shellgenius 0.2.0

ShellGenius is a tool to generate shell commands from description in natural language.

ShellGenius

ShellGenius turns task descriptions into shell commands.

Installation

Install with uv (recommended):

uv tool install shellgenius

Or with pip:

python3 -m pip install shellgenius

OpenAI API key

ShellGenius requires an OpenAI API key. Get one from OpenAI's API key page, then store it with:

shellgenius key set

This writes the key to ~/.config/lmt/key.env. To edit it later:

shellgenius key edit

ShellGenius checks OPENAI_API_KEY first, then ~/.config/lmt/key.env.

On Windows, shellgenius key set also works. If you prefer an environment variable:

setx OPENAI_API_KEY your_key

Usage

Describe what you want in plain English:

shellgenius "show the ten largest directories in this repo"
shellgenius "find every .log file changed in the last hour"
shellgenius "rename all .jpeg files in the current dir to .jpg"

In an interactive terminal, ShellGenius shows the response with formatting and asks before execution. In non-interactive output, it prints the generated command:

cmd=$(shellgenius "print the current git branch name")
printf '%s\n' "$cmd"
shellgenius --cmd "show all files changed since origin/main"

Use --raw for plain-text output and --rich to force Rich rendering in a terminal.

Use --cmd when you want only the executable command, even in a TTY.

Options

Flag	Effect
-m, --model	Model to use (default: gpt-5.4-mini). Run shellgenius models to list options.
--no-stream	Disable live Rich streaming.
-r, --raw	Print the full response as plain text.
-R, --rich	Force Rich formatting in a TTY; fall back to plain text otherwise.
--cmd	Print only the command, even in a TTY.
--tokens	Print prompt token count and estimated cost, then exit.

Shell Completion

Enable Click's generated completion for flags and explicit subcommand paths:

Bash

eval "$(_SHELLGENIUS_COMPLETE=bash_source shellgenius)"

Zsh

eval "$(_SHELLGENIUS_COMPLETE=zsh_source shellgenius)"

Checked-in scripts

Checked-in completion scripts are also available in completion/_complete_shellgenius.bash and completion/_complete_shellgenius.zsh.

Model Selection

List supported models and their short aliases:

shellgenius models

Use an alias with -m:

shellgenius -m 4.1 "list the ten largest files"
shellgenius -m 5.4-mini "find all TODO comments"

Customizing Colors

ShellGenius reads color settings from ~/.config/lmt/config.json. If the file is missing or unreadable, Rich's built-in defaults are used.

Shared keys

These lmterminal compatibility keys apply across tools:

• code_block_theme — any Pygments style name, plus the built-in alabaster and alabaster-shellgenius themes.
• inline_code_theme — any Rich style string, such as "#325cc0 on #f0f0f0".

ShellGenius-only overrides

Add a shellgenius block to change ShellGenius without affecting other tools:

• theme — ShellGenius's own preset. Built-in values: default, alabaster, alabaster-shellgenius. Any Pygments theme name also works for fenced code blocks.
• styles — override individual Rich semantic styles (markdown.h1, markdown.code, markdown.code_block). markdown.code overrides the top-level inline_code_theme for ShellGenius only; markdown.code_block controls the command-block background in TTY output.

Example:

{
  "code_block_theme": "alabaster",
  "inline_code_theme": "#325cc0 on #f0f0f0",
  "shellgenius": {
    "theme": "alabaster",
    "styles": {
      "markdown.code_block": "on #f0f0f0",
      "markdown.h1": "bold #325cc0"
    }
  }
}

Invalid styles entries are ignored individually, so one bad override does not discard the rest. The built-in alabaster preset keeps the upstream #f8f8f8 syntax background; for a darker command block, add {"markdown.code_block": "on #f0f0f0"} under styles.

Legacy top-level code_block_theme: "alabaster-shellgenius" is still honored, but new config should prefer shellgenius.theme. These settings affect Rich output only; --raw and --cmd output is unchanged.

License

ShellGenius is released under the Apache 2.0 License.

https://github.com/sderev/shellgenius