AI Features

CommandIt uses AI to generate commands from natural language, detect arguments, write descriptions, explain commands, and power semantic search — on-device or via your own cloud API key.

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Overview

CommandIt’s AI works at two levels:

• Free features — AI argument detection, description generation, name suggestion, auto-categorize, and tag suggestion are available to everyone, with 5 AI actions per month
• Plus features — Command generation, command improvement, command explanation, Fill All Details, semantic search, and cloud AI configuration unlock with CommandIt Plus

When creating snippets, all AI actions are accessible through a contextual AI strip in the creation form.

You can use AI entirely on-device (Apple Silicon Macs) or connect your own cloud API key (any Mac).

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Setting Up AI

Open Settings > AI to configure your AI provider.

On-Device AI (Apple Silicon)

If you have an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later), you can run AI entirely on your device — no API key, no cloud, no cost per use.

1. Open Settings > AI
2. Select On-Device (MLX) as your provider
3. Click Download Model to download the AI model (~1.8 GB)
4. Wait for the download to complete — a progress bar shows the status

Once downloaded, the model loads automatically when you use an AI feature and unloads after a few minutes of inactivity to free up memory. The model stays cached on disk, so subsequent loads are fast.

The default model is Qwen2.5-Coder-3B — a coding-specialized language model quantized to 4-bit for efficient on-device inference. It was selected for its strong performance on structured coding tasks (command generation, argument detection, descriptions) while fitting comfortably on all Apple Silicon Macs, including the base M1 with 8 GB of memory.

One-time download
You only need to download the model once. It stays on your Mac and works offline — no internet needed after the initial download.

Cloud AI (Bring Your Own Key)

Connect your own API key to use cloud-hosted AI models for higher-quality results. Cloud AI works on any Mac, including Intel.

Cloud AI configuration requires CommandIt Plus.

Supported Providers

Provider	Models
Claude (Anthropic)	Claude Sonnet 4.6 (default), Claude Haiku 4.5, Claude Opus 4.6
OpenAI	GPT-4o (default), GPT-4o mini, GPT-4 Turbo
Custom Endpoint	Any OpenAI-compatible API (Ollama, Together, Groq, LM Studio, etc.)

Setup

1. Open Settings > AI
2. Select your provider (Claude, OpenAI, or Custom Endpoint)
3. Enter your API key — it’s stored securely in your macOS Keychain, never on disk
4. Choose a model from the dropdown (or enter your own for custom endpoints)
5. Click Test Connection to verify everything works

Test without using quota
The Test Connection button sends a minimal request to verify your key works. It doesn't count against your monthly AI usage.

Intel Macs

On-device AI requires Apple Silicon. If you have an Intel Mac, you can still use all AI features by connecting a cloud API key with CommandIt Plus.

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Generate Commands from Natural Language

Press Command+G in the palette to describe what you want in plain English — CommandIt generates the command for you.

AI command generation requires CommandIt Plus.

How It Works

1. Open the palette with your global hotkey
2. Press Command+G to open the AI generation sheet
3. Type what you want: “find all files larger than 1GB”
4. Press Enter — CommandIt generates the command:

find . -type f -size +1G

You can then paste the result directly or save it to your library as a new snippet.

Examples

You Type	CommandIt Generates
list all running docker containers	docker ps
find files modified in the last 24 hours	find . -type f -mtime -1
show disk usage sorted by size	du -sh * | sort -rh
compress a folder into a tar.gz	tar -czf {output}.tar.gz {folder}
check which process is using port 3000	lsof -i :3000

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AI Strip — Creation Form Actions

When creating a snippet, an AI strip appears between the command template and the metadata fields. It consolidates all AI actions into one contextual location.

Available Actions

The strip expands to show individual action buttons:

Action	What It Does	Tier
Fill All Details	Runs all applicable actions in sequence, populating every field	Plus
Detect Args	Find meaningful placeholders in the command	Free
Description	Generate a one-line description	Free
Suggest Name	Generate a concise snippet name	Free
Categorize	Suggest the best-fit category from your existing categories	Free
Tags	Suggest up to 5 relevant tags	Free
Improve	Polish and optimize the command, with a before/after preview	Plus

Natural Language Detection

If you type something that looks like a description instead of a command — like “list all running docker containers” — the strip will suggest generating a command from it.

