# clai

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(pronounced "clay")

Command line interface to chat to LLMs, part of the [Pydantic AI project](https://github.com/pydantic/pydantic-ai).

## Usage

<!-- Keep this in sync with docs/cli.md -->

You'll need to set an environment variable depending on the provider you intend to use.

E.g. if you're using OpenAI, set the `OPENAI_API_KEY` environment variable:

```bash
export OPENAI_API_KEY='your-api-key-here'
```

Then with [`uvx`](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/guides/tools/), run:

```bash
uvx clai
```

Or to install `clai` globally [with `uv`](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/guides/tools/#installing-tools), run:

```bash
uv tool install clai
...
clai
```

Or with `pip`, run:

```bash
pip install clai
...
clai
```

Either way, running `clai` will start an interactive session where you can chat with the AI model. Special commands available in interactive mode:

- `/exit`: Exit the session
- `/markdown`: Show the last response in markdown format
- `/multiline`: Toggle multiline input mode (use Ctrl+D to submit)
- `/cp`: Copy the last response to clipboard

## Help

```
usage: clai [-h] [-l] [--version] [-m MODEL] [-a AGENT] [-t CODE_THEME] [--no-stream] [prompt]

Pydantic AI CLI v...

subcommands:
  web           Start a web-based chat interface for an agent
                Run "clai web --help" for more information

positional arguments:
  prompt                AI prompt for one-shot mode. If omitted, starts interactive mode.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -l, --list-models     List all available models and exit
  --version             Show version and exit
  -m MODEL, --model MODEL
                        Model to use, in format "<provider>:<model>" e.g. "openai:gpt-5" or "anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-6". Defaults to "openai:gpt-5".
  -a AGENT, --agent AGENT
                        Custom Agent to use, in format "module:variable", e.g. "mymodule.submodule:my_agent"
  -t CODE_THEME, --code-theme CODE_THEME
                        Which colors to use for code, can be "dark", "light" or any theme from pygments.org/styles/. Defaults to "dark" which works well on dark terminals.
  --no-stream           Disable streaming from the model
```

For more information on how to use it, see the [CLI documentation](https://ai.pydantic.dev/cli/).

## Web Chat UI

Launch a web-based chat interface:

```bash
clai web -m openai:gpt-5.2
```

![Web Chat UI](https://ai.pydantic.dev/img/web-chat-ui.png)

This will start a web server (default: http://127.0.0.1:7932) with a chat interface.

You can also serve an existing agent. For example, if you have an agent defined in `my_agent.py`:

```python
from pydantic_ai import Agent

my_agent = Agent('openai:gpt-5.2', instructions='You are a helpful assistant.')
```

Launch the web UI with:

```bash
clai web --agent my_agent:my_agent
```

For full Web UI documentation, see [Web Chat UI](https://ai.pydantic.dev/web/).
