ChatGPT in your shell, with a side of awkward

What it does Bito CLI is a command-line frontend for the Bito AI chat service. Run bito, type a prompt, get a response. It also supports non-interactive mode: pipe files in, redirect answers out, and stash conversation history to a file for later context. Think of it as curl for a chatbot, plus some bash-friendly conveniences.

The interesting bit The “MyPrompt” feature lets you templatize prompts with {{%input%}} macros and feed files through them. Combined with -c for context persistence, you can chain AI calls in scripts without losing the thread. The slash-command integration with IDE code indexes is there too, though you’ll need Bito’s IDE extension already running for that to matter.

Key highlights

• Interactive and non-interactive modes; supports piping (cat file.sql | bito) and output redirection
• Prompt templating with {{%input%}} macros and comment syntax (or disable it with -i)
• Context persistence via -c flag for multi-step scripted workflows
• Slash commands to query local code indexes from the IDE extension
• Packaged for Homebrew, AUR, MSI installer, and raw binary download

Caveats

• Very early alpha; the README repeats this warning like a nervous disclaimer
• macOS and Windows both have publisher verification issues that require manual override
• No API key or authentication details mentioned in the README—unclear how Bito accounts or rate limits work

Verdict Worth a look if you’re already paying for Bito and want to automate AI queries from CI pipelines or shell scripts. Skip it if you need a standalone, self-hosted CLI; this is a client for a proprietary service, not a local model runner.