orchat 1.4.5

A powerful CLI for chatting with AI models through OpenRouter

🤖 OrChat

🚀 Installation • ✨ Features • 💬 Chat Commands • 🗂️ Conversation Management • 📁 File Attachment • 🧠 Thinking Mode • ⚙️ Configuration • 🔍 Troubleshooting • 🤝 Contributing

A powerful CLI for chatting with AI models through OpenRouter with streaming responses, token tracking, auto-update checking, multi-line input, conversation management with AI-generated summaries, and extensive customization options.

✨ Features

🔗 Core Features

• Universal Model Access: Connect to any AI model available on OpenRouter with dynamic model retrieval
• Interactive Chat: Enjoy a smooth conversation experience with real-time streaming responses
• Rich Markdown Rendering: View formatted text, code blocks, tables and more directly in your terminal
• Agentic Shell Access: The assistant can request commands via [EXECUTE: ...], with human approval and contextual output injection
• Security Gating: Every command request shows a color-coded risk panel (safe/warning/critical) before you choose to run it
• Performance Analytics: Track token usage, response times, and total cost with accurate API-reported counts
• Command Auto-completion: Intelligent command suggestions, prompt history navigation, and inline auto-suggest while typing
• Pricing Display: Real-time pricing information displayed during active chat sessions
• Auto-Update System: Automatic update checking at startup with pip integration
• Multi-line Input Support: Compose multi-paragraph messages with Esc+Enter and visual feedback
• Conversation Management: Save, list, and resume conversations with AI-generated topic summaries
• Auto-Summarization: Intelligently summarizes old messages instead of trimming them to preserve context within token limits
• Session Persistence: Resume conversations exactly where you left off with full context
• Web Scraping: Fetch and analyze web content directly in your conversations with automatic URL detection

📎 File & Media Support

• Smart File Picker: Attach files anywhere in your message using @ (e.g., analyze @myfile.py)
• Attachment Preview: See filename, type, and size before injecting content into the conversation
• Multimodal Support: Share images and various file types with compatible AI models
• Enhanced File Processing: Better error handling, security validation (10 MB limit), and path sanitation
• Web Content Scraping: Fetch and inject web content from URLs with automatic detection and clean markdown conversion

🧠 Advanced Features

• Smart Thinking Mode: See the AI's reasoning process with compatible models
• Conversation Export: Save conversations as Markdown, HTML, or JSON (the supported formats in-app)
• Smart Context Management: Automatically summarizes or trims history to stay within token limits
• AI Session Summaries: Generates short, meaningful names for saved sessions
• Customizable Themes: Choose from different visual themes for your terminal

⌨️ Interactive Input Features

• Multi-line Input: Use Esc+Enter to toggle multi-line mode, with status indicator and seamless toggling
• Command History Navigation: Press ↑/↓ arrow keys to cycle through previous prompts and commands
• History Search: Use Ctrl+R to search through your prompt history with keywords
• Automatic Command Completion: Start typing "/" and command suggestions appear instantly - no Tab key needed!
• Auto-Suggest from History: Previous commands and prompts appear as grey suggestions as you type
• Smart File Picker: Use @ anywhere in your message for inline file selection with auto-completion and previews
• Double Ctrl+C Exit: Press Ctrl+C twice within 2 seconds to gracefully exit the chat session

💡 How Auto-Completion Works:

• Type / → All available commands appear automatically
• Type /c → Filters to commands starting with 'c' (clear, cls, clear-screen, etc.)
• Type /temp → Shows /temperature command
• Type /think → Shows /thinking and /thinking-mode commands
• No Tab key required - completions appear as you type!

💡 How File Picker Works:

• Type @ anywhere in your message to open the file picker
• Choose files interactively with inline metadata previews
• Insert filenames naturally into your prompt, e.g., examine @test.py and check for errors
• File picker works anywhere in your message, not just at the beginning

💡 How to Exit:

• Press Ctrl+C once → Shows "Press Ctrl+C again to exit" message
• Press Ctrl+C again within 2 seconds → Gracefully exits the chat
• This prevents accidental exits while allowing quick termination when needed

🛡️ Command Execution Workflow

OrChat now supports secure, agentic shell access so the AI can help you explore your project without ever leaving the terminal.

1. Structured Requests: The assistant emits [EXECUTE: your_command] inside its response when it needs shell access.
2. Risk Panel: OrChat classifies the command (Safe 🟢, Warning 🟠, Critical 🔴) based on keywords such as rm, pip install, etc., and shows the OS context plus the exact command.
3. Explicit Approval: You must confirm with y/n. Declining keeps the conversation going; the AI is notified that access was denied.
4. Sandboxed Execution: Approved commands run through your native shell with a 30-second timeout, capturing both stdout and stderr (truncated after 5 000 chars to protect context length).
5. Automatic Feedback: Results are added back to the conversation so the AI can reason over the output immediately.

