Ask Command

The ask command allows you to query the LLM model directly with questions and get informative responses.

Usage

agent ask [flags] <question>

Your question can be multiple words, and will be sent as-is to the model. The response will be formatted as markdown by default.

Examples

# Basic question
agent ask "What is a file descriptor in Linux?"

# Using a specific provider and model
agent ask --provider openai --model gpt-4o-mini "How do I check disk usage on Linux?"

# Get the output as plain text (no markdown formatting)
agent ask --plain "Explain how pipes work in bash"

# Stream the response (see output as it's generated)
agent ask --stream "What are the benefits of using Go for CLI applications?"

# Include file context
agent ask --context README.md "Summarize the setup steps"

# Include latest terminal context (requires bash-reader plugin)
agent ask "why the command failed" --use-terminal-context 3

# Shortcuts for terminal context depth
agent ask "why did this fail" -1
agent ask "what happened here" -5

Flags

Flag	Short	Default	Description
`--provider`	`-p`	From config	The LLM provider to use
`--model`	`-m`	From config	The model ID to use
`--print`	`-x`	`true`	Whether to print the response to stdout
`--log`	`-l`	`false`	Whether to log the input and output to a file
`--stream`	`-s`	`false`	Stream the response to the stdout as it's generated
`--plain`	`-k`	`false`	Render the response as plain text (no markdown)
`--memory`	`-M`	`false`	Include memory entries in the system prompt
`--context`	`-c`	`[]`	Include file content as context (repeatable)
`--use-terminal-context`		`0` (off)	Include latest N terminal entries as context; N must be 1-5 (requires bash-reader plugin)
`--terminal-context-1`	`-1`	`false`	Shortcut for `--use-terminal-context 1`
`--terminal-context-2`	`-2`	`false`	Shortcut for `--use-terminal-context 2`
`--terminal-context-3`	`-3`	`false`	Shortcut for `--use-terminal-context 3`
`--terminal-context-4`	`-4`	`false`	Shortcut for `--use-terminal-context 4`
`--terminal-context-5`	`-5`	`false`	Shortcut for `--use-terminal-context 5`

Terminal Context

The --use-terminal-context <N> flag prepends terminal entries to your question inside a <context> block.

It reads the latest N entries (where N is 1..5) captured by bash-reader from:

$HOME/.local/share/terminal-agent/terminal-context/index.log

Captured fields include:

Command text
Exit code
Output when available (safe mode may provide command and exit code only)

This requires the bash-reader plugin:

agent plugin install bash-reader

If the plugin is not installed, agent ask --use-terminal-context ... fails with an install hint.

Notes:

--use-terminal-context requires an explicit numeric argument (1..5)
Use only one shortcut flag at a time (-1 to -5)
Do not combine --use-terminal-context with -1..-5 in one command

For storage details and uninstall options, see Plugin Command.

Streaming Output

When using the --stream flag, you'll see the output appear gradually as it's generated by the model, rather than waiting for the complete response. This provides a more interactive experience:

agent ask --stream "How does Docker containerization work?"

Note: Streaming is not supported with the Perplexity provider.

Logging

If you use the --log flag, your question and the response will be saved to the history log:

agent ask --log "What are the differences between threads and processes?"

You can later query your history with the history command.