term-ai 🤖

Chat with advanced AI models directly from your terminal.

term-ai is a powerful, fast, and persistent command-line chat client designed for developers. Never leave your terminal to ask a question, generate code, or brainstorm ideas again. Built with Node.js and runnable with a single npx command.

✨ Features

• Zero Installation: Run it instantly from anywhere using npx.
• Plain Text Streaming: Get raw, unrendered Markdown responses streamed directly to your console.
• Persistent Sessions: Your conversations are automatically saved. Stop and resume chats anytime.
• Interactive Menus: Uses fzf (if installed) for a fluid, Telescope-like experience when switching between sessions and models.
• Graceful Fallback: No fzf? No problem. The tool automatically falls back to a simple, numbered-list interface.
• Model Switching: Easily switch between the latest OpenAI models (gpt-4o, gpt-4o-mini, etc.) on the fly.
• Context-Aware: Maintains conversation history to allow for contextual follow-up questions.
• Private Mode: Quickly start a temporary chat that won't be saved to your history.
• Smart API Key Handling: Asks for your API key once and securely stores it for future use.
• Interruptible Responses: Cancel a long, streaming response at any time with Ctrl+C.

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v16 or higher)
• fzf (Optional, but highly recommended for the best interactive experience)

Usage

The beauty of term-ai is that you don't need to install it. Just run it with npx:

npx term-ai

The first time you run it, you will be prompted to enter your OpenAI API key. This is saved locally in ~/.term-ai-config.json, so you only have to do it once.

💻 Commands

Control term-ai using simple slash commands:

| Command | Description | | ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | | /help | Displays the list of available commands. | | /new | Starts a brand new chat session. | | /sessions | Opens an interactive menu to switch between your past conversations. | | /model | Opens an interactive menu to select a different OpenAI model. | | /private | Starts a temporary session that is not saved to your history. | | /exit | Exits the application. | | Ctrl+C | Cancels a streaming response. Press again at the prompt to exit. |

🔧 Configuration

• API Key & Model: Your OpenAI API key and default model are stored in ~/.term-ai-config.json.
• Sessions: All your conversation histories are stored in ~/.term-ai-sessions.json.

You can safely delete these files to reset the application.

📜 License

This project is licensed under the ISC License. See the package.json file for details.