Ask Command
A tiny app to remind you about those commands you always forget. Powered by AI.
Demo
How it works
- The app will send your query to a server, where it uses Open AI's GPT-3 to come up with the best command for you.
- Don't trust anything it returns, always verify, and never run any command you don't understand.
- Use it as a quick way to remind you of a command you forgot, so that you don't have to waste time finding it on Google.
Disclaimers
- This is a Beta version and will expire in 30 days. You will be required to update the app after that.
- Every questions and answers are recorded on the server side to improve the app, definitely don't put your sensitive data in there.
- Tips to get your answer faster: use simple, generic questions; don't involve too complicated logic and conditions; questions that have answers available on Google or Stack Overflow are more likely to get a good answer.
- Once again: don't trust anything the app returns, always verify, and never run any command you don't understand.
FAQs
- What kind of questions I can ask the app?The app works well when with popular Unix commands. It understand some basic logic and conditions (e.g., "list all files older than 3 months").
- What are some examples of questions I can ask the app?Here are some examples and the answers:❓ How to
check if check if a macOS app is sandboxed🤖codesign -d --entitlements - /Applications/App.app❓ How tolist kubernetes pods with status🤖kubectl get pods -o wide❓ How todownload file from a URL🤖curl -O http://www.example.com/file.zip❓ How tofind email addresses in a file🤖grep -o -E "\b[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,6}\b" file.txt - Who built this app?It's me, Tony 😄
- Why is this not a web app?The whole point is to avoid having to open a browser and search for the command on Google. It saves you about 15 seconds every time you need to look up a command, and that's enough for me to build a native app.
- Why is this not a CLI app?I can consider adding a CLI version in the future. There are various reasons I don't want to build a purely CLI app for this. As of now, it's easier for me to build and maintain the macOS app. I also have other features ideas for the app that doesn't works well as a CLI app, so I'll keep it a separate native app for now.
- Is it safe to run the app?Yes, it is safe.Ask Command only suggests the commands for you, it never (and actually cannot, due to sandboxing) run any commands on your computer.Ask Command is a sandboxed macOS app. You can verify that by running(meta: I used Ask Command to learned about this command!).
codesign -d --entitlements - /Applications/Ask\ Command.appAs a sandboxed app, Ask Command cannot make any changes to your system, and it cannot run any command on your behalf. If you want to run the commands, you have to copy and paste them to your terminal. - Is there a Windows/Linux version?Not at the moment, sorry.
- Is this app open source?No.
- Will there be new features? Can I suggest new features?If the app gets enough attention and I can make some good revenue from it, I will continue to work on this. I have a long backlog of things I can add to the app to make it even more useful. Feel free to send your feature requests, bug reports, and suggestions to me via my Twitter.