Meet FLASH CLI, a Free Local AI Agent for Your Terminal

A developer has released FLASH CLI (Fast Local Agent SHell), a free AI-powered command-line assistant that runs entirely on local or self-hosted Ollama models without requiring an API key, subscription, or cloud connection. The tool can execute shell commands, plan and act iteratively, and supports optional configuration via a .flash.env file. It is tested across Linux, macOS, and Windows on Python 3.10-3.12.

Cloud AI coding tools are powerful, but they also come with a bill, an API key, and a quiet upload of your source code to someone else's servers. What if your AI assistant ran entirely on your own machine instead? That is FLASH CLI Fast Local Agent SHell : an AI-powered command-line assistant that talks to local or self-hosted Ollama models and can actually run shell commands for you. No API key. No subscription. No cloud. FLASH gives the model a tight, powerful toolset: It loops through plan, act, and observe until the job is done, then answers in rendered Markdown with syntax highlighting. Optional configuration lives in ~/.flash.env: MODEL=llama3.1 OLLAMA HOST=http://localhost:11434 Ask a question and let it work: Flash what are the biggest files here? Thinking: check the OS, then find the largest files Retrieving operating system information Executing shell command: du -ah . | sort -rh | head -3 … Run a command yourself with the prefix, no AI in the loop: Flash git status On branch main nothing to commit, working tree clean Check or switch your backend on the fly: Flash /model Model: llama3.1 Host: http://localhost:11434 Handy built-in commands: /help, /model, /clear, and /bye. FLASH is tested on every push across Linux, macOS, and Windows on Python 3.10, 3.11, and 3.12, with Ruff, Flake8, and Bandit keeping it clean and secure. I made a short cinematic walkthrough of everything that you can watch above. If a private, local, zero-cost AI shell sounds like your kind of tool, give it a spin and drop a star. Repo: https://github.com/Natuworkguy/Flash https://github.com/Natuworkguy/Flash Your AI. Your machine. Your rules.