ChatGPT Python Clients

Python CLI and GUI clients for OpenAI's ChatGPT. Simple, no arguments required to get started.

Installation

Note: Prefer your distribution packages if possible.

For the CLI client:

pip install openai rich

For the GUI client (Tkinter is often part of the standard Python installation):

pip install openai tkinterweb mistletoe pygments

Usage

API Key

Expects .api_key file in the repo directory with your OpenAI API key. The filename is in .gitignore already.

Conversations are automatically saved as JSON files in ~/.chatgpt-gui/. Override the location with the CHATGPT_GUI_DATA_DIR environment variable:

export CHATGPT_GUI_DATA_DIR=/path/to/your/data

CLI Client

./cli.py

Quit with q, x, exit, quit, Ctrl+C, or Ctrl+D.

Options

Flag	Description
-m, --multiline	Multiline input mode — type your message, then enter SEND to submit
-b, --batch-mode	Non-interactive mode for pipes and redirection
-M, --model	Select a specific model
-w, --web-search	Enable web search with source extraction
-p, --prepend	Prepend a file's contents to the first message
-i, --image	Image file to include
-f, --file	Document(s) to include
-vf, --vectorize-file	Document(s) to upload to a vector store for semantic file search
-d, --debug	Pretty-print raw API responses to stderr
-l, --list-known	List models with known pricing
-L, --list-all	List all available models
-lf, --list-files	List uploaded files
-lv, --list-vector-stores	List vector stores

Batch Mode Examples

./cli.py -b <<< "Tell a joke" > joke.txt
./cli.py -b < prompt.txt > output.txt
./cli.py -b --prepend summarize_prompt.txt < article.txt
./cli.py -b -f report.pdf <<< "Summarize this document"
./cli.py -b -f cv.pdf job.pdf <<< "Is this candidate a good fit?"
./cli.py -b -vf contracts/*.pdf <<< "Which contracts mention arbitration?"
./cli.py -vf docs/*.pdf  # interactive Q&A session across a document collection

The tool is quite powerful with guake drop-down terminal and alias like this:

alias gpt='$HOME/projects/chatgpt-gui/cli.py'

More useful example to review patch of PR for currently checked out branch in the current directory (expects gh client installed):

alias review='gh pr diff --patch | gpt -b -p $HOME/.pr-review'

The .pr-review file contains:

Summarize and review the following patch:

GUI Client

./gui.py

Browse past conversations and chat interactively with full Markdown rendering and syntax highlighting.

• Resizable panes — drag the separators between panels to adjust layout
• Sortable conversation list — click the column header to toggle sort order
• Keyboard shortcuts — Enter to send, Shift+Enter for a new line

Other Tools

• whisper.py — transcribe audio using OpenAI's Whisper API
• dale.py — generate images using DALL-E 3
• delete-file.py — delete one or more uploaded files by ID

./delete-file.py FILE_ID [FILE_ID ...]

Development

To run tests, install pytest:

pip3 install pytest

To run tests in parallel, install also pytest-xdist extension:

pip3 install pytest-xdist

Format, lint, and test with:

make format
make lint
make xtest  # Remove x for sequential test

Run a single test suite:

python -m pytest tests/e2e_test.py::TestBatchMode -v

Run a single test case:

python -m pytest tests/e2e_test.py::TestBatchMode::test_batch_basic -v

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a pull request.

Support

If you encounter any issues or have any questions, please open an issue on GitHub.