This flow keeps you in control while still giving the model the ability to dir, find, grep, or run tests when you approve it.

🚀 Installation

📦 Installation Methods

From PyPI (Recommended)

pip install orchat

# Run the application
orchat

From Source

git clone https://github.com/oop7/OrChat.git
cd OrChat
pip install -e .

# Run directly (development)
python -m orchat.main

📋 Prerequisites

• Python 3.9 or higher
• An OpenRouter API key (get one at OpenRouter.ai)
• Optional: fzf + pyfzf for fuzzy model selection

🏁 Getting Started

1. Install OrChat using one of the methods above
2. Run the setup wizard
   • After a PyPI install:

     orchat --setup
     

   • From a cloned repository:

     python -m orchat.main --setup
     

3. Enter your OpenRouter API key when prompted
4. Select your preferred AI model and configure settings
5. Start chatting!

🪛 Add-Ons

FZF fuzzy search (Enhanced Model Selection)

1. Install fzf and pyfzf

   • Install pyfzf

     pip install pyfzf
     

   • Fzf can be downloaded from https://github.com/junegunn/fzf?tab=readme-ov-file#installation

2. Ensure fzf is in your path

3. From now on, the model selection will use fzf for powerful fuzzy search and filtering capabilities!

Note: If fzf is not installed, OrChat will automatically fall back to standard model selection.

⚙️ Configuration

🔧 Configuration Methods

OrChat can be configured in multiple ways:

1. Setup Wizard: Run orchat --setup (or python -m orchat.main --setup inside the repo) for interactive configuration
2. Config File: Edit the config.ini file in the application directory
3. Environment Variables: Create a .env file with your configuration
4. System Environment Variables: Set environment variables directly in your system (recommended for security)

Enhanced Environment Support: OrChat now supports system/user environment variables, removing the strict requirement for .env files.

📄 Configuration Examples

Example .env file:

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Example config.ini structure:

[API]
OPENROUTER_API_KEY = your_api_key_here

[SETTINGS]
MODEL = anthropic/claude-3-opus
TEMPERATURE = 0.7
SYSTEM_INSTRUCTIONS = You are a helpful AI assistant.
THEME = default
MAX_TOKENS = 8000
AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL = 300
STREAMING = True
THINKING_MODE = False

🖥️ Command-Line Options

• --setup: Run the setup wizard
• --model MODEL: Specify the model to use (e.g., --model "anthropic/claude-3-opus")
• --task {creative,coding,analysis,chat}: Optimize for a specific task type
• --image PATH: Analyze an image file

💬 Chat Commands

Command	Description
/help	Show available commands
/new	Start a new conversation
/clear	Clear conversation history
/cls or /clear-screen	Clear the terminal screen
/save [format]	Save conversation (formats: md, html, json)
/chat list	List saved conversations with human-readable summaries
/chat save	Save current conversation with auto-generated summary
/chat resume <session>	Resume a saved conversation by name or ID
/model	Change the AI model
/temperature <0.0-2.0>	Adjust temperature setting
/system	View or change system instructions
/tokens	Show token usage statistics (now API-accurate)
/speed	Show response time statistics
/theme <theme>	Change the color theme (default, dark, light, hacker)
/thinking	Show last AI thinking process
/thinking-mode	Toggle thinking mode on/off
/auto-summarize	Toggle auto-summarization of old messages
/web <url>	Scrape and inject web content into context
/about	Show information about OrChat
/update	Check for updates
/settings	View current settings
Ctrl+C (twice)	Exit the chat (press twice within 2 seconds)

💾 Conversation Management

📋 Session Management

OrChat provides powerful conversation management with human-readable session summaries:

Commands:

• /chat list - View all saved conversations with meaningful names
• /chat save - Save current conversation with auto-generated topic summary
• /chat resume <session> - Resume any saved conversation by name or ID

Features:

• Smart Summarization: Uses AI to generate 2-4 word topic summaries (e.g., "python_coding", "travel_advice", "cooking_tips")
• Fallback Detection: Automatically detects topics like coding, travel, cooking, career advice
• Dual Storage: Saves both human-readable summaries and original timestamp IDs
• Easy Resume: Resume conversations using either the summary name or original ID

Example Session List:

Saved sessions:
general_chat (20250906_141133)
python_coding (20250906_140945)
travel_advice (20250906_140812)
cooking_tips (20250906_140734)

📁 File Attachment

📎 Basic Usage

Attach files naturally in your messages using the smart file picker:

analyze @path/to/your/file.ext for issues
examine @script.py and explain its logic

