LLM Client CLI Usage Guide¶
Command-line interface for quick LLM access across multiple providers.
Installation¶
# Basic installation
pip install git+https://github.com/dgaida/llm_client.git
# With rich formatting support (recommended)
pip install git+https://github.com/dgaida/llm_client.git[rich]
# Development installation
git clone https://github.com/dgaida/llm_client.git
cd llm_client
pip install -e ".[all]"
After installation, you can use either:
- llm-client (full command)
- llm (shorter alias)
Quick Start¶
# Simple query
llm-client chat "What is Python?"
# Interactive mode
llm-client interactive
# With specific provider
llm-client chat "Explain AI" --provider openai
# Stream response
llm-client chat "Tell me a story" --stream
# Count tokens
llm-client tokens "Hello world!"
Commands¶
chat - One-Shot Queries¶
Execute a single chat completion and exit.
Usage:
Options:
- -p, --provider [auto|openai|groq|gemini|ollama] - Provider to use (default: auto)
- -m, --model TEXT - Specific model name
- -t, --temperature FLOAT - Sampling temperature (0.0-2.0, default: 0.7)
- --max-tokens INTEGER - Maximum tokens to generate (default: 512)
- --stream / --no-stream - Enable streaming (default: no-stream)
- -c, --config PATH - Load from config file
- --markdown / --no-markdown - Render as markdown (default: markdown)
Examples:
# Basic query
llm-client chat "What is machine learning?"
# With specific provider and model
llm-client chat "Explain quantum computing" --provider openai --model gpt-4o
# Stream response in real-time
llm-client chat "Tell me a long story about AI" --stream
# Lower temperature for more focused responses
llm-client chat "What is 2+2?" --temperature 0.1
# From config file
llm-client chat "Hello" --config llm_config.yaml
# Use Ollama Cloud
llm-client chat "Analyze this code" --provider ollama --model gpt-oss:120b-cloud
interactive - Chat Sessions¶
Start an interactive chat session with conversation history.
Usage:
Options:
- -p, --provider [auto|openai|groq|gemini|ollama] - Provider to use
- -m, --model TEXT - Specific model name
- -t, --temperature FLOAT - Sampling temperature (default: 0.7)
- -c, --config PATH - Load from config file
- -s, --system TEXT - System message for context
Interactive Commands:
- exit or quit - Exit the session
- clear - Clear conversation history
- switch <provider> - Switch to different provider
- Ctrl+C or Ctrl+D - Exit gracefully
Examples:
# Start interactive session
llm-client interactive
# With specific provider
llm-client interactive --provider openai
# With system message (set context)
llm-client interactive --system "You are a Python expert who gives concise answers"
# With config file
llm-client interactive --config llm_config.yaml --provider groq
# Coding assistant
llm-client interactive --system "You are an expert software engineer" --provider openai
Sample Session:
╭─────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Interactive Chat Mode │
│ Provider: openai │
│ Model: gpt-4o-mini │
│ Temperature: 0.7 │
│ │
│ Commands: exit, quit, clear, switch │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────╯
You: What is Python?
---
## Configuration
The CLI automatically loads API keys from:
1. Environment variables
2. `.env` file in the current directory
3. `secrets.env` file
You can also specify a custom configuration file using the `--config` option.
## Examples
### Multimodal Query (Image Analysis)
```bash
llm-client chat "What is in this image?" --provider gemini --file image.jpg