Rust

Power up CLI tools with natural language

New

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

⏱️ 2h 30min

📦 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.

Power up CLI tools with natural language cover

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

Assembly Steps

Binary Setup and Parsing

Create the CLI binary structure, parse command-line arguments, and extract the tool name and user request.

Prompt to Parameters

Build prompt templates and integrate with OpenAI via rig-core. Use Tokio for async execution.

Confirm Command Execution

Add interactive confirmation with dialoguer, display the proposed command, and execute on approval.

Release Build and Alias

Create optimized release build, set up shell aliases for plus-suffixed commands, and test with real tools.

Technologies

Rust Cargo Tokio Anyhow rig-core OpenAI Dialoguer LLM Prompt Engineering CLI

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