Show HN: Vibe zsh, turn natural language into shell commands

Transform natural language into shell commands using AI. Works natively with OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, OpenRouter, Ollama, LM Studio, and more.

list all docker containers


docker ps -a

• 🧠 Natural language to commands- Just describe what you want - 🖥️ OS-aware generation- Commands that work on YOUR system (macOS/Linux/Windows) - ⚡ Lightning fast- Cached responses are 100-400x faster - 🎬 Streaming output- Typewriter effect with progress indicators - 🔌 Multi-provider- Native support for OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, OpenRouter, Ollama, LM Studio, and more - 🛡️ Safe by default- Preview commands before execution - 📚 Learn while you work- Inline explanations for every command - 📜 Query history- Interactive menu to browse and re-run previous queries - 🎯 Single binary- One compiled binary, no runtime dependencies to install

brew tap skymoore/tap
brew install --cask vibe-zsh

The Homebrew installation automatically:

• Installs vibe to ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/vibe

• Adds vibe

to your plugins list in~/.zshrc

• Creates a global vibe-zsh

command for CLI usage

After installation, reload your shell:

source ~/.zshrc

Note: Requires Oh-My-Zsh. If not installed, the installer will provide instructions.

For oh-my-zsh integration:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skymoore/vibe-zsh/main/install.sh | bash

Or using wget:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skymoore/vibe-zsh/main/install.sh | bash

This script downloads the latest release and installs it to ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/vibe

. You'll need to manually add vibe

to your plugins list in ~/.zshrc

.

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/skymoore/vibe-zsh.git ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/vibe

Build the binary:

cd ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/vibe
make build

Add to your.zshrc

:

plugins=(... vibe)

Reload your shell:

source ~/.zshrc

Add these to your ~/.zshrc

(all optional).

vibe-zsh uses gollm to talk to each provider natively. There are two kinds of provider:

Hosted providers(openai

,anthropic

,groq

,openrouter

,deepseek

,google-openai

,mistral

,cohere

) have a fixed endpoint built in. You only need to choose the provider, setVIBE_API_KEY

, and pick aVIBE_MODEL

— you donot setVIBE_API_URL

.Local providers(ollama

,lmstudio

,vllm

) run on your machine. SetVIBE_API_URL

to point at the local server; no API key is required.

Select a provider with VIBE_PROVIDER

. If you don't set it, vibe infers the provider from VIBE_API_URL

(e.g. an openrouter.ai

or :11434

URL), which is mainly there to keep older configs working. Setting VIBE_PROVIDER explicitly is the recommended approach.

The default

VIBE_MODEL

isllama3:8b

(chosen for the default Ollama setup). Always setVIBE_MODEL

when you use a hosted provider, or requests will ask for a model that doesn't exist there.

export VIBE_PROVIDER="openai"
export VIBE_API_KEY="sk-..."
export VIBE_MODEL="gpt-4o"
export VIBE_PROVIDER="anthropic"
export VIBE_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
export VIBE_MODEL="claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022"
export VIBE_PROVIDER="groq"
export VIBE_API_KEY="gsk_..."
export VIBE_MODEL="llama-3.1-70b-versatile"
export VIBE_PROVIDER="openrouter"
export VIBE_API_KEY="sk-or-..."
export VIBE_MODEL="anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet"
export VIBE_PROVIDER="ollama"
export VIBE_API_URL="http://localhost:11434/v1"
export VIBE_MODEL="llama3:8b"
export VIBE_PROVIDER="lmstudio"
export VIBE_API_URL="http://localhost:1234/v1"
export VIBE_MODEL="local-model"

Note on validation:gollm checks your configuration when vibe starts. Hosted providers validate the API key format up front (for example, Anthropic keys must start withsk-ant-

), and local providers must already be running and reachable. If a provider is misconfigured, vibe reports an actionable error on the first query rather than silently failing.

Custom OpenAI-compatible gateways:theopenai

provider always points atapi.openai.com

, so it can't be redirected to a self-hosted gateway viaVIBE_API_URL

. To use an OpenAI-compatible endpoint that isn't OpenAI itself, setVIBE_PROVIDER

tolmstudio

orvllm

and pointVIBE_API_URL

at your gateway.

