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Command Overview

YAICLI provides a versatile command-line interface with multiple options and modes. This page covers all available commands and options.

Basic Syntax

ai [OPTIONS] [PROMPT]

Where PROMPT is the text input for the AI assistant. If not provided, YAICLI will read from stdin if available.

Command Line Reference

Here's a comprehensive list of all available options:

Core Options

Option Short Description
--help -h Show help message and exit
--verbose -V Show verbose output (loaded config, API calls, etc.)
--template Show the default config file template and exit

Mode Options

Option Short Description
--chat -c Start in interactive chat mode
--shell -s Generate and optionally execute shell commands
--code Generate code in plaintext

LLM Options

Option Short Description Default
--model -M Specify the model to use Configured default
--temperature -T Set temperature (randomness) 0.5
--top-p -P Set top-p sampling 1.0
--max-tokens Set max tokens in response 1024
--stream / --no-stream Enable/disable streaming stream

Role Options

Option Short Description
--role -r Specify the assistant role to use
--create-role Create a new role with the specified name
--delete-role Delete a role with the specified name
--list-roles List all available roles
--show-role Show the role with the specified name

Chat Options

Option Description
--list-chats List saved chat sessions

Display Options

Option Short Description Default
--justify -j Text alignment (default, left, center, right, full) default
--show-reasoning / --hide-reasoning Show/hide reasoning content show

Function Options

Option Description Default
--install-functions Install default functions
--list-functions List all available functions
--enable-functions / --disable-functions Enable/disable function calling disabled
--show-function-output / --hide-function-output Show/hide function output show

MCP Options

Option Description Default
--enable-mcp / --disable-mcp Enable/disable MCP in API requests disabled
--show-mcp-output / --hide-mcp-output Show/hide MCP output show
--list-mcp List all available MCP

Common Command Examples

# Get a quick answer
ai "What is the capital of France?"

# Start an interactive chat session
ai --chat

# Save chat with a title
ai --chat "Python programming tips"

# Generate and execute shell commands
ai --shell "Create a backup of my Documents folder"

# Generate code snippets (Python by default)
ai --code "Write a function to sort a list"

# Use a specific LLM model
ai --model gpt-4-turbo "Explain quantum computing"

# Adjust temperature for more creative responses
ai --temperature 0.8 "Write a poem about AI"

# Create a custom role
ai --create-role "SQL Expert"

# Use a custom role
ai --role "SQL Expert" "Optimize this query"

# Show verbose output for debugging
ai --verbose "Test query"

Interactive Mode Commands

When in interactive chat or shell mode, you can use these special commands:

Command Description
/help or /? Show help message
/clear Clear conversation history
/his Show command history
/list List saved chats
/save <title> Save current chat with title
/load <index> Load a saved chat
/del <index> Delete a saved chat
/exit Exit the application
/mode chat\|exec Switch between chat and execute modes
/add <path> Add file or directory to context
/context <subcmd> Manage context (alias: /ctx)

Context Management Commands

The /add and /context commands help you manage files and directories in the conversation context:

Command Description
/add <path> Add a file or directory to the persistent context
/context list or /ctx list List all items in current context
/context clear or /ctx clear Remove all items from context
/context add <path> Add item to context (same as /add)
/context remove <path> or /ctx remove <path> Remove specific item from context

Context Features:

  • Persistent: Items added with /add stay in context for the entire session
  • Smart reading: Files are read and formatted for AI consumption
  • Directory support: Directories are scanned recursively (2 levels deep by default)
  • Auto-ignores: Skips .git, node_modules, __pycache__, .venv, etc.
  • Flexible matching: Use partial paths or filenames for removal

Example:

💬 > /add src/main.py
Added file to context: /path/to/src/main.py

💬 > /add tests/
Added directory to context: /path/to/tests/

💬 > /context list
┏━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Type   ┃ Path                          ┃
┡━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ FILE   │ src/main.py                   │
│ DIR    │ tests/                        │
└────────┴───────────────────────────────┘

💬 > /context remove main.py
Removed from context: /path/to/src/main.py

💬 > /ctx clear
Context cleared.

@ File References

In addition to persistent context, you can temporarily reference files using the @ symbol directly in your queries:

Syntax:

# Single file reference
@filename

# Multiple files
@file1.py @file2.py

# Paths with spaces (use quotes)
@"my document.txt"
@'path with spaces/file.md'

How it works:

  1. Type @ followed by a file path
  2. Press Tab for auto-completion and file browser
  3. Use arrow keys to select files
  4. The file content is automatically included in that message only
  5. References are replaced with filenames in the final message

Example:

# Quick file analysis
💬 > @README.md Summarize this project

# Compare files
💬 > @config.json @config.example.json What changed?

# Use with quotes for spaces
💬 > @"my notes.txt" Create a todo list from these notes

# Path completion
💬 > @src/ma[Tab]
# Shows: src/main.py, src/math.py, etc.

Differences from /add:

Feature /add @ reference
Duration Entire session Single message only
Storage Persistent context Temporary inclusion
Best for Codebases you'll discuss repeatedly Quick one-time file checks
Management Manual add/remove Automatic per message

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut Description
Tab Toggle between Chat/Execute modes
Ctrl+C or Ctrl+D Exit
Ctrl+R Search history
↑/↓ Navigate through history

Next Steps