ask

A terminal command assistant that gives you answers, not essays.

Powered by Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite — streams responses to your terminal with zero dependencies. Just Python 3.

What it does

$ ask how do i rename a git branch
git branch -m old-name new-name

$ ask undo last commit but keep changes
git reset --soft HEAD~1

$ ask find all png files larger than 1mb
find . -name "*.png" -size +1M

$ ask ways to check disk usage
• df -h (filesystem overview)
• du -sh * (current directory breakdown)
• ncdu (interactive explorer)

By default, you get just the command. Say "explain" when you want more:

$ ask explain what chmod 755 does
755 sets permissions: owner can read/write/execute (7),
group and others can read/execute (5). In binary:
rwxr-xr-x. Common for scripts and executables that
everyone should be able to run but only the owner can edit.

Install

git clone https://github.com/dhanaway/terminal-ask.git

No dependencies to install — just Python 3 (already on your machine).

Add to your PATH:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/terminal-ask:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

API Key

Grab a free key from Google AI Studio, then:

echo 'export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-key"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Usage

ask — stateless, fast one-off questions:

ask <question>

askc — context-aware, knows your terminal:

askc <question>

askc reads your recent shell history and remembers the conversation, so you can do things like:

$ askc why did that last command fail
# it sees your shell history and knows what "that" was

$ askc how do i fix it
# it remembers the prior answer and continues

$ askc --clear
# reset conversation when you're done

Context is per-terminal session — each tab/window gets its own history.