Chabeau - Terminal Chat Interface

NOTE: This is pre-alpha software. It has only been tested on Linux.

A full-screen terminal chat interface that connects to various AI APIs for real-time conversations with secure credential management.

Features

• Full-screen terminal UI with real-time streaming responses
• Multiple OpenAI-compatible providers (OpenAI, OpenRouter, Poe, custom)
• Secure API key storage in system keyring
• Message retry and external editor support
• Conversation logging with pause/resume

Quick Start

Installation

cargo install chabeau

Setup Authentication

chabeau auth    # Interactive setup for OpenAI, OpenRouter, Poe, or custom providers

Start Chatting

chabeau         # Uses default provider and model (gpt-4o)

Usage

Basic Commands

chabeau                              # Start chat with defaults
chabeau --provider openai            # Use specific provider
chabeau --model gpt-3.5-turbo        # Use specific model
chabeau --log conversation.log       # Enable logging

Discovery

chabeau -p                           # List providers and auth status
chabeau -m                           # List available models
chabeau -p openrouter -m             # List models for specific provider

Authentication Management

chabeau auth                         # Set up authentication
chabeau deauth                       # Remove authentication (interactive)
chabeau deauth --provider openai     # Remove specific provider

Environment Variables (Fallback)

If no authentication is configured:

export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.openai.com/v1"  # Optional

Interface Controls

Chat Commands

• /help - Show extended help
• /log <filename> - Enable/switch log file
• /log - Toggle logging pause/resume

External Editor

Set EDITOR environment variable:

export EDITOR=nano          # or vim, code, etc.
export EDITOR="code --wait" # VS Code with wait

Interface Layout

• Chat Area: Color-coded conversation history
  • Cyan/Bold: Your messages
  • White: Assistant responses
  • Gray: System messages
• Input Area: Message composition (yellow highlight)
• Title Bar: Version, provider, model, logging status

Architecture

Modular design with focused components:

• main.rs - Entry point and event loop
• app.rs - Core application state
• auth.rs - Authentication and provider management
• ui.rs - Terminal interface rendering
• api.rs - API types and structures
• logging.rs - Chat logging functionality
• commands.rs - Chat command processing
• message.rs - Message data structures
• scroll.rs - Text wrapping and scroll calculations

Development

Running Tests

cargo test                    # All tests
cargo test scroll::           # Scroll functionality tests
cargo test --release          # Faster execution

Key Dependencies

• tokio - Async runtime
• ratatui - Terminal UI framework
• reqwest - HTTP client
• keyring - Secure credential storage
• clap - Command line parsing

License

CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain)