Butterfish

Butterfish is a Coding & Development tool that provides AI prompting and autocompletion for command-line shells. It integrates with bash and zsh, offering contextual AI assistance based on shell history.

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At a glance

Pricing

Open Source

Free tier

API

Yes

Skill level

Technical

About

What is Butterfish?

Butterfish is an AI-powered command-line tool designed to enhance shell environments like bash and zsh with intelligent prompting and autocompletion. It integrates with OpenAI or compatible APIs, allowing users to interact with AI directly from their terminal. By starting a command with a capital letter, users can prompt the AI, which leverages shell history for contextual understanding, enabling questions like "Why did that command fail?". The tool also features 'Goal Mode' for agent-like execution of commands to achieve specific objectives, and 'Unsafe Goal Mode' for automated execution. Butterfish is open source, customizable, and supports various models and API providers, making it a flexible solution for software engineers working from the command line.

Best used for

Ideal for developers who need to quickly debug command-line issues, generate complex shell commands, and automate multi-step tasks with an AI agent. Especially valuable for those who prefer working within the terminal and desire high-context AI assistance without copy-pasting.

Common actions

debug code

generate commands

automate tasks

get contextual help

Capabilities

Key features

AI shell prompting
Command autocompletion
Shell history context
Goal Mode agent
Customizable prompts
Supports OpenAI API
Neovim plugin

Target Audience

developer

Integrations

Not yet documented

Pricing & Plans

Open Source

Not publicly disclosed. Check butterfi.sh for current pricing.

FAQs

How does Butterfish integrate with my existing shell?

Butterfish works by wrapping your existing shell (bash or zsh) and intercepting its input and output. It buffers keyboard input and shell output, forwarding most directly to the shell. When you start a command with a capital letter, Butterfish intercepts it to send to the AI.

What is 'Goal Mode' and how does it work?

Goal Mode allows an AI agent to execute commands to achieve a specific goal. You initiate it with '!' followed by your goal. The AI suggests commands, which you can confirm or edit. 'Unsafe Goal Mode' (with '!!') executes commands without confirmation, which can be dangerous.

Can I use Butterfish with models other than OpenAI?

Yes, Butterfish uses OpenAI models by default but can be configured to use any server with an OpenAI-compatible API. You can specify a different base URL using the `--base-url` or `-u` flag when starting the Butterfish shell, allowing for local models.

How does Butterfish manage my shell history for AI context?

Butterfish maintains an in-memory buffer of your shell and prompting history. When making an API request, it constructs a conversation history including system messages, user inputs (commands, shell output, prompts), and AI responses, fitting as much recent context as possible within the model's token limit.

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