LLM-based command suggestions for zsh

zsh commands can be difficult to remember, but LLMs are great at turning human descriptions of what to do into a command. Enter zsh-llm-suggestions: You describe what you would like to do directly in your prompt, you hit a keyboard shortcut of your choosing, and the LLM replaces your request with the command.

Similarly, if you have a command that you don't understand, zsh-llm-suggestions can query an LLM for you to explain that command. You can combine these, by first generating a command from a human description, and then asking the LLM to explain the command.

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/stefanheule/zsh-llm-suggestions.git ~/zsh/zsh-llm-suggestions

Source the script and configure the hotkey in .zshrc:

source ~/zsh/zsh-llm-suggestions/zsh-llm-suggestions.zsh
bindkey '^o' zsh_llm_suggestions_openai # Ctrl + O to have OpenAI suggest a command given a English description
bindkey '^[^o' zsh_llm_suggestions_openai_explain # Ctrl + alt + O to have OpenAI explain a command
bindkey '^p' zsh_llm_suggestions_github_copilot # Ctrl + P to have GitHub Copilot suggest a command given a English description
bindkey '^[^p' zsh_llm_suggestions_github_copilot_explain # Ctrl + alt + P to have GitHub Copilot explain a command

Make sure python3 is installed.

Both LLMs require a bit of configuration. Either follow the rest of the instructions here, or just enter something on the prompt (because an empty prompt won't run the LLM) and hit your configured keyboard shortcut. Instead of answering the prompt, it will tell you how to finish the setup.

For zsh_llm_suggestions_openai (OpenAI-based suggestions):

• Set the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable to your API key. You can get it from https://platform.openai.com/api-keys. Note that every suggestion costs a small amount of money, you are solely responsible for these charges.

  export OPENAI_API_KEY="..."
  

• Install the Python 3 package openai:

  pip3 install openai
  

• Optional, if you want syntax highlighting for the command explanation, install pygments

  pip3 install pygments
  

For zsh_llm_suggestions_github_copilot (GitHub Copilot suggestions):

• Install GitHub CLI: Follow https://github.com/cli/cli#installation.
• Authenticate with GitHub:

  /usr/bin/gh auth login --web -h github.com
  

• Install GitHub Copilot extension:

  /usr/bin/gh extension install github/gh-copilot
  

Usage

LLM suggested commands

Type out what you'd like to do in English, then hit ctrl+P or ctrl+O (or whatever hotkey) you configured. zsh-llm-suggestions will then query OpenAI or GitHub Copilot, and replace the query with the command suggested.

If you don't like the suggestion and think the LLM can do better, just hit ctrl+P/O again, and a new suggestion will be fetched.

Explain commands using LLM

If you typed a command (or maybe the LLM generated one) that you don't understand, hit ctrl+alt+O to have OpenAI explain the command in English, or hit ctrl+alt+P to have GitHub Copilot explain it.

Warning

There are some risks using zsh-llm-suggestions:

1. LLMs can suggest bad commands, it is up to you to make sure you are okay executing the commands.
2. The supported LLMs are not free, so you might incur a cost when using zsh-llm-suggestions.

Supported LLMs

Right now, two LLMs are supported:

1. GitHub Copilot (via GitHub CLI). Requires a GitHub Copilot subscription.
2. OpenAI. Requires an OpenAI API key. Currently uses gpt-4-1106-preview.