butterfish-shell
Butterfish Shell is an open-source CLI tool that wraps your existing shell (bash/zsh) and adds integrated ChatGPT-style LLM prompting, autosuggestions, and an optional agent (Goal Mode) so you can ask for commands, debug failures, and get contextual help directly in the terminal.
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Freemium from Free (MIT license)
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butterfish-shell
Butterfish Shell is a shell wrapper that provides integrated LLM prompting and autosuggestions inside your existing terminal (bash or zsh) on macOS and Linux. By starting a command with a capital letter you send a prompt to an OpenAI-compatible model; the LLM receives recent shell history and output so you can ask contextual questions like why a command failed or request a command to accomplish a task. It also includes Goal Mode (agents that propose or optionally execute commands), CLI utilities for summarization, embeddings-based indexing/search, and a Neovim plugin for LLM-driven edits. Butterfish is open source (MIT) and stores configurable prompt wrappers and auth tokens in the user's configuration directory.
AI-powered command-line tool for shell prompting and autocompletion.
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Shell wrapper for bash and zsh
Runs a wrapped instance of your existing shell (defaults to zsh on macOS), intercepts IO and buffers input/output to provide contextual LLM prompting without altering typical shell workflows.
Prompt by capitalized commands
Start a command with a capital letter to send it as a ChatGPT-style prompt; the AI sees recent shell history and output so you can ask contextual questions and iterate on answers.
Goal Mode (agent)
Start a command with ! to let Butterfish propose commands to achieve a goal and with !! to allow unsafe execution without confirmation; the agent can iterate on failures and request feedback.
GPT autosuggest
Provides command autosuggestions (Copilot-like) based on shell history and LLM outputs, which can be applied with Tab; autosuggest model and timeout are configurable.
Configurable and transparent prompts
Prompt wrappers are visible and editable at ~/.config/butterfish/prompts.yaml; verbose mode prints raw API requests/responses and logs to a temp file.
Model & provider flexibility
Defaults to OpenAI but can target any OpenAI-compatible API via --base-url (-u), and the manual/ autosuggest models are configurable with flags like -m and -a.
CLI utilities (summarize, index, gencmd, etc.)
Includes commands to summarize files, generate shell commands from prompts (gencmd), manage embeddings and index local files for semantic search (index, indexsearch, indexquestion).
Neovim plugin
butterfish.nvim enables LLM prompting from inside Neovim to rewrite code blocks and perform in-editor LLM tasks.
Installation options
Install via Homebrew (brew install bakks/bakks/butterfish) or go install; first run prompts for an OpenAI API key and stores it at ~/.config/butterfish/butterfish.env.
Verbose logging and debugging
Verbose flags (-v, -vv, -L) expose full LLM prompts and responses and may write logs to /var/tmp/butterfish.log for inspection.
Pricing
Butterfish itself is open source and free to use under the MIT license. However, using LLM features requires an OpenAI API key and may incur charges from OpenAI (the page notes you will need a subscription or pay for API use if you do not have free credits).
Open Source
Free (MIT license)- Complete Butterfish source and CLI available under the MIT license
- Installable via Homebrew or go install
Use Cases
Generate shell commands
Ask the LLM for a command to accomplish a task (e.g., find files, install deps) and receive suggested commands that include context from recent history.
Debug failing commands
Ask 'Why did that command fail?' and the LLM, with access to shell output, will explain failures and suggest corrected commands.
Agentic task execution (Goal Mode)
Use Goal Mode to have the agent propose and iterate on commands to reach a stated goal, optionally allowing unsafe execution with !!.
Code/file summarization and search
Use the summarize and embeddings-based index/indexsearch/indexquestion commands to semantically summarize files and query local codebases.
Autocomplete and command suggestions
Receive Copilot-style autosuggestions in the terminal based on prior commands and LLM outputs, applied with Tab.
LLM-driven edits in Neovim
Use the butterfish.nvim plugin to prompt LLMs from within Neovim for code transformations and rewrites.
General ChatGPT-style prompts
Because it exposes a ChatGPT interface, you can also ask general questions (e.g., recipes) directly from the terminal.
Integrations
OpenAI (and OpenAI-compatible APIs)
Uses OpenAI models by default and accepts a --base-url (-u) for any OpenAI-compatible API including local model servers.
Neovim (butterfish.nvim)
Plugin for prompting LLMs and performing edits from within Neovim.
Homebrew / Go toolchain
Distributed via Homebrew formula and as a Go installable binary.
Benefits
Limitations
Frequently Asked Questions
Which platforms and shells does Butterfish support?
How do I install Butterfish?
Where is my OpenAI API key stored?
Is Butterfish free?
Getting Started
- 1 Install Butterfish: either brew install bakks/bakks/butterfish (macOS) or go install github.com/bakks/butterfish/cmd/butterfish@latest.
- 2 Run the shell wrapper: start it with butterfish shell (or alias bf="butterfish" to shorten).
- 3 Provide OpenAI credentials when prompted: paste your OpenAI API key; it's saved to ~/.config/butterfish/butterfish.env.
- 4 Optionally configure model, autosuggest, prompts, and verbose logging via flags and by editing ~/.config/butterfish/prompts.yaml.
- 5 Use the command reference (butterfish shell --help and butterfish --help) to explore features like Goal Mode, autosuggest, and the CLI utilities.
Support
GitHub (issues/repo)
Project and support available at https://github.com/bakks/butterfish for issues, feedback, and source code.
Docs / CLI help
In-tool help via butterfish --help and butterfish shell --help; verbose logging (-v, -vv) and logs are written to /var/tmp/butterfish.log.
API
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