AI in the Terminal
ait is a terminal user interface for interacting with several
generative large language models from multiple providers.
It uses the genai crate to
communicate with the model providers.
The TUI is built using the ratatui crate.
Installation
Installation requires cargo to be installed.
Manual installation
Clone this repository and cd to the ait directory and run the application using:
Install the application by running:
The binary name is ait.
Binaries are also available for download under Releases.
Usage
The chat interface is modal and starts in the 'normal' mode.
By pressing the i key text can be input into the text area.
More information can be found by pressing the ? key.
To submit queries to the model providers, you either need to obtain an API key and
set the appropriate environment variable OR you need a running
Ollama instance on http://localhost:11434.
To start the TUI simply run
If you want to provide a custom system prompt, it can be achieved like this:
If you want to add context to your conversation, use the --context argument.
ait can also read from stdin to add context:
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A powerful pattern is to use a text serializer such as
yek and use this as context input:
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Or serialize all file in a directory and add as context:
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Chat history
Chat history is stored as a sqlite database (facilitated by the
rusqlite crate)
in the platform's standard data directory:
- macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/ait/chats.db - Linux:
~/.local/share/ait/chats.db - Windows:
%APPDATA%\ait\chats.db
In addition, ait will store a log of the latest chat in the platform's cache directory:
- macOS:
~/Library/Caches/ait/latest-chat.log - Linux:
~/.cache/ait/latest-chat.log - Windows:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\ait\latest-chat.log
I'm probably the only one using this tool but for users of ait version 0.5.1 and
earlier, to keep your old database, simply copy it from the previous location: