Start

Quickstart

Install clai, configure your first model vendor, run terminal queries, and manage chats.

On this page

Get clai running in your terminal in under two minutes.

1. Install clai

Install the latest binary with Go (or see Installation for Nix and source builds):

go install github.com/baalimago/clai@latest

Set the API key for your preferred model provider (for example ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, or GEMINI_API_KEY):

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

Run clai setup to select your default chat model, or pass -cm on any command.

Ask a question directly from the command line with clai q:

clai q "Write a jq filter that extracts all failing test names"

Pipe stdin and use -i to replace {} with the piped input:

git diff | clai -i q "Summarize this diff in three bullet points: {}"

Pass -t '*' to let the model use builtin tools (bash, rg, file_tree, web_search) and configured MCP servers:

clai -t '*' q "Check why the latest git commit changed internal/cli/cli.go"

Use -re (-reply) to reply to the previous query, or -dre (-dir-reply) to continue the conversation bound to your current working directory:

clai -re q "Now write a table-driven unit test for that case"
clai -dre q "And add a benchmark for the hot path"