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Quickstart

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

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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 -r to include the previous reply as context, or -c to continue the most recent conversation thread:

clai -c q "Now write a table-driven unit test for that case"