Ch: Lightweight AI CLI Tool

2 min read Original article ↗

Ch is a Lightweight, fast, and powerful CLI tool for terminal-based AI interactions with full user control. It provides direct terminal access to powerful AI models with minimal overhead, transparent operations, and explicit user control. It integrates seamlessly into developer environments, minimizing context switching and empowering users to leverage AI's full potential through explicit control and flexible, user-driven interactions without automated decisions or hidden costs.

High Performance

10x faster startup time and noticeably faster than its predecessor Cha, built with GoLang instead of Python for speed and efficiency

Multi-Platform Support

OpenAI, OpenRouter, Amazon Bedrock, Anthropic, Google Gemini, xAI, Groq, DeepSeek, Together, Mistral AI, and Ollama

Multi-Region Support

Switch between regional endpoints for platforms like Amazon Bedrock (22 AWS regions)

Interactive & Direct Modes

Chat interactively or run single queries. Your choice

Unix Piping

Pipe any command output or file content directly to Ch. Automatically suppresses colors and UI elements for seamless shell pipeline integration

Smart File Handling

Load text files, PDFs, Word docs (DOCX/ODT/RTF), spreadsheets (XLSX/CSV), images (with OCR text extraction), and directories

Advanced Export

Interactive chat export with fzf selection and editor integration. Extract and save markdown code blocks with proper file extensions

Session State Viewer

Check current session details like model, platform, and token usage

Token Counting

Estimate token usage for files with model-aware tokenization

Text Editor Integration

Use your preferred editor for complex prompts and content editing

Dynamic Switching

Change models and platforms mid-conversation without losing context

Chat Backtracking

Revert to any point in conversation history

Session Continuation

Automatically save and restore sessions to continue conversations later

Session History Search

Search and load any previous session from history with fuzzy or exact matching

Code Dump

Package entire directories for AI analysis. Automatically compile text and document files for comprehensive context

Web Scraping & Search

Built-in URL scraping and web search using Brave Search API. Analyze YouTube content seamlessly

Clipboard Integration

Copy AI responses to clipboard with cross-platform support

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