Chat with the model and run suggested commands in your shell in one seamless flow.

CLI by Antonio Molinari. Converts prompts into shell commands, with optional chat mode that can execute them live.

Requires Ruby 3.0+

1. Install aicli:

   gem install aicli

   Or from this repository:

   bundle install
   bundle exec rake install
   # or
   gem build aicli.gemspec && gem install ./aicli-*.gem

2. Choose a provider and set the matching API key.

   OpenAI (default) — key from OpenAI:

   aicli config set PROVIDER=openai
   aicli config set OPENAI_KEY=<your token>

   Anthropic — key from Anthropic:

   aicli config set PROVIDER=anthropic
   aicli config set ANTHROPIC_KEY=<your token>

   Or use the interactive UI (aicli config) to pick provider, key, and model. Model lists come from the RubyLLM registry.

   Config lives in ~/.aicli/config. Chat/prompt history is stored in ~/.aicli/context (last 40 messages) and reloaded on the next run.

aicli <prompt>

For example:

aicli list all log files

Then you will get an output where you can choose to run the suggested command, revise it via a prompt, edit it, copy it, or cancel.

The short alias ai is also available.

Some shells handle characters like ? or * specially. Wrap the prompt in quotes if needed:

aicli 'what is my ip address'

aicli chat

Ask for shell commands in a multi-turn conversation. When the assistant suggests a command in a code fence, you are asked whether to run it; after it runs (or you decline), chat continues. Press Ctrl+d to quit.

aicli -s list all log files

Or save the preference:

aicli config set SILENT_MODE=true

aicli config set PROVIDER=openai      # or anthropic
aicli config set MODEL=gpt-4o-mini    # provider-specific model id

Defaults: gpt-4o-mini (OpenAI), claude-sonnet-4-6 (Anthropic).

LLM calls go through RubyLLM, so chat streaming and model metadata stay provider-agnostic.

Useful for OpenAI-compatible proxies (ignored for Anthropic):

aicli config set OPENAI_API_ENDPOINT=<your proxy endpoint>

Default: https://api.openai.com/v1

aicli config set LANGUAGE=zh-Hans

aicli config

aicli --version
gem update aicli

Or:

aicli update

Run the local checkout (not the installed gem) with Bundler from this directory:

bundle install

bundle exec bin/ai --help
bundle exec bin/ai config
bundle exec bin/ai chat
bundle exec bin/ai list all log files

bin/aicli is equivalent to bin/ai. bundle exec loads dependencies from the Gemfile and code from lib/.

Example config for local testing:

bundle exec bin/ai config set PROVIDER=openai
bundle exec bin/ai config set OPENAI_KEY=<your token>
# or: PROVIDER=anthropic + ANTHROPIC_KEY=<your token>

Usually billing or quota on the configured provider (OpenAI or Anthropic). Check that provider’s console billing page and that the matching API key is set in ~/.aicli/config.

I am not a bash wizard, and am dying for access to the copilot CLI, and got impatient.

• Antonio Molinari