ai-shell-helper

A tiny CLI that turns a plain-language description — or a command written for some other platform — into a ready-to-run command for your shell, using any OpenAI Chat-Completions-compatible model (OpenAI, DeepSeek, etc).

Installs as the ash command.

Requirements

Node.js >= 18 (uses the built-in fetch).

Install

npm install -g ai-shell-helper

Setup

Configure your model once:

ash init

You'll be asked for:

• Base URL (OpenAI Chat Completions format, e.g. https://api.deepseek.com or https://api.openai.com/v1)
• API Key
• Model ID (e.g. deepseek-chat, gpt-4o-mini)

Pick which shell ash should generate commands for:

ash target

Supports PowerShell, cmd.exe, Bash, Zsh, and Fish. If you skip this, ash guesses a sensible default from your OS.

By default, every generated command is also copied to your clipboard. Toggle that with:

ash clipboard        # interactive on/off prompt
ash clipboard on     # or set it directly
ash clipboard off

Use

ash
>>> list all files, including hidden ones
Get-ChildItem -Force

Type a description of what you want to do, or paste a command from another platform (e.g. a Bash command while targeting PowerShell) — ash returns a single, directly runnable command for your configured target shell.

ash never runs anything for you. It only prints the command (and copies it to your clipboard by default) so you can read it before pasting and running it yourself.

Chat mode

Sometimes you don't want a command, you want an answer. Use -c/--chat for a single question-and-answer exchange:

ash -c
>>> nginx 怎么安装
...normal conversational answer, not a command...

Or -lc/--loop-chat for a multi-turn conversation that keeps context between turns. Press Ctrl+C to exit:

ash -lc
>>> ...
>>> ...

Long-running conversations are automatically compacted: once the accumulated history gets large, ash summarizes everything except the most recent few turns into a single summary message (via an extra AI call), the same idea as Claude Code's /compact. You'll see a "Context compacted" note when it happens.

Commands

| Command | Description | | ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | | ash | Turn a description/command into one for your target shell | | ash init | Configure base URL, API key, and model ID | | ash target | Choose the target shell | | ash clipboard [on\|off] | Toggle/set auto-copy to clipboard | | ash reset | Clear all saved config (API key, model, target, clipboard) | | ash -c, --chat | One-shot conversational Q&A (no command generation) | | ash -lc, --loop-chat | Multi-turn chat with context; exit with Ctrl+C | | ash --version, -v | Print the installed version | | ash --help, -h | Show usage |

Config & security

Config (including your API key) is stored in plaintext at ~/.ash/config.json. Keep this file private — don't commit it or share it, and be extra careful on shared machines.

To wipe it and return ash to a completely unconfigured state (e.g. to switch accounts or start over), run:

ash reset

This asks for confirmation, then deletes ~/.ash/config.json. You'll need to run ash init again before using ash afterward.

License

MIT © Youzhi Wang — see LICENSE.