# Introduction

> What clai is, its CLI commands, supported LLM vendors, and the clai.chat cloud roadmap.

Canonical URL: https://www.clai.chat/docs/ · Version: 1.0 · Updated: 2026-10-21

Full site index: https://www.clai.chat/llms.txt

clai is a command-line interface that integrates multi-vendor AI models directly into your terminal workflow. Built as a fast, composable Go binary, `clai` follows unix philosophy: pipe `stdin` into prompts, stream responses to `stdout`, chain tool calls over the Model Context Protocol (MCP), and manage conversations without leaving your shell.

## Core commands

| Command                      | Shorthand  | Description                                                                                                                 |
| ---------------------------- | ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `clai query <prompt>`        | `q`        | Run a one-shot query with arguments and optional piped `stdin`.                                                             |
| `clai chat`                  | `c`        | List, continue (`c c <id>`), summarize (`c s`), inspect (`c dir`), or delete saved and external coding-agent conversations. |
| `clai replay` / `dir-replay` | `re`/`dre` | Print the most recent global reply (`re`) or directory-scoped conversation reply (`dre`).                                   |
| `clai photo <prompt>`        | `p`        | Generate images with configured photo models (`-pm`, `-pd`, `-pp`).                                                         |
| `clai video <prompt>`        | `v`        | Generate videos with configured video models (`-vm`, `-vd`, `-vp`).                                                         |
| `clai audio transcribe`      | `a t`      | Transcribe audio files or `stdin` (`-`) with configured audio models (`-am`, `-af`).                                        |
| `clai tools` / `clai mcp`    | `t`        | List available builtin and cached MCP tools (`clai tools`), or authorize MCP servers (`clai mcp auth <server>`).            |
| `clai profiles` / `confdir`  | —          | List configured profiles (`clai profiles`) or print the active configuration directory (`clai confdir`).                    |
| `clai setup`                 | `s`        | Interactive TUI wizard for configuring general configs, model files, profiles, MCP servers, and shell contexts.             |
| `clai version`               | —          | Print the installed `clai` version and build information.                                                                   |

## Supported LLM vendors

`clai` supports major cloud and local model providers out of the box:

- **Anthropic** (Claude Opus, Sonnet, Haiku)
- **OpenAI** (GPT and reasoning models)
- **Google** (Gemini models)
- **Mistral**, **DeepSeek**, **XAI** (Grok), and **OpenRouter**
- **Ollama** for local offline models

See [Supported vendors](/docs/reference/vendors/) and [Configuration](/docs/reference/configuration/) for vendor setup details.

## The community hub

`clai.chat` hosts one service beside the CLI: a public hub for the parts of a
setup that are worth copying.

- **Publish:** a profile, MCP server, shell context, `SKILL.md` skill, theme or
  prompt. Anyone can read and download it.
- **Rate:** a signed-in reader gives one to five stars. One rating per account
  per config; an author cannot rate their own.
- **Download:** the raw file, and the path it belongs in. Nothing syncs on its
  own and no key is uploaded.

See [Share and rate configs](/docs/guides/community-hub/), browse the
[hub](/hub/), and read [Quickstart](/docs/quickstart/) to get going.