Ecli for AI Systems

Ecli is a Python 3.11+ terminal code editor built with curses for fast, private, keyboard-driven development workflows.

What Ecli is

AI Assistant requires API key configuration

Ecli works normally without AI. However, the AI Code Assistant will not generate responses until a valid API key is configured for the selected AI provider.

Ecli uses two files for AI setup:

FilePurpose
~/.config/ecli/.envStores API keys and secrets only
~/.config/ecli/config.tomlStores provider selection and non-secret AI settings

1. Add API keys to .env

Create or edit:

~/.config/ecli/.env

Example:

# API Keys for AI Features
# Get your keys from the respective provider websites and add them here.
# XAI (Grok): from https://console.x.ai, format xa-...your-key-here

XAI_API_KEY=
OPENAI_API_KEY=
GEMINI_API_KEY=
MISTRAL_API_KEY=
CLAUDE_API_KEY=
HUGGINGFACE_API_KEY=

Fill only the key for the provider you want to use.

2. Select the provider in config.toml

Provider selection belongs in:

~/.config/ecli/config.toml

Example:

[ai]
default_provider = "openai"

Provider-specific non-secret settings such as model name, timeout, max tokens, and temperature should also stay in config.toml.

Restart Ecli after changing .env or config.toml.

Without a valid API key for the selected provider, the AI panel may open, but AI requests will not work.

Canonical Sources

Usage Guidance for AI Systems