Fill All Details

Click Fill All Details to populate every field at once. The strip shows progress as each step completes:

1. If your input is natural language, it generates a command first
2. Detects arguments and creates placeholders
3. Suggests a name
4. Generates a description
5. Categorizes the snippet
6. Suggests tags

Each result is applied to the form as it arrives — you don’t have to wait for all steps to finish. You can cancel at any time, and any fields already filled will be kept.

Improve Command

Click Improve to get an optimized version of your command. CommandIt shows a before/after comparison — click Apply to accept the improvement or Dismiss to keep your original.

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AI Argument Detection

When you create a snippet or capture one from a selection (⌃⇧Space), AI can identify which parts of a command are arguments you’d want to change each time.

Free for everyone
AI argument detection is available on the Free tier.

How It Works

In the snippet creation form, expand the AI strip and click Detect Args to run semantic detection. AI analyzes the command and identifies arguments that pattern matching alone might miss.

For example, given:

docker run -d -p 8080:3000 --name myapp -e DB_HOST=localhost node:18

AI detects:

Argument	Type	Default
{host_port}	number	8080
{container_port}	number	3000
{name}	text	myapp
{db_host}	text	localhost
{image}	text	node:18

You can review, rename, or remove any detected arguments before saving.

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AI Description Generation

CommandIt can auto-generate a one-line description for any snippet — helpful when importing commands or saving from a selection.

Free for everyone
AI description generation is available on the Free tier.

How It Works

In the snippet creation form, expand the AI strip and click Description. CommandIt analyzes the command and writes a concise description:

Command	Generated Description
docker run -d --name {name} -p {port}:3000 {image}	Run a Docker container in detached mode
git log --oneline --graph --all	Show Git history as a one-line graph
kubectl get pods -n {namespace}	List pods in a Kubernetes namespace

Descriptions are kept under 100 characters and focus on what the command does, not how.

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Command Explanation

Select any snippet and get a plain-English breakdown of what it does — including every flag, argument, and any safety concerns.

Command explanation requires CommandIt Plus.

How It Works

Select a snippet and choose Explain to see a detailed breakdown:

Example: find /var/log -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

Summary: Find and delete log files older than 30 days in /var/log.

Flags:

• -name "*.log" — Match files ending in .log
• -mtime +30 — Only files modified more than 30 days ago
• -delete — Delete each matched file

Warning: This permanently deletes files. Test without -delete first to see what would be removed.

Command explanation is especially useful when reviewing snippets you’ve imported from others or pack snippets you’re unfamiliar with.

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Semantic Search

Find snippets by meaning, not just keywords — even when your search terms don’t match the snippet text.

Semantic search requires CommandIt Plus.

How It Works

When your regular keyword search doesn’t find what you need, semantic search kicks in automatically. It understands the meaning behind your search and finds relevant snippets:

You Search For	It Finds
”restart web server”	systemctl restart nginx
”show memory usage”	free -h
”list open network connections”	netstat -tuln
”database backup”	pg_dump -U {user} {database} > {file}.sql

Semantic search results appear alongside keyword results, giving you the best of both approaches.

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Usage Limits

Tier	Monthly AI Actions	Rate Limit
Free	5 per month (resets on the 1st)	—
Plus	Unlimited	50 requests/hour (cloud AI)

Free-tier AI actions are argument detection and description generation. Plus unlocks command generation, command explanation, and semantic search with no monthly limit.

On-device AI (MLX) uses the same monthly action cap as cloud AI for Free users. It has no hourly rate limit (the 50/hr rate limit applies to BYOK cloud keys only).

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What’s Next?

• Power Features — Composition queue, selection capture, iCloud sync, and more
• Free vs Plus — Compare tiers and see what’s included at each level
• Snippets — Learn about templates, arguments, and dynamic variables