Cha

Overview

Cha is an open-source command-line tool that simplifies interactions with AI models from OpenAI. It allows users to efficiently engage with powerful language models directly from their terminal, enhancing development workflows. Check out the detailed demo here.

Vision

Cha is a simple, lightweight CLI tool that provides access to powerful AI models directly from the terminal. Think of it like Vim versus Emacs: Cha focuses on simplicity and versatility, delivering essential functionality without overwhelming complexity. It's designed to fit seamlessly into your workflow, helping to reduce the need for developers to leave their terminals, making AI access and general knowledge querying straightforward and efficient.

Features

• CLI Chat Interface: Communicate with OpenAI's models via commands cha.
• Interactive & Non-interactive Modes: Interact with models via chat interface, command-line arguments, or file input.
• Multi-line Input Mode: Simplifies complex input directly into the CLI.
• Text-Editor Input Mode: Use your system's terminal-based text editor instead of Python's input(), allowing easier input of complex and long prompts.
• Web and YouTube Scraping: Extract YouTube video transcripts, web PDFs, and general web content.
• Image Generation: Generate custom images using OpenAI's image models.
• Answer Search: Simple implementation of an Answer-Search engine similar to Perplexity AI's solution.
• Estimate Tokens: Option to estimate the token count for a file, string, or piped content.
• Support for Multiple File Types: Supports a variety of file types for input, including PDF, DOCX, XLSX, and common image formats, enabling seamless integration and processing of different kinds of content.
• Platform Flexibility: Switch between different AI platform providers offering OpenAI-compatible APIs using the --platform argument.

Getting Started

Installation

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd <repository-folder>

2. Install the Package:

   pip3 install --upgrade .

Configuration

1. API Key Setup: Cha requires an OpenAI API key, which you can obtain here.

2. Setup your .env file: Create a .env file in the root directory and add your keys:

   export OPENAI_API_KEY="YOUR_OPENAI_API_KEY"

3. Apply the environment variables

   source .env

Usage

To start using cha, run the following simple command:

cha

Both commands support and accept additional parameters. Here is the help page for reference:

usage: cha [-h] [-pt] [-a] [-m MODEL] [-sm] [-f FILE] [-i [IMAGE]] [-t] [-p [PLATFORM]] [string ...]

Chat with an OpenAI GPT model.

positional arguments:
  string                Non-interactive mode, feed a string into the model

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -pt, --print_title    Print initial title during interactive mode
  -a, -as, --answer_search
                        Run answer search
  -m MODEL, --model MODEL
                        Model to use for chatting
  -sm, --select_model   Select one model from OpenAI's supported models
  -f FILE, --file FILE  Filepath to file that will be sent to the model (text only)
  -i [IMAGE], --image [IMAGE]
                        Generate image (flag only) or print the metadata for generated images (provide filepath)
  -t, --token_count     Count tokens for the input file or string
  -p [PLATFORM], --platform [PLATFORM]
                        Use a different provider, set this like this: "<base_url>|<api_key_env_name>"

Development

For those interested in contributing or experimenting with Cha:

1. Install Cha in Editable Mode:

   pip install -e .

2. Develop and Test: Modify the source code and test changes using cha.

3. (optional) Load your Custom Configuration: Use the CHA_PYTHON_CUSTOM_CONFIG_PATH environment variable to point to a custom config.py file that overrides default global variables. Set it using export CHA_PYTHON_CUSTOM_CONFIG_PATH="/path/to/your/config.py". Ensure your defined variables are in uppercase.

4. (optional) Update Cha's "setup.py" File: Run the following command in the same directory as Cha's code:

   python3 update.py

Different Platforms - OpenAI Compatibility Platforms/APIs

Cha now supports switching between different AI platforms using the --platform argument. This feature allows interoperability with other services offering OpenAI-compatible APIs.

Platform Details (February 6, 2025)

Groq API

Base URL: https://api.groq.com/openai/v1

Environment Variable: GROQ_API_KEY

Docs: Groq's API Docs

Get Models:

curl -s -X GET "https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/models" -H "Authorization: Bearer $GROQ_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" | jq -r '.data[].id' | sort | uniq

DeepSeek API

Base URL: https://api.deepseek.com

Environment Variable: DEEP_SEEK_API_KEY

Docs: DeepSeek's API Docs

Get Models:

curl -s --request GET --url https://api.deepseek.com/models --header 'Accept: application/json' --header "Authorization: Bearer $DEEP_SEEK_API_KEY" | jq -r '.data[].id' | sort | uniq

Together.AI API

Base URL: https://api.together.xyz/v1

Environment Variable: TOGETHER_API_KEY

Docs: Together.AI's Docs

Get Models:

curl -s --request GET --url https://api.together.xyz/v1/models --header 'accept: application/json' --header "authorization: Bearer $TOGETHER_API_KEY" | jq '.[] | select(.type == "chat") | .id' | tr -d '"' | sort | uniq

Perplexity.AI API

Base URL: https://api.perplexity.ai

Environment Variable: PERPLEXITY_AI_API_KEY

Docs: Perplexity.AI's Docs

Get Models:

curl -s https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/model-cards | tr "{\|}" "\n" | grep "              children: " | awk '{print $3}' | tr "\\" "\n" | awk 'length >= 2' | tr -d '"' | sort -r | uniq

Example Command

To use a different provider/platform:

# Get and set the provider's API key env variable
export TOGETHER_API_KEY="..."

# Run cha with a different provider/platform
cha -p "https://api.together.xyz/v1|TOGETHER_API_KEY" -m "deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3"

Run this command to grab all the platform details from this README:

cat README.md | grep "curl\|Environment Variable\|Base URL" | sed 'G;G'

Contributing

Any contribution is welcomed! Please feel free to submit issues or pull requests for any bugs or features.

License

Cha is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more details.