Rust

Power up CLI tools with natural language

Build a universal utility that transforms natural language tasks into precise command-line arguments.

⏱️ 2h 15min

📦 4 modules

🎯 Beginner

What You'll Build

You'll build a universal command-line companion that understands natural-language requests and turns them into the exact arguments for the tool you're already using. Say “drop the last commit” while invoking it for Git and it proposes git reset --soft HEAD^, ready to run.

The utility works as a plus-suffixed wrapper you can call alongside your everyday commands (think git+, ffmpeg+, rg+), always showing a clear preview and asking for confirmation before executing. It makes powerful actions quick, transparent, and safe.

Learning Objectives

Build a universal wrapper CLI in Rust
Integrate LLM workflows using rig-core and OpenAI
Design effective prompt templates for arguments
Implement async command execution with Tokio
Create interactive confirmations with dialoguer
Manage robust errors and exits with anyhow

Prerequisites

Basic Rust syntax, ownership, and borrowing
Basic command-line and environment variables
Familiarity with async/await concepts
Rust toolchain and cargo installed
OpenAI API key

Course Modules

Binary Setup and Parsing

Create a binary crate and add anyhow for easy errors. Extract command name and combine remaining args into natural text.

Prompt to Parameters

Build a reusable prompt that outputs only command parameters. Call the model via rig-core with tokio async.

Confirm Command Execution

Confirm command execution using dialoguer. Execute the process with tokio, inherit I/O, return exit code.

Release Build and Alias

Compile the release binary and place it in your bin. Create a git+ alias, set OpenAI OPENAI_API_KEY, then run commands.

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