Show HN: HWT, an open-source alternative to GitHub Copilot CLI

Show HN: HWT, an open-source alternative to GitHub Copilot CLI(hwt.dev)

3 points by mrhat 3 years ago | 4 comments

HWT is an open-source tool with which you can generate terminal commands using natural language.

It is based on GPT-3 (so you need an OpenAI API key) and can generate commands with the user typing `hwt list all the hidden files`. (it works for more complex queries as well)

I started working on this a while ago in a slightly different format (i.e., using a backend and with more languages). Then Github announced Copilot CLI and I put it on hold. After a while, I thought: why not share HWT as an open-source alternative? This way people can have another option with more control.

HWT is the first time I built a more "complex" terminal user interface (TUI). It was surprising how much you can do nowadays with terminal applications in terms of interactivity and "design". It uses Ink.js and runs over Node. It was quite a smooth experience.

Let me know what you think and if have some feedback!

tuchsen 3 years ago |

Hey, this looked neat but it crashed for me. I'll open an issue on Github.

I have a minor nitpick from watching the video though, it seems weird that you make people call --init before using the app. Just let me pass the OPEN_AI_API_KEY as an environment variable, and make the copy to clipboard thing a CLI option.

It looks good otherwise though, a nice start!

mrhat 3 years ago | |

Thank you Tuchsen, will take a look on the crash if I can replicate it somehow!

Regarding the --init in the beginning, my idea was to guide the user step-by-step. That way the input can be checked in "real-time". But fair point that it is a bit odd, especially for the copy flag.

mdaniel 3 years ago |

This is not open source, it is missing any licensing information (either in a license file nor in any headers in the source files)

mrhat 3 years ago | |

Fair point, I used the term too loosely and thought just of publishing on GitHub. Will add a license! Any feedback on HWT?