🧑‍💻 Prompt Line

English | 日本語

Overview

Prompt Line is a macOS app developed to improve the prompt input experience in the terminal for CLI-based AI coding agents such as Claude Code, Gemini CLI, OpenAI Codex CLI, and Aider. It addresses UX challenges related to CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) character input by providing a dedicated floating input interface. It also features context search and autocomplete with / and @.

This greatly reduces stress when entering text in the following cases in particular.

1. Prompt input for CLI-based AI coding agents in the terminal
2. Chat apps where pressing Enter sends the message at an unintended time
3. Text editor with slow input response (e.g., large Confluence documents)

Features

Quick Launch, Quick Paste

Quick launch with shortcut (Cmd+Shift+Space).
Type text and quick paste (Cmd+Enter).

Perfect for Editing Voice-Inputted Text

The operation is the same as a typical text editor.
Of course, you can also use it in combination with a voice input app.
Pressing Enter will not automatically send the text, so you don't have to worry about line breaks.
It is also ideal for editing text entered by voice.
(This video uses superwhisper.)

Search and Reuse Prompt History

Prompt history is saved and can be reused from the right menu.
Search is also available. (Cmd+f)

Launch Anywhere

Can be launched anywhere there's a text input field.
Also convenient when you want to reuse the same prompt in other apps.

Of course, it also works with apps other than Terminal.

Context Search and Autocomplete

Type / or @ to search and autocomplete contexts such as Agent Skills, Built-in Commands, files, and symbols.
These can be customized in the settings file (~/.prompt-line/settings.yml). See: settings.example.yml

Agent Skills and Built-in Commands	File and Directory Search
Symbol Search	Subagents Search (~/.claude/agents)
Plans Search (~/.claude/plans)	Agent Teams Search (~/.claude/teams)

📦 Installation

System Requirements

• macOS 10.14 or later
• Node.js 20 or later
• Xcode Command Line Tools or Xcode (for compiling native tools)

Command Installation

Install fd and rg (ripgrep) commands. Used for file search and symbol search features. Skip if already installed.

brew install fd ripgrep

Build from Source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/nkmr-jp/prompt-line.git
   cd prompt-line

   To build a specific version:

   git clone https://github.com/nkmr-jp/prompt-line.git
   cd prompt-line
   git checkout v0.x.x  # Replace with desired version tag

2. Install dependencies:

   pnpm install

3. Build the application:

   pnpm run build

4. The built app will be created in the dist/ directory

5. Open the dmg file:

   open dist/Prompt-Line-0.x.x-arm64.dmg # Apple Silicon
   open dist/Prompt-Line-0.x.x-x64.dmg # Intel

6. Drag Prompt Line.app to Applications folder

7. Launch Prompt Line. An icon will appear in the system tray.

8. You can start using it with Cmd+Shift+Space.

Accessibility Permissions

Prompt Line requires accessibility permissions to paste text into other applications. A dialog box will appear on first use, so follow the instructions to set it up.

Troubleshooting

If the accessibility permissions dialog box does not appear

1. Open System Settings → Privacy and Security → Accessibility.
2. Find “Prompt Line” in the list and enable it.
3. If it is not in the list, add Prompt Line from Applications using the “+” button.

If “Prompt Line” is enabled in Accessibility Permissions but you still cannot paste

1. Open System Settings → Privacy and Security → Accessibility
2. Delete “Prompt Line” from Applications using the “-” button to reset permissions
3. The issue should be resolved after reconfiguring settings.

Accessibility permissions can also be reset using the following command:

pnpm run reset-accessibility

📦 Update

If you already have an older version installed and want to update to the latest version, follow these steps.

1. Run the pnpm run reset-accessibility command to reset the accessibility permissions in the “Prompt Line.”
2. Refer to the “📦 Installation” section and reinstall
3. Run pnpm run migrate-settings to migrate your settings to the latest defaults (existing settings are automatically backed up)
4. Run pnpm run update-built-in-commands to update built-in commands to the latest version

Usage

Basic Workflow

1. Move to where you want to input
2. Press Cmd+Shift+Space to open Prompt Line
3. Type your text
4. Press Cmd+Enter to paste text
5. Continue working

Features

• History Panel - Click previous entries to reuse. Search is also available. (Cmd+f)
• Draft Autosave - Automatically saves your work
• Image Support - Paste clipboard images with Cmd+V
• File Opener - Open files from file path text (Ctrl+Enter or Cmd+Click)
• File Search - Search files by typing @
• Symbol Search - Search code symbols by typing @<lang>:<query> (e.g., @ts:Config)
• Custom Search - Search Slash Commands and Agent Skills by typing /, or search sub-agents by typing @

⚙️ Settings

You can customize Prompt Line's behavior by creating a settings file at ~/.prompt-line/settings.yml.

For the full configuration example with all available options and comments, see: settings.example.yml

Quick Overview

Section	Description
shortcuts	Keyboard shortcuts (main, paste, close, history navigation, search)
window	Window size and positioning mode
fileOpener	Default editor and extension-specific applications
builtInCommands	Built-in slash commands to enable (claude, codex, gemini, etc.)
agentSkills	Agent Skills search functionality
mentions.customSearch	Custom search triggered by @prefix:
mentions.fileSearch	File search settings (@path/to/file completion)
mentions.symbolSearch	Symbol search settings (@ts:Config, @go:Handler)

Prompt History

• All data stored locally on your Mac
• No internet connection required
• Prompt history saved in ~/.prompt-line/history.jsonl
• Saved in JSON Lines format, so you can analyze it using DuckDB

Contributing

See Contribution Guide for details.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.