how - Lightweight AI assistant for your CLI

Enter how – the slick, AI-powered sidekick that turns your "WTF do I type?" moments into commands. Built in Go for speed, this cross-platform tool taps OpenRouter.ai's API to generate commands via top LLMs (even free ones!).

Features

• ⚡ Blazing fast and dependency-free.
• 🌐 Runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
• 💸 Free models by default—no cost to start.

Usage

Ask away:

$ how find all files named docker-compose.yml
find . -type f -name "docker-compose.yml"

$ how check memory usage in a human readable format
free -h

$ how kill process on port 8080
lsof -ti:8080 | xargs kill -9

Pro Tip: Override the model with --model "anthropic/claude-3-haiku" or set a default via how set-model. Defaults to mistralai/mistral-7b-instruct:free.

Install

Download Pre-built Binary (Recommended)

Download the latest release for your platform from GitHub Releases:

1. Download the archive for your OS/architecture
2. Extract the binary:

   # Linux/macOS
   tar -xzf how-v*.tar.gz
   
   # Windows
   # Extract the .zip file

3. Move to your PATH:

   # Linux/macOS
   sudo mv how /usr/local/bin/
   
   # Windows
   # Move how.exe to a directory in your PATH

Arch Linux (AUR)

For Arch Linux users, install via AUR:

yay -S how-cli

Build from Source

1. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/patrykgruszka/how-cli.git
   cd how-cli

2. Run the installer (handles build and PATH):

   chmod +x install.sh
   ./install.sh

Alternatives: Build manually with go build or use make install. For cross-platform binaries, run make cross (outputs to dist/).

Setup

Grab a free API key from openrouter.ai/keys, then:

how setup

Paste your key—it's stored securely in ~/.config/how/config.yaml (or equivalent on Windows).

Config & More

Tweak your config file if needed (e.g., for a custom default model). For dev builds or contributions:

• make build for local.