• Type a natural language description in your terminal

• Press Ctrl+G

• Review the generated command (with explanations)

• Press Enter

to execute, or edit first

History Menu:

Access your query history in two ways:

Keybinding: PressCtrl+X

thenH

Command: Typevh

and press Enter

Both methods open an interactive menu where you can:

• Browse previous queries with arrow keys
• Search with /

(filter mode) - Press Enter

to insert the generated command into your buffer - Press G

to regenerate a new command from the original query - Press V

to edit the original query in your buffer - Press A

orHome

to jump to the first entry - Press E

orEnd

to jump to the last entry - Press Esc

orQ

to cancel

The selected command appears on your command line, ready to execute!

Quick Regenerate:

Press Ctrl+X

then G

to instantly regenerate a new command from your most recent query without opening the menu.

Note: Don't run vibe-zsh history

or ./vibe history

directly - use vh

or the keybinding instead.

You can also use vibe directly from the command line:

vibe-zsh "list all docker containers"

~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/vibe/vibe "list all docker containers"

CLI Flags:

vibe-zsh --help                    # Show all available flags
vibe-zsh --debug "query"           # Enable debug logging
vibe-zsh --temperature 0.1 "query" # Override temperature
vibe-zsh --interactive "query"     # Confirm before execution

History Commands:

vh                                 # Interactive menu (recommended)
vibe-zsh history list              # List history in plain text
vibe-zsh history clear             # Clear all history

Query History:

Ctrl+X H

vh

vibe-zsh history list

vibe-zsh history clear

File Operations:

show me all hidden files including their sizes

Docker:

show logs of nginx container and follow them

Git:

show me commits from last week

Find & Search:

find all python files modified today

Tab Completion:

vibe <TAB><TAB>

Hide Explanations:

export VIBE_SHOW_EXPLANATION=false

Interactive Mode (confirm before inserting):

export VIBE_INTERACTIVE=true

Disable Cache:

export VIBE_ENABLE_CACHE=false

Disable Auto-Updates:

export VIBE_AUTO_UPDATE=false

Customize History Keybinding:

export VIBE_HISTORY_KEY="^R"      # Use Ctrl+R for history menu
export VIBE_REGENERATE_KEY="^[r"  # Use Alt+R for quick regenerate

Disable History:

export VIBE_ENABLE_HISTORY=false

Variable	Default	Description
API Configuration
VIBE_PROVIDER
(inferred from VIBE_API_URL )
LLM provider. Hosted: openai , anthropic , groq , openrouter , deepseek , google-openai , mistral , cohere . Local: ollama , lmstudio , vllm . Recommended to set explicitly.
VIBE_API_URL
http://localhost:11434/v1
Endpoint URL for local providers only (ollama , vllm ). Hosted providers ignore this and use their fixed endpoints.
VIBE_API_KEY
""
API key. Required for hosted providers; ignored by local providers.
VIBE_MODEL
llama3:8b
Model to use. Set this for hosted providers — the default only suits Ollama.
VIBE_TEMPERATURE
0.2
Generation temperature (0.0-2.0)
VIBE_MAX_TOKENS
1000
Max response tokens
VIBE_TIMEOUT
30s
Request timeout
Display Options
VIBE_SHOW_EXPLANATION
true
Show command explanations
VIBE_SHOW_WARNINGS
true
Show warnings for dangerous commands
VIBE_SHOW_PROGRESS
true
Show progress spinner during generation
VIBE_PROGRESS_STYLE
dots
Spinner style: dots, line, circle, bounce, arrow, runes (ᛜ ᛃ ᛋ)
VIBE_STREAM_OUTPUT
true
Stream output with typewriter effect
VIBE_STREAM_DELAY
20ms
Delay between streamed words
Behavior
VIBE_INTERACTIVE
false
Confirm before inserting command
VIBE_USE_STRUCTURED_OUTPUT
true
Use JSON schema for structured responses
VIBE_ENABLE_CACHE
true
Enable response caching
VIBE_CACHE_TTL
24h
Cache lifetime
Parsing & Retry
VIBE_MAX_RETRIES
3
Max retry attempts for failed parsing
VIBE_ENABLE_JSON_EXTRACTION
true
Extract JSON from corrupted responses
VIBE_STRICT_VALIDATION
true
Validate response structure
VIBE_SHOW_RETRY_STATUS
true
Show retry progress during generation
History
VIBE_ENABLE_HISTORY
true
Enable query history tracking
VIBE_HISTORY_SIZE
100
Maximum number of history entries
VIBE_HISTORY_KEY
^Xh (Ctrl+X H)
Keybinding for history menu
VIBE_REGENERATE_KEY
^Xg (Ctrl+X G)
Keybinding to regenerate last command
Updates & Debugging
VIBE_AUTO_UPDATE
true
Enable auto-update checks
VIBE_UPDATE_CHECK_INTERVAL
7d
How often to check for updates
VIBE_DEBUG_LOGS
false
Enable debug logging for troubleshooting

