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Getting Started

Obtaining an OpenAI API Key

To use the OpenAI API, you must first obtain an API key.

  1. Visit https://platform.openai.com/overview and sign up for an account.
  2. Navigate to https://platform.openai.com/account/api-keys and generate a new API key.
  3. On Linux or macOS: Update your .bashrc or .zshrc file to include the following export statement adding your API key as the value:
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
  1. On Windows: Update your environment variables to include the OPENAI_API_KEY variable with your API key as the value.

After completing these steps, you'll have an OpenAI API key that can be used to interact with the OpenAI models through the SGPT tool.

Note: Your API key is sensitive information. Do not share it with anyone.

Querying OpenAI Models

SGPT allows you to ask simple questions and receive informative answers. For example:

$ sgpt "mass of sun"
The mass of the sun is approximately 1.989 x 10^30 kilograms.

You can also pass prompts to SGPT using pipes:

$ echo -n "mass of sun" | sgpt
The mass of the sun is approximately 1.989 x 10^30 kilograms.

You can also add another prompt to the piped data by specifying the stdin modifier and then specifying the prompt:

$ echo "Say: Hello World!" | sgpt stdin 'Replace every "World" word with "ChatGPT"'
Hello ChatGPT!

If you want to stream the completion to the command line, you can add the --stream flag. This will stream the output to the command line as it is generated.

GPT-4 Vision API

SGPT additionally facilitates the utilization of the GPT-4 Vision API. Include input images using the -i or --input flag, supporting both URLs and local images.

$ sgpt -m "gpt-4-vision-preview" -i "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cb/Marvin_%28HHGG%29.jpg" "what can you see on the picture?"
The image shows a figure resembling a robot with a humanoid form. It has a
$ sgpt -m "gpt-4-vision-preview" -i pkg/fs/testdata/marvin.jpg "what can you see on the picture?"
The image shows a figure resembling a robot with a sleek, metallic surface. It

It is also possible to combine URLs and local images:

$ sgpt -m "gpt-4-vision-preview" -i "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cb/Marvin_%28HHGG%29.jpg" -i pkg/fs/testdata/marvin.jpg "what is the difference between those two pictures"
The two images provided appear to be identical. Both show the same depiction of a

To avoid specifying the -m "gpt-4-vision-preview" for each request, you can streamline the process by creating a bash alias:

alias vision='sgpt -m "gpt-4-vision-preview"'

For more bash examples, see .bashrc.

Important: The GPT-4-vision API integration is currently in beta and may change in the future.

o1 API Support

If you are already whitelisted for the o1 API, you can use it by specifying the model with the -m flag. You must also provide the --stream=false flag to not stream the output as it is not supported by the o1 API (this is only necessary, if you have provided the stream option via the config file).

Example:

$ sgpt -m "o1" --stream=false "how many rs are in strawberry?"
There are three "r"s in the word "strawberry".

You can also create a bash alias to use the o1 API more easily. For example, add the following line to your .bashrc:

alias sgpt-o1="sgpt -m \"o1-preview\" --stream=false"

Then you can use the alias like this:

$ sgpt-o1 "how many rs are in strawberry?"
There are three "r"s in the word "strawberry".

Important: The o1 API does not support personas.

Code Generation Capabilities

By adding the code command to your prompt, you can generate code based on given instructions by using the code persona. For instance, to solve the classic FizzBuzz problem using Python, simply provide the prompt as follows:

$ sgpt code "Solve classic fizz buzz problem using Python"
for i in range(1, 101):
    if i % 3 == 0 and i % 5 == 0:
        print("FizzBuzz")
    elif i % 3 == 0:
        print("Fizz")
    elif i % 5 == 0:
        print("Buzz")
    else:
        print(i)

SGPT will return the appropriate Python code to address the FizzBuzz problem.

Generating and Executing Shell Commands

SGPT also supports a shell persona that can generate shell commands based on your input:

$ sgpt sh "make all files in current directory read only"
chmod -R 444 *

You can also generate a shell command and execute it directly:

$ sgpt sh --execute "make all files in current directory read only"
chmod -R 444 *
Do you want to execute this command? (Y/n) y