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.

Chabeau is not a coding agent, nor does it aspire to be one. Instead, it brings the conveniences of web-based chat UIs to the terminal, with your favorite editor for long prompts.

Features

• Full-screen terminal UI with real-time streaming responses
• Multiple OpenAI-compatible providers (OpenAI, OpenRouter, Poe, Anthropic, custom)
• Secure API key storage in system keyring with config-based provider management
• 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, Anthropic, or custom providers

Start Chatting

chabeau         # Uses default provider and model (automatically selects newest model if no default configured)

Note: Chabeau will use your configured default provider and model if set. If no default model is configured for your provider, Chabeau will automatically fetch and use the newest available model from that provider. If you haven't configured a default provider, Chabeau will use the first available authenticated provider.

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

Configuration

Chabeau supports configuring default providers and models for a smoother experience:

chabeau set default-provider openai     # Set default provider
chabeau set default-model openai gpt-4o # Set default model for a provider

You can also use the interactive selectors:

chabeau pick-default-provider            # Interactive provider selection
chabeau pick-default-model               # Interactive model selection
chabeau pick-default-model --provider openai  # Select model for specific provider

View current configuration:

chabeau set default-provider            # Show current configuration

Note: The set default-model command now accepts provider and model names without requiring quotes, making it easier to use.

Interface Controls

Chat Commands

• /help - Show extended help
• /log <filename> - Enable/switch log file
• /log - Toggle logging pause/resume
• /dump <filename> - Dump conversation to specified file
• /dump - Dump conversation to chabeau-log-.txt

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
• builtin_models.toml - Build-time configuration for supported providers
• cli/ - Command-line interface parsing and handling
  • mod.rs - CLI argument parsing and command dispatching
  • model_list.rs - Model listing functionality
  • provider_list.rs - Provider listing functionality
  • pick_default_model.rs - Default model configuration
  • pick_default_provider.rs - Default provider configuration
• core/ - Core application components
  • mod.rs - Core module declarations
  • app.rs - Core application state
  • builtin_providers.rs - Built-in provider configuration (loads from builtin_models.toml)
  • config.rs - Configuration management
  • message.rs - Message data structures
• auth/ - Authentication and provider management
  • mod.rs - Authentication manager implementation
• api/ - API types and models
  • mod.rs - API data structures
  • models.rs - Model fetching and sorting functionality
• ui/ - Terminal interface rendering
  • mod.rs - UI module declarations
  • chat_loop.rs - Main chat event loop and UI rendering
  • renderer.rs - Terminal interface rendering
• utils/ - Utility functions and helpers
  • mod.rs - Utility module declarations
  • editor.rs - External editor integration
  • logging.rs - Chat logging functionality
  • scroll.rs - Text wrapping and scroll calculations
• commands/ - Chat command processing
  • mod.rs - Command processing implementation

Built-in Provider Configuration

Chabeau uses a build-time configuration system for built-in providers. The builtin_models.toml file defines supported providers with their IDs, display names, base URLs, and authentication modes:

[[providers]]
id = "openai"
display_name = "OpenAI"
base_url = "https://api.openai.com/v1"

[[providers]]
id = "anthropic"
display_name = "Anthropic"
base_url = "https://api.anthropic.com/v1"
mode = "anthropic"  # Special authentication mode

This configuration is embedded into the binary at compile time, eliminating runtime file dependencies while allowing easy modification of supported providers during development.

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)