Foxmayn AI CLI
How a Terminal-Native AI Chat Eliminated Browser Context-Switching for Developers
At a Glance
Challenge
Using AI assistants required leaving the terminal for web-based interfaces
Result
Full AI chat with streaming Markdown and 7 models — entirely in the terminal
Tech Stack
Status
in-progress
Situation
Developers who live in the terminal had to break their workflow every time they needed to interact with an AI assistant. Web-based chat interfaces (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) require opening a browser, navigating to the app, and context-switching away from the code they're working on. For quick questions, code reviews, or brainstorming, this overhead adds up — and copy-pasting between terminal and browser strips formatting and context.
The Challenge
Build a full-featured terminal chat application that brings multi-model AI conversations directly into the developer's existing workflow — with proper Markdown rendering, streaming responses, and no browser dependency.
What Was Built
Built an alt-screen TUI application in Go using Bubble Tea (Elm architecture) with a scrollable viewport, text input, and real-time streaming display.
Integrated OpenRouter's API for multi-model support: 7 models including Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, and OpenAI variants — switchable via an in-app /model picker.
Implemented streaming response rendering with full Markdown support: code blocks, bold, italic, lists, and headers — all formatted with Lip Gloss directly in the terminal.
Added slash-command autocomplete (/model, /clear, /quit) for quick actions without leaving the conversation flow.
Configured hot-reload development via watchexec and simple .env-based API key management.
Results
Supported models
7 (Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, OpenAI)
Response rendering
Streaming Markdown in terminal
Context switching
Terminal → Browser → Terminal
Never leaves terminal
Built with
Go + Bubble Tea (Elm architecture)
Developers can now chat with multiple AI models without leaving the terminal. Streaming Markdown rendering, in-app model switching, and slash commands keep the entire AI workflow within the same context where code is being written.
Key Achievement
Full TUI chat app with streaming Markdown-rendered responses, in-app model picker, and slash-command autocomplete supporting 7 models including Gemini, DeepSeek, and OpenAI variants.