Butterfish Shell

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Butterfish Shell integrates AI into bash and zsh shells, offering context-aware assistance and command suggestions directly within the CLI.

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What is Butterfish Shell?

Butterfish Shell is a command-line shell tool that incorporates AI prompting with OpenAI technology into bash and zsh shells. It enables context-aware assistance, command suggestions, and allows users to engage in high-context AI help directly from their command line interface.

The tool, created by Peter Bakkum, is designed to enhance user speed and effectiveness when utilizing large language models (LLMs), maintaining a fluent, ergonomic, and natural experience within the shell environment. It aims to seamlessly integrate AI capabilities without disrupting existing shell workflows or requiring the use of additional windows or mouse interactions.

Who created Butterfish Shell?

Peter Bakkum is the founder of Butterfish, an open-source project designed to enhance user productivity by integrating AI prompting from OpenAI into bash and zsh shells. Butterfish aims to provide contextual conversations, AI-powered command suggestions, and seamless autocomplete functionality while maintaining compatibility with existing shell workflows. This innovative tool, created by Peter Bakkum under the MIT Open Source License, offers a user-friendly experience for developers and tech enthusiasts seeking to leverage AI capabilities in their command-line tasks.

What is Butterfish Shell used for?

Integrate AI prompting into bash and zsh shells for intelligent command suggestions and assistance
Engage with the AI using your shell history for context-aware interactions and problem-solving
Improve command line efficiency with AI-powered command autocomplete
Enter Goal Mode to let Butterfish autonomously execute commands to achieve objectives
Customize your experience with editable prompt wrappers and contribute to its open-source development
Ask questions directly from the command line, debug commands, autocomplete shell commands, and handle non-shell tasks like requesting a pasta recipe
Utilize GPT-4 if you have access to it by using the command '$ butterfish shell -m gpt-4'
Work alongside your existing shell by intercepting shell input/output and communicating with the OpenAI ChatGPT API
Prompt ChatGPT with a capital letter to initiate AI suggestions and assistance
Autosuggest commands based on recent history and prompts from ChatGPT

Who is Butterfish Shell for?

Developers
Tech enthusiasts
Software developers
Data scientists
IT professionals

How to use Butterfish Shell?

To use Butterfish, follow these steps:

Install Butterfish on MacOS using Homebrew with brew install bakks/bakks/butterfish, or on Linux with go install github.com/bakks/butterfish/cmd/butterfish@latest.
Start Butterfish Shell by running butterfish shell in your command line interface.
Use your shell as usual and prompt the AI by starting a command with a capital letter.
Utilize various commands like asking for a command to perform a task, inquiring why a command failed, or entering Goal Mode for autonomous execution.
Benefit from contextual conversations by leveraging your shell history for AI interactions.
Customize your experience by modifying prompt wrappers and contributing to the open-source development of Butterfish.
To make the most of Butterfish, remember to set up an OpenAI API key and follow the instructions for usage provided in the installation process.

Butterfish integrates seamlessly with bash and zsh shells, enhances autocomplete functionality, and allows for engaging conversations with the AI for efficient and intelligent shell operation.

Pros

Seamless AI Integration: Integrate AI prompting into bash and zsh shells for intelligent command suggestions and assistance.
Contextual Conversations: Engage with the AI using your shell history for context-aware interactions and problem-solving.
Autocomplete Functionality: Improve command line efficiency with AI-powered command autocomplete.
Goal Mode: Enter Goal Mode to let Butterfish autonomously execute commands to achieve objectives.
Configurable & Open Source: Customize your experience with editable prompt wrappers and contribute to its open-source development.

Cons

The agent may be biased towards specific versions of commands and may need to experiment to get them right
Not very effective at manipulating large text files like code files
May require conscious context to be successful
Agent biased towards specific versions of commands
Limited effectiveness in manipulating large text files like code files
Goal Mode effectiveness can vary, sometimes hit or miss
Unsafe Goal Mode can potentially be dangerous
Autosuggest feature can be expensive to use if not covered by OpenAI free credits
May require experimentation to get commands right
Lack of clarity on pricing and potential costs of features like autosuggest
Certain features may work well only with simpler goals and more guidance
Limited transparency on how certain functions interact with the user's shell history
Potential limitations compared to other AI tools in handling certain types of commands

Pros

Cons

Seamless AI Integration: Integrate AI prompting into bash and zsh shells for intelligent command suggestions and assistance.
Contextual Conversations: Engage with the AI using your shell history for context-aware interactions and problem-solving.
Autocomplete Functionality: Improve command line efficiency with AI-powered command autocomplete.
Goal Mode: Enter Goal Mode to let Butterfish autonomously execute commands to achieve objectives.
Configurable & Open Source: Customize your experience with editable prompt wrappers and contribute to its open-source development.

The agent may be biased towards specific versions of commands and may need to experiment to get them right
Not very effective at manipulating large text files like code files
May require conscious context to be successful
Agent biased towards specific versions of commands
Limited effectiveness in manipulating large text files like code files
Goal Mode effectiveness can vary, sometimes hit or miss
Unsafe Goal Mode can potentially be dangerous
Autosuggest feature can be expensive to use if not covered by OpenAI free credits
May require experimentation to get commands right
Lack of clarity on pricing and potential costs of features like autosuggest
Certain features may work well only with simpler goals and more guidance
Limited transparency on how certain functions interact with the user's shell history
Potential limitations compared to other AI tools in handling certain types of commands

Butterfish Shell FAQs

What is Butterfish?: Butterfish is a command-line shell tool that incorporates AI prompting with OpenAI technology into bash and zsh shells, offering context-aware assistance and command suggestions.

How can I install Butterfish?: To install Butterfish on MacOS, you can use Homebrew with the command `brew install bakks/bakks/butterfish`, and on Linux, you can use the command `go install github.com/bakks/butterfish/cmd/butterfish@latest`.

What can I do with Butterfish Shell?: Butterfish allows you to ask questions directly from the command line, debug commands, autocomplete shell commands, and even handle non-shell tasks like requesting a pasta recipe.

Does Butterfish support GPT-4?: Yes, Butterfish uses gpt-3.5-turbo by default but supports GPT-4 if you have access to it. Use the command `$ butterfish shell -m gpt-4` to utilize GPT-4.

How does Butterfish work alongside my existing shell?: Butterfish aims to not interfere with your normal shell operation while providing an AI-powered layer of assistance and works by intercepting shell input/output and communicating with the OpenAI ChatGPT API.