Askai

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CLI for one-shot, stateless questions to an LLM. Meant for engineers living inside terminals, askai aims to fill those small information gaps that typically pop up while working, such as:

• commands syntax / flag names;
• tiny code examples;
• quick conceptual clarifications. Instead of wasting time switching to a browser or a dedicated AI app, simply:

askai "What does set -euo pipefail do?"

will return a concise, fluff-free answer, minimizing distractions and speeding up your workflow.

By default, askai uses Groq's free developer tier for inference, but can also be configured to use other Backends.

Installation

Install with pipx (recommended):

pipx install askai-py

Or with uv:

uv tool install askai-py

Then set your Groq API key (Groq is the default backend):

export GROQ_API_KEY="your-key"
askai "how do I rename the current git branch?"

Usage

askai "what's so special about the number 42?" # one-shot question
askai --backend codex --max-lines 20 \
    "explain protocols vs abc classes in python"  # runtime overrides
askai config show # inspect persisted config

Run askai --help for the full command reference, and askai doctor to check your setup status.

Backends

askai currently supports two backends:

• groq (default) — API adapter calling Groq's OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Default model: llama-3.1-8b-instant. Requires GROQ_API_KEY.
• codex — CLI adapter wrapping the Codex CLI. Requires a local Codex installation.

Switch backend:

askai config set backend codex
askai doctor

Adding a Backend

Contributions for new backends are welcome. To add one, you need to:

1. Implement the BackendAdapter protocol in src/askai/backends/
2. Register it in build_backend_adapters() (src/askai/backends/__init__.py)
3. Add the backend name to KNOWN_BACKENDS (src/askai/config.py)
4. Add tests under tests/
5. Document it in the Backends section of README.md

Corporate VPN / Proxy (Self-Signed Certificates)

If you are behind a VPN or intercepting proxy, set ASKAI_CA_BUNDLE to your CA certificate so askai trusts the TLS connection:

export ASKAI_CA_BUNDLE=/path/to/mytrusted-ca.pem
askai "List Tmux useful commands"

This adds your CA as a trust root alongside the system defaults, so normal HTTPS still works.