I Built an Offline-First AI Copilot for the Terminal – Meet Promptly

The author created Promptly, an AI-powered terminal assistant, to help with common tasks like killing processes or reverting Git commits. Promptly turns plain English into trusted shell commands, working like a copilot for the terminal. It provides the command, a plain-English explanation, and a confirmation prompt before execution. Promptly can work offline using a local language model or online via OpenAI if enabled. The tool features natural language to shell command conversion, offline mode, online fallback, a plugin system, safe command execution, and is built in Rust for speed and reliability. Promptly can be used as a standalone CLI tool, a plugin integrated into the terminal, or with a GUI in development. The author built Promptly to prioritize privacy, speed, and local intelligence, and to allow easy extension through a plugin system. The tool is free, open-source, and available on the website and GitHub. Future developments include better local learning, more plugins, a TUI interface, and a VS Code extension. The author welcomes feedback and contributions to the project.