Basic Usage Examples

In this section, you will find examples of how to use the ai command line program.

1. Start a new conversations:

$ ai --new Write a Go program that counts the number of lines in a file passed using command line.

  Sure, here's a short Go program that does that:

    package main

    import (
        "bufio"
        "fmt"
        "os"
    )

    func main() {
        if len(os.Args) != 2 {
            fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Usage: %s <file>\n", os.Args[0])
            os.Exit(1)
        }

    (...)
    
  In this program,  os.Args  provides command line arguments. It first checks
  whether exactly one argument (the file name) is provided. Then, it opens the
  file and counts the lines using a scanner. If any errors occur (like the
  file not existing), it reports these on the standard error output.
    

2. Continue the last conversation:

$ ai Update the program so it also counts the number of characters.

  Certainly, I would add another variable to keep a track of the characters.
  Each time a line is read, its length in terms of characters can be easily
  added. Here's the updated code:

    package main
    
    (...)
    

3. Append a file to your prompt:

$ ai --new --inline README.md Summarize the following document:

4. List your conversations:

$ ai --list
• ba91b74 Summarize following document:
• 74b3901 Write a Go program that counts number of lines in a file passed ...

5. Switch to and continue a different conversation:

$ ai --convo 74b3 "Update the program, so that it also counts words"

  Sure, here's the updated Go program that counts both the number of lines and
  words in a given file:

    package main
    
  (...)

6. Regenerate the model’s last response:

$ ai --regenerate

7. Edit the last prompt and regenerate the model’s response (this starts your $EDITOR or vim):

$ ai --regenerate --edit

8. Read data from standard input, then edit a prompt in the editor before submitting it to the model:

$ git diff | ai --new --edit "Summarize following changes:"

9. Select a different model:

$ ai --new --model gpt-3.5-turbo Tell me a joke.

10. Delete a conversation:

$ ai --delete 9d1d510

11. Dump the last message from the current conversation:

$ ai --show

12. Dump the last 5 messages from a specific conversation:

$ ai --show 5 --convo 74b3901

13. Dump all messages:

$ ai --show 0

14. Also dump system messages and function calls:

$ ai --show-all 

15. Dump raw responses (without any fromating):

$ ai --show --fmt raw

For a comprehensive reference of the command line interface for the ai program, please refer to the “CLI Reference” chapter.