I love the terminal. There's something satisfying about typing a command and watching things happen. But lately, I've been annoyed by how much context-switching I do when I'm working on AI projects. I'd have a question about my code, or need a quick summary of a file, and I'd end up opening a browser, going to some chat interface, pasting content, and waiting.
So I decided to build what I thought would be a simple weekend project: an LLM-powered CLI tool that lives right in my terminal. No browser, no copy-paste, just ask followed by my question.
Spoiler: it wasn't as simple as I expected. But it was one of the most educational things I've built this year.
Here's how I did it, what actually worked, and what I'd do differently if I started today.
Why a CLI Tool for LLMs?
