Show HN: Chatfile – AI in a Textfile

1 point

a year ago

Work didn't let me paste our code into online web tools like ChatGPT. But we trust Amazon. So I built the simplest chat interface I could think of, using AWS Bedrock as a backend. Just write:

  #@
  hi

Save it as foo.chat, run `$ chatfile foo.chat`, and watch the AI response appear at the end of the file.

This turns out to be quite convenient! Text feels smoother in my editor than a webpage, and I can run it from a shortcut. I can prune history and retry as I like. Shell commands give the model exactly the context I choose.

I know there are other people like me on HN who demand close control over their tools. To broaden the audience, I've extended `chatfile` to use multiple model providers and sanded off some of the rough edges. I hope you find it useful!