clai

stdin → LLM → stdout.

clai turns a language model into a regular shell command. It reads input (stdin), does what the prompt says, prints the result (stdout). Everything else (grep, jq, git, cat, pbpaste, xclip) works with it the way it always has.

git diff | clai commit
cat article.txt | clai summarize | clai translate
clai code-review main.go | clai -e "Only critical bugs, numbered"

Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface.

— Doug McIlroy

• Highlights
• Why clai
• Install
• Quick Start
• Configuration
• Providers
• Prompts
• Strategies
• Structured Output
• CLI Reference

More docs: Examples · Advanced · Philosophy

Highlights

• Pipeline native. stdin in, stdout out. Composes with grep, jq, awk, and everything else.
• Works with any source. YouTube transcripts, web pages, PDFs, git diffs, clipboard. Pipe it in. See Examples.
• Zero config. Set one API key and go. No setup wizards, no interactive prompts.
• Built-in prompts. summarize, code-review, commit, translate, explain, and more.
• Multi-provider. OpenAI, Anthropic, Bedrock, Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.
• Local models. Point it at Ollama and nothing leaves your machine.
• Reasoning strategies. Chain-of-Thought, Tree-of-Thought, Chain-of-Draft, Self-Refine.
• Structured output. JSON Schema validation with a dedicated exit code.

Why clai

There are other terminal AI tools: llm, mods, fabric, aichat. They are good, and most of them keep growing into sessions, plugins, and chat modes.

clai bets the other way. A tool, not a platform. It amplifies your workflow without capturing it. There is no REPL and no session state; the command runs, prints its result, and exits. Behaviors live in markdown files you can open and edit. See Philosophy.

Install

brew install maxrodrigo/tap/clai

Or with Go:

go install github.com/maxrodrigo/clai/cmd/clai@latest

Pre-built binaries available on the Releases page.

Note: go install installs the binary only. For system prompts and strategies, run:

curl -sL https://github.com/maxrodrigo/clai/releases/latest/download/clai-data.tar.gz | tar -xz -C ~/.local/share

Quick Start

# Set a provider key
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

# Named prompts
clai summarize article.txt
clai code-review main.go

# Inline prompt
clai -e "Explain in simple terms" complex.txt

# Pipeline
git diff --cached | clai commit
curl -s https://api.example.com/data | clai -e "Find anomalies"

Configuration

clai reads configuration from TOML files:

~/.config/clai/config.toml    # User config
.clai/config.toml             # Project config (overrides user)

Example:

model = "openai/gpt-4.1"
temperature = 1.0
max_tokens = 4096

[providers.openai]
api_key = "${OPENAI_API_KEY}"

[providers.anthropic]
api_key = "${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}"

See docs/ADVANCED.md – Configuration Reference for a complete sample with all available options and their defaults.

Environment Variables

All config values can be set via CLAI_ prefix:

export CLAI_MODEL="anthropic/claude-sonnet"
export CLAI_TEMPERATURE="0.7"
export CLAI_MAX_TOKENS="8192"

Provider API keys use their standard environment variables:

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
export AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK="..."

Precedence

Configuration is merged in order (later overrides earlier):

1. Built-in defaults
2. Prompt frontmatter defaults
3. User config (~/.config/clai/config.toml)
4. Project config (.clai/config.toml)
5. Environment variables (CLAI_*)
6. CLI flags

Providers

Models are specified as provider/model-name. Each provider requires an API key, set via environment variable or config file.

OpenAI

API Key: https://platform.openai.com/api-keys

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
clai summarize -m openai/gpt-4.1 article.txt

Anthropic

API Key: https://console.anthropic.com/settings/keys

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
clai summarize -m anthropic/claude-sonnet article.txt

# Extended thinking
clai -e "Find the root cause" -m anthropic/claude-sonnet --think problem.txt

AWS Bedrock

Docs: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock/latest/userguide/getting-started-api.html

export AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK="..."
clai summarize -m bedrock/us.anthropic.claude-sonnet article.txt

Config (to change region):

[providers.bedrock]
api_key = "${AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK}"
base_url = "https://bedrock-runtime.us-west-2.amazonaws.com"

Custom Providers (Ollama, Groq, etc.)

