What it does tlm is a Go CLI that talks to locally running Ollama models to suggest shell commands, explain what a command actually does, and answer questions with optional file context. It auto-detects your shell (Bash, Zsh, PowerShell) and ships with installation scripts for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

The interesting bit The “ask” command does one-liner RAG: point it at a directory, include or exclude file patterns, and it grounds answers in your actual codebase. No vector database, no setup ceremony — just --context . --include *.go and go.

Key highlights

• Zero API keys, zero subscriptions, zero network required once models are pulled
• Swap models per command: qwen2.5-coder for suggestions, deepseek-r1 for reasoning, etc.
• Three “styles” for generation: stable, balanced, creative
• Interactive chat mode (--interactive) for the ask command
• Uninstall is two rm commands — refreshingly honest

Caveats

• The ask command is marked beta; the README doesn’t clarify what’s unfinished
• Requires Ollama already running locally; the README skips how much RAM that needs
• Default model is qwen2.5-coder:3b — fine for quick tasks, but the README’s “most efficient and powerful” claim is vague

Verdict Worth a look if you want GitHub Copilot-like help but refuse to ship your terminal history to someone else’s server. Skip it if you need collaborative features, cloud sync, or don’t have the GPU/CPU headroom to run local LLMs smoothly.