Chipotlai Max turns Chipotle's Pepper AI into a free coding agent
Reverse-engineered Chipotle chatbot serves unlimited free AI coding with burrito vibes.
In mid-March 2026, Chipotle's customer support bot Pepper went viral after users discovered it could solve LeetCode problems, write Python, and reverse linked lists—powered by IPsoft Amelia, not a major LLM. Developer @Gonzih promptly reverse-engineered the WebSocket/SockJS + STOMP backend and released an OpenAI-compatible proxy running on localhost:3000/v1 with no API key required. Capitalizing on the meme, cyberpapiii forked the popular OpenCode editor (120k+ GitHub stars), hardcoded Pepper as the default model, slapped on Chipotle's brand colors, and shipped Chipotlai Max.
The tool works immediately after cloning the repo and running the proxy alongside Chipotlai Max. It comes preconfigured with provider 'chipotle-pepper', model 'pepper-1', and API key 'burrito-2026' (accepts any string). Costs are $0—entirely funded by Chipotle's cloud budget—but risks are substantial: TOS violation, potential legal action from Chipotle, and the proxy breaking with any patch (it has already been patched). The project is purely educational and explicitly warns against production use. Despite the patched status, the community is now seeking contributions to reverse-engineer similar chatbots from Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, and other retailers, following the same proxy pattern.
- Based on Gonzih's reverse-engineered WebSocket/STOMP proxy that exposes Chipotle's Pepper (IPsoft Amelia) as an OpenAI-compatible endpoint
- Fork of OpenCode (120k+ GitHub stars) with Pepper hardcoded as default model, zero API keys, and $0 inference costs
- Now patched by Chipotle, but the project invites contributors to reverse-engineer other retail chatbots (Home Depot, Target, etc.)
Why It Matters
Exposes how corporate chatbots can unwittingly provide free compute; sparks a wave of ethical and legal reverse-engineering.