# Show HN: Smartly – Plain English to shell commands, with GNU/BSD awareness

> Source: <https://smartlycli.com/>
> Published: 2026-10-01 01:54:44+00:00

# Tell your shell

what you mean.

You know what. smartly knows how.

smartly sends one plain English sentence to an LLM, validates the reply is a single shell command line, and runs it. For people who know what they want to do and would rather not remember the exact flags.

Install

`brew install rizwanreza/tap/smartly`` go install github.com/rizwanreza/smartly-cli/cmd/smartly@latest`
Then run `smartly onboard` to pick a provider, a model and an execution mode.

The transform

## Say the outcome. Get the command.

What it does

## Commands without the ceremony.

- english → command
- ### One sentence in, one command outDescribe the result. smartly returns a single executable shell command — pipes, `&&` and redirects allowed, multi-step scripts never.
- macos + linux
- ### Knows which userland it is onIt checks whether `sed` ,`date` ,`stat` and friends are GNU or BSD on your machine — a Mac with Homebrew coreutils has both — and writes flags that work with the ones you have:`sed -i ''` for BSD,`date -d` for GNU.
- dir + git
- ### Reads the roomBy default it sends a capped directory listing plus your git branch, status and worktrees, so “all worktrees except main” resolves against what is actually there.
- four providers
- ### Your model, your billingAnthropic and OpenAI by API key, or your own logged-in `claude` /`codex` CLI session if you already pay for a subscription.
- four ways to run
- ### Four ways to run it`auto` runs the command immediately and is the default.`confirm` asks`[y/N]` every time,`confirm-destructive` asks on anything it doesn’t recognise as safe, and`--dry-run` prints the command and runs nothing.
- learn mode
- ### Shows how the command works`--learn` prints the command, then breaks it down piece by piece: each flag, pipe and argument with what it does, colour-matched to the command above. Nothing runs.

Before you install it

## Auto-run is the default.

smartly generates a command and runs it immediately, with no confirmation prompt — including when that command is destructive. Under `auto` nothing inspects what the command does; the only check is that the model returned exactly one clean command line.

That is the product working as intended, and it is the setting most worth reconsidering on a machine where a wrong `rm` costs you something. Three ways to change it:

confirm Ask me every time

Prints the command and waits for `[y/N]`. Reads`/dev/tty` directly, and fails closed when there is no terminal.

```
# ~/.config/smartly/config.yaml
execution:
  mode: confirm
```

confirm-destructive Ask me when it is not clearly safe

A local classifier reads the generated command and asks on anything it doesn’t recognise as safe — destructive or unrecognised alike. A best-effort seatbelt, not a sandbox: to see every command, use`confirm`.

```
# ~/.config/smartly/config.yaml
execution:
  mode: confirm-destructive
```

--dry-run Just show me

Prints the command and does nothing else. The right flag for a phrasing you are not sure about yet.

```
smartly --dry-run remove every merged branch
```

Providers

## Four backends. Bring an API key or your existing CLI login.

`anthropic` and `openai` call an API with your own key. `claude-cli` and `codex-cli` shell out to a CLI you are already logged into — slower, but no second bill. And`openai` speaks to any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including a local vLLM, Ollama or LM Studio.

| Provider | Authentication | Worth knowing | 
|---|---|---|
| `anthropic` | ANTHROPIC_API_KEY | The default. Nothing to configure beyond the key. | 
| `openai` | OPENAI_API_KEY | Ships no default model — set providers.openai.model yourself. | 
| `claude-cli` | Your logged-in claude session | No API key: uses your Claude subscription. No tool access at all. | 
| `codex-cli` | Your logged-in codex session | No API key: uses your ChatGPT subscription. Runs --sandbox read-only. | 

## Describe the result.

Skip the flag archaeology.

`brew install rizwanreza/tap/smartly`` go install github.com/rizwanreza/smartly-cli/cmd/smartly@latest`