ata: Ask the Terminal Anything

ChatGPT in the terminal

TIP:
Run a terminal with this tool in your background and show/hide it with a keypress.
This can be done via: Iterm2 (Mac), Guake (Ubuntu), scratchpad (i3/sway), or the quake mode for the Windows Terminal.

Productivity benefits

• The terminal starts more quickly and requires less resources than a browser.
• The keyboard shortcuts allow for quick interaction with the query. For example, press CTRL + c to cancel the stream, CTRL + ↑ to get the previous query again, and CTRL + w to remove the last word.
• A terminal can be set to run in the background and show/hide with one keypress. To do this, use iTerm2 (Mac), Guake (Ubuntu), scratchpad (i3/sway), or the quake mode for the Windows Terminal.
• The prompts are reproducible because each prompt is sent as a stand-alone prompt without history. Tweaking the prompt can be done by pressing CTRL + ↑ and making changes.

Usage

Download the binary for your system from Releases. If you're running Arch Linux, then you can use the AUR packages: ata, ata-git, or ata-bin.

To specify the API key and some basic model settings, start the application. It should give an error and the option to create a configuration file called ata.toml for you. Press y and ENTER to create a ata.toml file.

Next, request an API key via https://beta.openai.com/account/api-keys and update the key in the example configuration file.

For more information, see:

$ ata --help

FAQ

How much will I have to pay for the API?

Using OpenAI's API for chat is very cheap. Let's say that an average response is about 500 tokens, so costs $0.001. That means that if you do 100 requests per day, which is a lot, then that will cost you about $0.10 per day ($3 per month). OpenAI grants you $18.00 for free, so you can use the API for about 180 days (6 months) before having to pay.

How does this compare to LLM-based search engines such as You.com or Bing Chat?

At the time of writing, the OpenAI API responds much quicker than the large language model-based search engines and contains no adds. It is particularly useful to quickly look up some things like Unicode symbols, historical facts, or word meanings.

Can I build the binary myself?

Yes, you can clone the repository and build the project via Cargo. Make sure that you have Cargo installed and then run:

$ git clone https://github.com/rikhuijzer/ata.git

$ cd ata/

$ cargo build --release

After this, your binary should be available at target/release/ata (Unix-based) or target/release/ata.exe (Windows).