pplx "what is bun"

Query Perplexity AI directly from your terminal. Responses stream in real-time with beautiful markdown formatting.

Features

• ⚡ Streaming — Answers appear as they're generated
• 💬 Conversations — Continue with -c for multi-turn
• 📄 Documents — Analyze PDFs, code, text files
• 🖼️ Images — Describe screenshots and diagrams
• 📝 Export — Save research to markdown
• 🎨 Pretty — Rendered markdown by default
• 🕐 History — Browse and search past queries
• 🧠 Local RAG — Index your own notes with --ingest

Install

bun install -g pplx-zero    # recommended
npm install -g pplx-zero    # requires bun
yay -S pplx-zero            # arch linux

Setup

export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="pplx-..."   # or PERPLEXITY_AI_API_KEY

Get your key at perplexity.ai/settings/api

Usage

# search
pplx "best typescript patterns 2025"

# models
pplx -m sonar-pro "explain transformers"
pplx -m sonar-deep-research "AI regulation analysis"

# conversation
pplx "what is rust"
pplx -c "compare to go"

# files
pplx -f paper.pdf "summarize"
pplx -i diagram.png "explain this"

# export
pplx "topic" -o research.md

# pretty markdown is default
pplx "explain monads"

# raw output (no formatting)
pplx --raw "explain monads"

# history
pplx --history

# local knowledge base
pplx --ingest notes.md           # index a file
pplx --ingest ./docs/             # index a directory
pplx -l "my notes on rust"        # search local knowledge

Models

| Model | Use | |-------|-----| | sonar | Quick answers | | sonar-pro | Complex questions | | sonar-reasoning-pro | Advanced reasoning | | sonar-deep-research | Research reports |

Options

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | -m | Model selection | | -f | Attach file | | -i | Attach image | | -o | Output to file | | -c | Continue conversation | | -l | Search local knowledge | | --ingest | Index files to local knowledge | | --raw | Raw output (no markdown) | | --history | View history | | --json | JSON output |

Philosophy

Minimal. 1 dependency. No frameworks.