howdoi

AI-powered command-line assistant. Get shell command suggestions and explanations using Claude, GitHub Models, or Ollama.

Install

go install github.com/WMcKibbin/howdoi@latest

Or download a binary from Releases.

Usage

Suggest a command

howdoi suggest "find all large files over 100MB"

This opens an interactive menu where you can:

• Execute the suggested command
• Revise it with additional instructions
• Explain what the command does
• Copy it to your clipboard

Explain a command

howdoi explain "tar -xzf archive.tar.gz"

Configure

howdoi config

Sets up your preferred AI provider and credentials. Config is stored at ~/.config/howdoi/config.yaml.

Shell aliases

# Add to your .zshrc / .bashrc:
eval "$(howdoi alias)"

This creates shortcuts:

• hdi → howdoi suggest
• hde → howdoi explain

Providers

Provider	Auth	Setup
Claude (default)	Claude CLI auth	Install Claude CLI and authenticate
GitHub Models	GitHub PAT with models:read	howdoi config or set GITHUB_TOKEN env var
Ollama	None (local)	Install and run Ollama

Use --provider to switch:

howdoi suggest --provider github "list docker containers"
howdoi suggest --provider ollama "disk usage by directory"

Use --model to override the default model:

howdoi suggest --provider github --model "openai/gpt-4.1" "compress a folder"

License

MIT