airewrite

Terminal-first AI rewrite assistant.

Paste text, get back an improved version, iterate.

Supports:

• OpenAI and Anthropic APIs
• Interactive persistent session (paste multi-line text)
• Multiple “modes” (proofread / rewrite / professional / concise)
• Custom modes via Markdown instruction files
• Optional persistent history (daily JSONL) with retention

Install

This project is set up for uv.

uv run airewrite --help

If you want to install it into a virtualenv as a CLI tool:

uv sync
uv run airewrite --help

Quickstart

1. Set an API key:

• OpenAI

export OPENAI_API_KEY="..."

• Anthropic

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="..."

1. Start the interactive session:

uv run airewrite

Or use the short alias:

uv run rewrite

Usage

Interactive session (persistent)

Start:

uv run airewrite

Then:

• Paste text (multi-line is fine)
• Submit with an empty line (press Enter twice)

By default, responses render with a nicer “pretty” UI using rich.

In-session commands

• :mode <name>
• :provider openai|anthropic
• :model <model-name>
• :explain (toggle adding a short explanation after the rewritten text)
• :pretty (toggle rich output on/off)
• :show (print effective configuration)
• :where (print resolved paths)
• :quit

Non-interactive (stdin)

Pipe input:

echo "this are bad." | uv run airewrite run --mode proofread

Or:

cat draft.txt | uv run airewrite run --mode concise

Providers

OpenAI

• Credential: OPENAI_API_KEY
• Default model: gpt-4o-mini

Example:

uv run airewrite run --provider openai --mode proofread

Anthropic

• Credential: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
• Default model: claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022

Example:

uv run airewrite run --provider anthropic --mode professional

Modes

Built-in modes:

• proofread
• rewrite
• professional
• concise

Select a mode:

uv run airewrite run --mode concise

Custom modes (Markdown)

Create a file:

~/.config/airewrite/modes/<mode>.md

Example:

mkdir -p ~/.config/airewrite/modes
cat > ~/.config/airewrite/modes/friendly.md << 'EOF'
Rewrite the text to sound friendly and approachable.
Keep it clear and professional.
Return only the rewritten text.
EOF

Then run:

uv run airewrite run --mode friendly

History

By default, history is enabled and written as JSONL (one file per day):

~/.config/airewrite/history/YYYY-MM-DD.jsonl

Each line contains:

• timestamp
• mode/provider/model
• explain
• input_text
• output_text

Retention

Default retention is 30 days.

Override:

uv run airewrite run --history-days 7

Disable history:

uv run airewrite run --no-history

Custom history location

Override the history directory:

uv run airewrite run --history-dir ~/somewhere/airewrite-history

Or via env var:

export AIREWRITE_HISTORY_DIR=~/somewhere/airewrite-history

Configuration inspection

Print effective config:

uv run airewrite show-config

Print resolved paths (config/modes/history):

uv run airewrite paths

Print config when starting run:

uv run airewrite run --print-config

Pretty output

Pretty output is enabled by default in interactive mode.

Disable:

uv run airewrite run --no-pretty

You can also toggle it in-session with :pretty.