - 8 seconds	Near-instant startup
Process Count	1 single binary	15+ Node/Electron processes	Zero process sprawl
Active Startup CPU Spike	< 1%	35% - 50%	Machines stay quiet
Workspace Indexing	0 - 370 ms	4 - 15 seconds	Background churn eliminated
Idle Memory Reclamation	Automatic (15s)	Never released	OS RAM returned promptly

Reproducing the Benchmarks

All benchmark figures can be measured directly on your own machine using the reproducible benchmark script in the repository:

# 1. Fetch benchmark corpus (shallow clones of 7 repositories)
./benchmark.sh --clone

# 2. Run the complete benchmark suite
./benchmark.sh

# 3. Compare px0 directly against VS Code process tree on your current workspace
./benchmark.sh --vscode .

# 4. Profile memory lifecycle across index, search, and idle recovery
./benchmark.sh --memory bench-repos/linux