RememberCommands - Natural Language to Shell Commands

Translate natural language into shell commands directly in your terminal using Mistral AI. The suggested command is pre-filled on your command line so you can review it before pressing Enter.

example.mp4

Prerequisites

• Oh My Zsh installed
• curl (pre-installed on macOS)
• jq - install with brew install jq
• A Mistral AI API key

Installation

Automatic

# Clone or navigate to this project, then run:
bash install.sh

Configure

Add the following to your ~/.zshrc:

# Mistral API key (see Security section below for secure storage options)
export MISTRAL_API_KEY="your-key-here"

# Add remembercommands to your plugins list
plugins=(remembercommands)

Then reload your shell:

source ~/.zshrc

⚠️ Security Note: Storing your API key directly in ~/.zshrc exposes it in plaintext. See the Security section below for safer alternatives using macOS Keychain.

Usage

$ remembercmd list all files sorted by size
# Pre-fills: ls -lS

$ remembercmd find python files modified today
# Pre-fills: find . -name "*.py" -mtime 0

$ remembercmd count lines in all js files
# Pre-fills: find . -name "*.js" | xargs wc -l

$ remembercmd compress the logs folder
# Pre-fills: tar -czf logs.tar.gz logs/

The command appears on your terminal line ready to execute. Press Enter to run it, or edit it first.

Custom Alias

You can use a shorter alias like rr, rc, or cmd instead of remembercmd. Add this to your ~/.zshrc before the plugins=() line:

export REMEMBERCOMMANDS_ALIAS="rr"

Then use it:

rr list all files

Configuration

All settings can be overridden in your ~/.zshrc (before the plugins=() line):

Variable	Default	Description
MISTRAL_API_KEY	(required)	Your Mistral AI API key
REMEMBERCOMMANDS_ALIAS	remembercmd	Custom command alias (e.g., rr, rc, cmd)
REMEMBERCOMMANDS_MODEL	ministral-3b-latest	Mistral model to use
REMEMBERCOMMANDS_TEMPERATURE	0.2	Response creativity (0-1)
REMEMBERCOMMANDS_MAX_TOKENS	200	Max response length
REMEMBERCOMMANDS_API_URL	https://api.mistral.ai/v1/chat/completions	API endpoint
REMEMBERCOMMANDS_SYSTEM_PROMPT	(built-in)	Custom system prompt

Security

API Key Storage

⚠️ Important: Never commit your API key to version control.

Recommended: Use macOS Keychain (most secure)

# Store your API key in Keychain (one-time setup)
security add-generic-password -a "$USER" -s "mistral-api-key" -w "your-api-key-here"

# Add this to your ~/.zshrc to retrieve it automatically
export MISTRAL_API_KEY=$(security find-generic-password -a "$USER" -s "mistral-api-key" -w 2>/dev/null)

Alternative: Environment Variable (less secure)

# Add to ~/.zshrc
export MISTRAL_API_KEY="your-key-here"

⚠️ Warning: Storing the key in ~/.zshrc means:

• It's visible in plaintext on your disk
• It appears in env output
• It could be accidentally committed if you version-control your dotfiles

Command Review & Safety

Always review commands before executing. The plugin pre-fills the command on your terminal line, allowing you to:

• Review the command for accuracy
• Edit it if needed
• Press Ctrl+C to cancel

Dangerous Command Detection: The plugin automatically detects potentially dangerous patterns like:

• rm -rf / or rm -rf *
• dd if= (disk operations)
• mkfs (filesystem formatting)
• sudo rm
• chmod -R 777

When detected, you'll see a warning prompt before the command is pre-filled.

Rate Limiting & API Usage

Be mindful of API usage. The Mistral AI API has rate limits and each request incurs costs. Consider:

• Reviewing your API usage at https://console.mistral.ai
• Setting up billing alerts in your Mistral account
• Using the plugin judiciously for actual needs

Security Features

This plugin includes several security protections:

• ✅ HTTPS enforcement: API URL must use HTTPS
• ✅ TLS 1.2+ required: Enforced via curl flags
• ✅ Input validation: Maximum 500 character input length
• ✅ Configuration validation: Temperature and token limits validated
• ✅ Response length check: Warns on unusually long responses
• ✅ Error message sanitization: API keys redacted from error messages
• ✅ Dangerous command warnings: Alerts before risky operations

Reporting Security Issues

If you discover a security vulnerability, please report it by opening a GitHub Issue. Please include:

• Description of the vulnerability
• Steps to reproduce
• Potential impact

Do not disclose security issues publicly until they are resolved.

How It Works

1. You type remembercmd <your question>
2. The plugin sends your question to Mistral AI with a system prompt that instructs the model to return only the raw shell command
3. The response is cleaned up and placed on your command line using print -z
4. You review the command, optionally edit it, then press Enter to execute

Troubleshooting

Error: MISTRAL_API_KEY is not set Add export MISTRAL_API_KEY="your-key" to your ~/.zshrc and run source ~/.zshrc.

Error: jq is required but not installed Run brew install jq.

Error: Mistral API returned HTTP 401 Your API key is invalid. Check it at https://console.mistral.ai/api-keys.

Error: Mistral API returned HTTP 429 Rate limited. Wait a moment and try again.

Command not found: remembercmd Make sure remembercommands is in your plugins=(...) list in ~/.zshrc and you ran source ~/.zshrc.