Any OpenAI-compatible API:

[providers.groq]
api_key = "${GROQ_API_KEY}"
base_url = "https://api.groq.com/openai/v1"

[providers.ollama]
base_url = "http://localhost:11434/v1"

clai summarize -m groq/llama-4-scout article.txt
clai summarize -m ollama/llama3.3 article.txt

Prompts

Prompts are markdown files that tell the model what to do.

# Named prompts
clai summarize article.txt
clai code-review code.patch
clai translate notes.md

# Multiple files
clai summarize report.txt notes.txt

# Inline prompt with -e
clai -e "Explain this code" main.go

# Prompt from file with -f
clai -f my-prompt.md article.txt

# Natural language to a shell command
echo "find all Go files modified this week over 10KB" | clai shell-cmd
# -> find . -name '*.go' -mtime -7 -size +10k

# List available prompts
clai prompt list
clai prompt show summarize

Creating Prompts

Create a file in ~/.config/clai/prompts/:

---
description: One-line for `clai prompt`
model: anthropic/claude-sonnet # optional
temperature: 0.7 # optional
strategy: cot # optional
---

Your prompt instructions here.

Use it immediately:

clai your-prompt input.txt

Prompts are resolved in order (first match wins):

1. .clai/prompts/ (project-local)
2. ~/.config/clai/prompts/ (user)
3. Built-in

Per-Prompt Model Override

Override a prompt's model via environment variable using the pattern CLAI_MODEL_<PROMPT_NAME>:

export CLAI_MODEL_CODE_REVIEW="anthropic/claude-sonnet"
export CLAI_MODEL_SUMMARIZE="openai/gpt-4.1-mini"

See docs/ADVANCED.md for prompt authoring principles, composition, and the evaluation checklist.

Strategies

Strategies modify how the model reasons through problems.

Strategy	Description
cot	Chain-of-Thought: think step by step
cod	Chain-of-Draft: minimal notes per step (saves tokens)
tot	Tree-of-Thought: explore multiple paths, pick the best
self-refine	Answer, critique, improve

clai explain --strategy cot problem.txt
clai explain --strategy none problem.txt   # disable
clai strategy list                          # list all

Create custom strategies in ~/.config/clai/strategies/. See docs/ADVANCED.md for research basis, when to use each, and custom strategy authoring.

Structured Output

Use --schema to get JSON output conforming to a schema.

# Shorthand syntax
clai parse -s '{"name": "str", "amount": "float"}' invoice.txt

# Full JSON Schema
clai parse -s '{"type": "object", "properties": {"items": {"type": "array"}}}' data.txt

Shorthand types: str, int, float, bool, date, list, {"nested": "str"}.

Schema can also be set in prompt frontmatter:

---
schema:
  title: str
  author: str
  tags: list
---

Extract metadata from this article.

CLI Reference

clai [flags] <prompt> [files...]

Flags

Flag	Description
-e, --expression	Inline prompt text
-f, --file	Read prompt from file
-m, --model	Model to use (e.g., openai/gpt-4.1)
-t, --temperature	Sampling temperature (0.0–2.0)
--max-tokens	Maximum tokens to generate
-s, --schema	Output schema (shorthand or JSON Schema)
--strategy	Reasoning strategy (cot, cod, tot, self-refine)
--think	Enable extended thinking (Anthropic/Bedrock)
-n, --dry-run	Show what would be sent without calling model
-v, --verbose	Print token counts and timing to stderr
--color	Force colored output even when stdout is not a TTY
--no-color	Disable colored output
--version	Print version and exit

Commands

Command	Description
clai prompt list	List available prompts
clai prompt show <name>	Show prompt content
clai prompt path <name>	Show prompt file location
clai prompt add <name>	Create a new prompt and open in $EDITOR
clai prompt update <name>	Edit an existing prompt in $EDITOR
clai prompt remove <name>	Remove a user-installed prompt
clai prompt install <owner/name> <file>	Install a prompt from a file under a namespace
clai strategy list	List available strategies
clai strategy show <name>	Show strategy content
clai strategy path <name>	Show strategy file location
clai model list	List available models

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Runtime error (API failure, network error)
2	Usage error (invalid arguments, missing config)
3	Schema validation error (output doesn't match schema)

Shell Completion

clai completion zsh --help
clai completion bash --help
clai completion fish --help

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If clai fits your workflow, star the repo. It helps others find it.

Prompts are the easiest contribution: they're markdown files, no Go required. See CONTRIBUTING.md.