Hi Hacker News,

I'm Krishna, and I've been building Genie – an AI assistant designed to live directly in your command line. For too long, I felt the friction of context switching, leaving my terminal to ask AI questions or process information. I wanted an AI that felt like a natural, transparent, and controllable extension of my Unix workflow. That's why Genie was born.

What Genie does:

* *AI for Your Terminal:* Transforms your command line into an intelligent workspace, keeping you in your flow. * *Flexible Interaction:* Interact seamlessly via simple CLI commands (e.g., `genie ask "..."`) or an intuitive Text User Interface (TUI) for deeper, multi-turn conversations. * *Unix Philosophy Integration:* Leverage AI with your existing tools by piping output (e.g., `git diff | genie ask "commit msg?"`). Genie enhances, not replaces, your favorite utilities. * *Persona-Driven Assistance:* Utilize specialized AI personas (e.g., `engineer`, `product-owner`) to tailor responses for specific tasks and roles, providing more relevant and actionable insights. * *Open & Controllable:* Built with an open-source core, Genie prioritizes transparency. You can inspect its workings, hack on it, and even connect it to your own fine-tuned models.

Why I built this / What makes it different:

Many AI tools are black boxes, dictating how you work. Genie is different. It's built for developers who value control, transparency, and a composable toolkit. We believe in an open foundation that empowers you to adapt and extend AI to your unique needs, rather than being locked into a rigid system. It's about bringing powerful AI capabilities directly into the environment where developers spend most of their time – the terminal.

How to try it out:

Genie is in beta, and we're actively developing it. You can get started quickly:

```bash go install github.com/kcaldas/genie/cmd/genie@latest ```

Then, set your `GEMINI_API_KEY` (you can get a free one from Google AI Studio) and start interacting:

```bash export GEMINI_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY" genie ask "hello world" git diff | genie ask "commit msg?" genie # for interactive TUI mode ```

Check out the project on GitHub for full documentation and more examples: https://github.com/kcaldas/genie

I'd love to hear your thoughts, feedback, and questions.

P.S. This post was written by Genie, looking at its own source! ;-)

Show HN: Genie: Your AI-Powered Terminal Sidekick (CLI and TUI)