ai-cmd

Type English in your terminal. Get shell commands back.

$ # find all files larger than 100MB in home directory
  ... translating to command
$ find ~ -type f -size +100M -exec ls -lh {} \;
  [ok] Press Enter to execute, Ctrl+C to cancel

A zsh plugin that intercepts natural language descriptions and translates them into real shell commands using AI. No Python, no Node — just zsh, curl, and jq.

How It Works

1. Type # followed by what you want to do in plain English
2. Press Enter
3. The plugin sends your description to an AI model with context (OS, directory, git status, recent commands)
4. The generated command replaces your input — highlighted in green (or red if dangerous)
5. Review the command, then press Enter to execute, Ctrl+R to regenerate, or Ctrl+C to cancel

Alternatively, type anything and press Ctrl+X Ctrl+A to translate the current line.

Git Commit Messages

Generate conventional commit messages from your staged or unstaged changes:

$ # commit
  ... generating commit message
$ git commit -m "feat(auth): add login endpoint"
  [ok] Press Enter to execute, Ctrl+R to regenerate, Ctrl+C to cancel

If no changes are staged, the plugin auto-prepends git add -u && to stage tracked files first.

Add a hint to guide the message:

$ # commit fix the login bug

PR Creation

Generate gh pr create commands from your branch context:

$ # pr
  ... generating PR command
$ gh pr create --title "feat: add commit generation" --body "..."
  [ok] Press Enter to execute, Ctrl+R to regenerate, Ctrl+C to cancel

The plugin gathers commits since the base branch, diff stats, and branch name to generate an appropriate PR title and body. Requires gh CLI.

Installation

Oh-My-Zsh

git clone https://github.com/TorinKS/zsh-ai-cmd ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/ai-cmd

Add to your ~/.zshrc:

plugins=(... ai-cmd)

Zinit

zinit light TorinKS/zsh-ai-cmd

Antigen

antigen bundle TorinKS/zsh-ai-cmd

Manual

source /path/to/ai-cmd/ai-cmd.plugin.zsh

Configuration

Add to your ~/.zshrc before the plugin loads:

# Required: API key for your chosen provider
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

# Optional: defaults shown
export AI_CMD_PROVIDER=anthropic          # anthropic | openai | ollama
export AI_CMD_PREFIX="# "                 # trigger prefix (must end with space)
export AI_CMD_KEYBINDING="^X^A"           # Ctrl+X Ctrl+A (set empty to disable)
export AI_CMD_TIMEOUT=30                  # API timeout in seconds
export AI_CMD_SAFETY=true                 # warn on dangerous commands

# Provider-specific
export AI_CMD_ANTHROPIC_MODEL=claude-haiku-4-5-20251001
export AI_CMD_OPENAI_MODEL=gpt-4o-mini
export AI_CMD_OLLAMA_MODEL=llama3.2

Providers

Anthropic Claude (default) — fast, cheap (~$0.30/month at typical usage). Requires ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.

OpenAI — set AI_CMD_PROVIDER=openai and OPENAI_API_KEY. Also works with OpenAI-compatible endpoints by setting AI_CMD_OPENAI_URL.

Ollama (local) — free, fully offline. Set AI_CMD_PROVIDER=ollama. Requires Ollama running locally (ollama serve).

Dependencies

• curl — pre-installed on macOS and most Linux
• jq — install with brew install jq (macOS) or apt install jq (Linux)

Safety

Generated commands are checked against a list of dangerous patterns (rm -rf /, mkfs, dd to disk, fork bombs, etc.). Dangerous commands are highlighted in red with a warning. You always review before execution — nothing runs without your second Enter press.

Per-Project Config

Create a .ai-cmd file in your repo root to customize behavior per project:

commit_style=conventional

Option	Values	Default	Description
commit_style	conventional, simple	conventional	Commit message format

• conventional — feat(scope): description, fix(scope): description, etc.
• simple — plain descriptions like add login endpoint

Regenerate

Press Ctrl+R after a command is generated to regenerate it with the same input. Useful for getting a different commit message or command variation.

Examples

$ # show disk usage sorted by size
$ du -sh * | sort -rh

$ # kill the process on port 3000
$ lsof -ti:3000 | xargs kill -9

$ # compress all png files in current directory
$ tar -czf images.tar.gz *.png

$ # show git commits from last week by me
$ git log --oneline --after="1 week ago" --author="$(git config user.name)"

$ # find and replace foo with bar in all python files
$ find . -name "*.py" -exec sed -i '' 's/foo/bar/g' {} +

$ # commit
$ git commit -m "feat(api): add rate limiting middleware"

$ # commit fix the typo in readme
$ git commit -m "docs: fix typo in README"

$ # pr
$ gh pr create --title "feat: add rate limiting" --body "..."

License

MIT