Capture- You type natural language and pressCtrl+G

Context- vibe detects your OS (macOS/Linux/Windows) and shell (zsh/bash/etc.)** Generate**- vibe sends your query with system context to the configured LLM** Parse**- Response is structured as command + explanations** Cache**- Response is cached for 24 hours (configurable)** Stream**- Command is streamed to your terminal with typewriter effect** Insert**- Command appears in your buffer for review** Execute**- You press Enter to run (or edit first)

vibe automatically detects your operating system and shell, ensuring generated commands work on your system:

macOS: Uses BSD utilities (e.g.,find

without-printf

,sed -i ''

)Linux: Uses GNU utilities (e.g.,find -printf

,sed -i

)Shell-specific: Generates syntax appropriate for zsh, bash, etc.

This means you get commands that actually work on your system, not generic Linux commands that fail on macOS!

First query:~500ms-2s (depends on LLM)** Cached query:~5-10ms (100-400x faster!) Binary size:~8MB Memory usage:**<10MB

• ✅ Commands are never executed automatically
• ✅ Full preview before execution
• ✅ Edit commands before running
• ✅ Warnings for dangerous commands
• ✅ Optional interactive confirmation mode
• ✅ Local-first with Ollama (your data stays private)

vibe automatically checks for updates once a week in the background (zero impact on performance). When an update is available, you'll see a notification:

⚠️  vibe v1.2.4 available (current: v1.2.3)
   Run: vibe --update

Manual Commands:

vibe --version              # Show current version
vibe --update               # Download and install latest version

Configuration:

export VIBE_AUTO_UPDATE=false           # Disable auto-update checks
export VIBE_UPDATE_CHECK_INTERVAL=14d   # Check every 2 weeks instead

Security:

• All downloads are verified using SHA256 checksums
• Checksums are published with each release
• Original binary is backed up before replacement
• Safe atomic file replacement

The update check runs in a background process after each command, so it never slows down your workflow. Updates are never installed automatically - you always control when to update.

Command not working after install:

• Reload your shell: source ~/.zshrc

• Verify plugin is in list: echo $plugins

• Check binary exists: ls ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/vibe/vibe

Slow responses:

• Enable caching: export VIBE_ENABLE_CACHE=true

• Use a faster model or local LLM

• Check your network connection

Bad command suggestions:

• Try a different/better model
• Make your query more specific
• Check model supports structured output

Corrupted or garbage output:

• vibe now automatically handles corrupted LLM responses with multi-layer parsing

• Enable debug logs to see what's happening: export VIBE_DEBUG_LOGS=true

• Check logs for raw responses and parsing attempts

• Try increasing retries: export VIBE_MAX_RETRIES=5

Parsing errors:

• Enable JSON extraction: export VIBE_ENABLE_JSON_EXTRACTION=true

(default) - Disable strict validation temporarily: export VIBE_STRICT_VALIDATION=false

• Check debug logs to see which parsing layer succeeded/failed
• Some models produce cleaner JSON with lower temperature: export VIBE_TEMPERATURE=0.3

Ctrl+G does nothing:

• Ensure plugin is loaded: which vibe

(should show a function) - Check no other plugin uses Ctrl+G

• Try rebinding: bindkey '^G' vibe

• Zsh with Oh-My-Zsh

• An LLM provider — hosted (OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, OpenRouter, etc.) or local (Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM)

• macOS or Linux

brew uninstall --cask vibe-zsh
brew untap skymoore/tap  # Optional: remove the tap

Then remove vibe

from your plugins list in ~/.zshrc

and reload:

source ~/.zshrc
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skymoore/vibe-zsh/main/uninstall.sh | bash

Or using wget:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skymoore/vibe-zsh/main/uninstall.sh | bash

Then remove vibe

from your plugins list in ~/.zshrc

and reload:

source ~/.zshrc
git clone https://github.com/skymoore/vibe-zsh.git
cd vibe-zsh
make build        # Build for current platform
make build-all    # Build for all platforms
make test         # Run tests
make install      # Install to oh-my-zsh

Contributions welcome! This project uses:

• Go 1.26+
• Standard zsh scripting gollmfor native multi-provider LLM access

GPLv3 License - see LICENSE

Inspired by LoganPederson/vibe

Built for terminal productivity enthusiasts 🚀

source & further reading

github.com — original article