• Use @ anywhere in your message to attach a file with preview and validation

✨ Enhanced Features

• Inline Auto-Completion: Type @ and continue typing to filter files; relative paths expand automatically
• Metadata Preview: Panel shows filename, extension, and size before injection
• Improved Error Handling: Clear messages for missing files, oversized attachments, or unsupported types
• Security Validation: Built-in file size (10 MB) and type checks with sanitized filenames
• Web Content Bridge: URLs inside your message can be scraped and attached alongside local files

📋 Supported File Types

• Images: JPG, PNG, GIF, WEBP, BMP (rendered with multimodal-friendly data URLs)
• Code Files: Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, TypeScript, Swift, etc. (wrapped in fenced code blocks)
• Text Documents: TXT, MD, CSV (raw text included)
• Data Files: JSON, XML (fenced blocks for readability)
• Web Files: HTML, CSS (inlined for context)
• PDFs: Metadata only (the assistant is told a PDF was provided)

🌐 Web Scraping

🔗 Basic Usage

Fetch and analyze web content directly in your conversations:

/web https://example.com

Or simply paste a URL in your message and OrChat will automatically detect it and offer to scrape the content:

check out this article: https://example.com/article

✨ Features

• Automatic URL Detection: Paste URLs anywhere in your messages and get prompted to scrape them
• Clean Markdown Conversion: Web content is converted to readable markdown format
• Smart Content Extraction: Removes scripts, styles, navigation, and other non-essential elements
• Multiple URL Support: Handle multiple URLs in a single message
• Content Preview: See a preview of scraped content before it's injected into context
• Flexible Options: Choose to scrape selected URLs or all detected URLs at once

📋 Supported Content Types

• HTML Pages: Automatically converted to clean, readable markdown
• JSON Data: Displayed with proper formatting
• Plain Text: Rendered as-is for easy reading
• Articles & Documentation: Main content extracted automatically

🧠 Thinking Mode

🎯 Basic Usage

OrChat can display the AI's reasoning process with enhanced thinking mode:

/thinking-mode       # Toggle thinking mode on/off
/thinking            # Show the most recent thinking process

This feature allows you to see how the AI approached your question before giving its final answer. Auto Thinking Mode automatically enables this feature when you select models with reasoning support.

✨ Enhanced Features

• Improved Detection: Better extraction of thinking content from model responses
• Model Compatibility: Automatic handling of models that don't support thinking mode
• Visual Indicators: Clear status indicators showing if thinking mode is enabled
• Flexible Setup: Option to enable/disable during model selection

🎨 Themes

🎨 Available Themes

Change the visual appearance with the /theme command:

• default: Blue user, green assistant
• dark: Cyan user, magenta assistant
• light: Blue user, green assistant with lighter colors
• hacker: Matrix-inspired green text on black

📊 Token Management

📊 Smart Context Management

OrChat intelligently manages conversation context to keep within token limits:

• Auto-Summarization (NEW): Instead of simply trimming old messages, OrChat uses AI to create concise summaries of earlier conversation parts, preserving important context while freeing up tokens
• Configurable Threshold: Set when summarization kicks in (default: 70% of token limit)
• Fallback Trimming: If summarization is disabled or fails, automatically trims old messages
• Visual Feedback: Clear notifications when messages are summarized or trimmed
• Displays comprehensive token usage statistics including total tokens and cost tracking
• Shows real-time pricing information during active sessions
• Displays total cost tracking across conversations
• Allows manual clearing of context with /clear
• Toggle auto-summarization with /auto-summarize command

How it works:

• When your conversation approaches the token limit (default: 70%), OrChat automatically summarizes the oldest messages
• The summary preserves key information, decisions, and context in a condensed form
• Recent messages are kept in full to maintain conversation flow
• You can disable this feature and revert to simple trimming with /auto-summarize

🔄 Updates

🔄 Version Management

Check for updates with the /update command to see if a newer version is available.

🔍 Troubleshooting

🔍 Common Issues & Solutions

• API Key Issues: Ensure your OpenRouter API key is correctly set in config.ini, .env file, or system environment variables. OrChat will prompt for re-entry if an incorrect key is detected
• Insufficient Account Credit: If you receive a 402 error, check your OpenRouter account balance and add funds as needed
• Rate Limits (429): Too many rapid requests will trigger a yellow "Rate Limit" panel—wait a few seconds or switch to another model with /model
• File Path Problems: When attaching files via @, use quotes for paths with spaces and ensure the path is valid for your OS
• Model Compatibility: Some features like thinking mode only work with specific models
• Conversation Management: Use /chat list to see saved conversations, /chat save to save current session, and /chat resume <name> to continue previous conversations
• Command Usage: Remember that @ attachments and /web scraping prompts can appear anywhere inside your message for flexibility

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.

🙏 Acknowledgments

🙏 Special Thanks

• OpenRouter for providing unified API access to AI models
• Rich for the beautiful terminal interface
• All contributors and users who provide feedback and help improve OrChat