prompt-shell-cli

A terminal interface for working with prompt-shell context stacks.

What is it?

prompt-shell-cli is a local-first, keyboard-driven terminal UI for managing the modular prompt files defined by prompt-shell.

It allows you to:

• Browse, preview, and edit context files
• Add or delete files with one keystroke
• Reorder prompt sections visually
• Build the final prompt with live token count

No mouse, no boilerplate — just pure CLI clarity.

Why use it?

If you’re using local LLMs, your prompts need to be:

• Modular
• Inspectable
• Reusable
• Quick to evolve

prompt-shell-cli gives you a structured interface to manipulate that context stack without switching between editors, folders, and JSON configs.

Features

• 🧾 View the current context stack (shell.json)
• ✍️ Edit any section with your preferred $EDITOR
• ➕ Create new .md context files and auto-insert into the build
• ❌ Delete sections with confirmation
• 🔀 Reorder prompt parts interactively
• ⚙️ Build the final prompt (uses prompt-shell under the hood)
• 🔢 Displays live token count after build

How it works

On first run, it creates a local copy of your context and config from the prompt-shell package:

prompt-shell-cli/
├── user-context/
│   ├── context/
│   │   ├── rules.md
│   │   ├── identity.md
│   │   └── ...
│   └── config/
│       └── shell.json

You interact with this safe copy — edits, deletions, reorderings, and builds all apply to your local state.

Getting started

1. Install dependencies:

npm install

2. Start the interface:

npm start

You'll see a list of context files defined in shell.json, with one selected and previewed.

Keyboard shortcuts

| Key | Action | |------------|---------------------------------------------| | ↑ / ↓ | Navigate files | | e | Edit selected file in $EDITOR | | b | Build final prompt (with token count) | | n | Create new file and append to config | | x | Delete selected file (with confirmation) | | r | Reorder context stack (enter reorder mode) | | Enter | Save reordered order | | Esc | Cancel reorder | | q | Quit |

Build process

Press b to run the bundled builder from prompt-shell.

• The final prompt is saved to:

  user-context/output/final_prompt.txt

• Token count is printed on success

You can pipe this into any local LLM interface:

ollama run mistral < user-context/output/final_prompt.txt

Editor support

prompt-shell-cli respects the $EDITOR environment variable.
If none is set, it defaults to nano.

Examples:

export EDITOR=vim
export EDITOR="code --wait"

Who is it for?

• Power users of local LLMs
• Developers building agent frameworks
• Anyone tired of hand-editing Markdown + JSON
• Those who want to compose prompts like code

Author

Michal Roth

💛 If this tool helps you think or build better:
Buy me a coffee →

License

MIT — terminal-first, hackable, and yours.