chat

A full-featured conversational AI assistant with tool-calling capabilities.

Usage

agent-cli chat [OPTIONS]

Description

A persistent, conversational agent that you can have a back-and-forth conversation with:

1. Run the command—it starts listening for your voice
2. Speak your command or question
3. The agent transcribes, sends to the LLM (which can use tools), and responds
4. The response is spoken back to you (if TTS enabled)
5. Immediately starts listening for your next command
6. Conversation history is saved between sessions

Interaction Controls

• To Interrupt: Press Ctrl+C once to stop listening or speaking and return to a listening state
• To Exit: Press Ctrl+C twice in a row to terminate the application

Examples

# Start with TTS
agent-cli chat --input-device-index 1 --tts

# List available devices
agent-cli chat --list-devices

# Custom history settings
agent-cli chat --last-n-messages 100 --history-dir ~/.my-chat-history

Options

Provider Selection

Option	Default	Description
--asr-provider	wyoming	The ASR provider to use ('wyoming', 'openai', 'gemini').
--llm-provider	ollama	The LLM provider to use ('ollama', 'openai', 'gemini').
--tts-provider	wyoming	The TTS provider to use ('wyoming', 'openai', 'kokoro', 'gemini').

Audio Input

Option	Default	Description
--input-device-index	-	Audio input device index (see --list-devices). Uses system default if omitted.
--input-device-name	-	Select input device by name substring (e.g., MacBook or USB).
--list-devices	false	List available audio devices with their indices and exit.

Audio Input: Wyoming

Option	Default	Description
--asr-wyoming-ip	localhost	Wyoming ASR server IP address.
--asr-wyoming-port	10300	Wyoming ASR server port.

Audio Input: OpenAI-compatible

Option	Default	Description
--asr-openai-model	whisper-1	The OpenAI model to use for ASR (transcription).
--asr-openai-base-url	-	Custom base URL for OpenAI-compatible ASR API (e.g., for custom Whisper server: http://localhost:9898).
--asr-openai-prompt	-	Custom prompt to guide transcription (optional).

Audio Input: Gemini

Option	Default	Description
--asr-gemini-model	gemini-3-flash-preview	The Gemini model to use for ASR (transcription).

LLM: Ollama

Option	Default	Description
--llm-ollama-model	gemma3:4b	The Ollama model to use. Default is gemma3:4b.
--llm-ollama-host	http://localhost:11434	The Ollama server host. Default is http://localhost:11434.

LLM: OpenAI-compatible

Option	Default	Description
--llm-openai-model	gpt-5-mini	The OpenAI model to use for LLM tasks.
--openai-api-key	-	Your OpenAI API key. Can also be set with the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable.
--openai-base-url	-	Custom base URL for OpenAI-compatible API (e.g., for llama-server: http://localhost:8080/v1).

LLM: Gemini

Option	Default	Description
--llm-gemini-model	gemini-3-flash-preview	The Gemini model to use for LLM tasks.
--gemini-api-key	-	Your Gemini API key. Can also be set with the GEMINI_API_KEY environment variable.

Audio Output

Option	Default	Description
--tts/--no-tts	false	Enable text-to-speech for responses.
--output-device-index	-	Audio output device index (see --list-devices for available devices).
--output-device-name	-	Partial match on device name (e.g., 'speakers', 'headphones').
--tts-speed	1.0	Speech speed multiplier (1.0 = normal, 2.0 = twice as fast, 0.5 = half speed).

Audio Output: Wyoming

Option	Default	Description
--tts-wyoming-ip	localhost	Wyoming TTS server IP address.
--tts-wyoming-port	10200	Wyoming TTS server port.
--tts-wyoming-voice	-	Voice name to use for Wyoming TTS (e.g., 'en_US-lessac-medium').
--tts-wyoming-language	-	Language for Wyoming TTS (e.g., 'en_US').
--tts-wyoming-speaker	-	Speaker name for Wyoming TTS voice.

Audio Output: OpenAI-compatible

Option	Default	Description
--tts-openai-model	tts-1	The OpenAI model to use for TTS.
--tts-openai-voice	alloy	Voice for OpenAI TTS (alloy, echo, fable, onyx, nova, shimmer).
--tts-openai-base-url	-	Custom base URL for OpenAI-compatible TTS API (e.g., http://localhost:8000/v1 for a proxy).

Audio Output: Kokoro

Option	Default	Description
--tts-kokoro-model	kokoro	The Kokoro model to use for TTS.
--tts-kokoro-voice	af_sky	The voice to use for Kokoro TTS.
--tts-kokoro-host	http://localhost:8880/v1	The base URL for the Kokoro API.

Audio Output: Gemini

Option	Default	Description
--tts-gemini-model	gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts	The Gemini model to use for TTS.
--tts-gemini-voice	Kore	The voice to use for Gemini TTS (e.g., 'Kore', 'Puck', 'Charon', 'Fenrir').

Process Management

Option	Default	Description
--stop	false	Stop any running instance of this command.
--status	false	Check if an instance is currently running.
--toggle	false	Start if not running, stop if running. Ideal for hotkey binding.

History Options

Option	Default	Description
--history-dir	~/.config/agent-cli/history	Directory for conversation history and long-term memory. Both conversation.json and long_term_memory.json are stored here.
--last-n-messages	50	Number of past messages to include as context for the LLM. Set to 0 to start fresh each session (memory tools still persist).

General Options

Option	Default	Description
--save-file	-	Save audio to WAV file instead of playing through speakers.
--log-level	warning	Set logging level.
--log-file	-	Path to a file to write logs to.
--quiet, -q	false	Suppress console output from rich.
--config	-	Path to a TOML configuration file.
--print-args	false	Print the command line arguments, including variables taken from the configuration file.

Available Tools

The chat agent has access to tools that let it interact with your system:

• read_file: Read file contents
• execute_code: Run a single command (no shell features like pipes or redirects)
• duckduckgo_search: Search the web via DuckDuckGo
• add_memory: Store information for future conversations
• search_memory: Search stored memories
• update_memory: Update existing memories
• list_all_memories: List all stored memories
• list_memory_categories: Show memory category summary

Example Conversation

You: "Read the pyproject.toml file and tell me the project version."
AI: (Uses read_file tool) "The project version is 0.5.0."

You: "What dependencies does it have?"
AI: "The project has the following dependencies: typer, pydantic, ..."

You: "Thanks!"
AI: "You're welcome! Let me know if you need anything else."

Conversation History

History is stored in ~/.config/agent-cli/history/ and persists between sessions.

To start fresh:

rm -rf ~/.config/agent-cli/history/*

Or limit context:

agent-cli chat --last-n-messages 10