Installation

Using Cargo (Recommended)

If you have Rust installed, you can install gai directly from the repository:

cargo install --git https://github.com/nuttycream/gai

Pre-built Binaries

Don't have Rust installed? Download a pre-built binary for your platform:

After downloading, make the binary executable and move it to your PATH:

# Linux
chmod +x gai
sudo mv gai /usr/local/bin/

# or to a local user directory 
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
mv gai ~/.local/bin/

# verify installation
gai --version

Building from Source

For contributors or those who want to build from source:

git clone https://github.com/nuttycream/gai.git
cd gai
cargo build --release

The project includes a flake.nix and .envrc that automatically sets up a known working development environment using direnv.

Initial Setup

After installation, set up your API keys for your preferred AI provider:

# For Gemini (default provider in config)
export GEMINI_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

# For OpenAI
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

# For Claude
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

Add these to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.) to make them permanent.

Alternatively, use the Gai provider which offers free requests:

gai auth login

What's Next?