PsChat - OpenAIs ChatGPT for PowerShell

PsChat is a Powershell module that allows the user to use OpenAI Chat Completion in the shell. If you spend a lot of time in Powershell, this may be useful to you.

The module consists of two functions:

• Invoke-PsChat - Chat UI, similiar to OpenAI web interface
• Get-PsChatAnswer - Pipeable function that allows more direct access to the API

I made it to use and explore ChatGPT the place, I mostly find myself: In the shell.

The module requires OpenAI API access. You can get an API key from: https://platform.openai.com/signup

News

• 2023-12-15 - Audio (TTS) support, see SaveAudio extension and example
• 2023-11-14 - Example of using non-OpenAI API in examples
• 2023-10-22 - Better copy-paste support (press ALT-P + V)
• 2023-10-01 - Support for function calling, end-to-end tests

Getting started

# install module from PSGallery
Install-Module PsChat -Force

# get an openai api key and put it in a env variable
$ENV:OPENAI_AUTH_TOKEN="my-secret-token"

# start a chat session
Invoke-PsChat

Usage

# start a chat session with a question
Invoke-PsChat "Lets talk Powershell"

# ask single question
Invoke-PsChat "How is Powershell compared to Zsh" -Single

# ask single question using functions, result as PSObject
Invoke-PsChat -Single -Question "Whats the uptime?" `
     -Functions_Names @("Get-Uptime") `
     -NonInteractive

# does the same using Get-PsChatAnswer
Get-PsChatAnswer "What is your name?

# pipe in question
"Hello OpenAI" | Get-PsChatAnswer

# post an entire dialog to the api
$dialog = @(
    @{ "role"="user"; "content"="Hello OpenAI. Can we talk Powershell?" },
    @{ "role"="assistant"; "content"="Hello! Of course, we can talk about PowerShell. What would you like to know or discuss?" },
    @{ "role"="user"; "content"="How does piping work?" }
)
Get-PsChatAnswer -InputObject $dialog -NoEnumerate

# for parameters you can use Get-Help
Get-Help Invoke-PsChat
Get-Help Get-PsChatAnswer

Screenshot(s)

Started using alias 'q':

Asking for help (available commands) in the chat:

Examples

• Dual Minded: Dual-minded makes OpenAI have both sides of a conversation. Now with audio-support!
• Bad Code Finder: Powershell script that traverses source codes and uses GPT to find sensitive data. Usage: Download the ps1-file, run it (with $ENV:OPENAI_AUTH_TOKEN set) in a directory containing source code.
• Save and Load: Simple examples of saving and preloading context for chats.
• Alternative API: Using another API, such as a local model using https://github.com/abetlen/llama-cpp-python/.

Extensions

The following extensions are available:

• AutoSave - Saves the chat to json (which can later be loaded back in using PreLoad)
• WordCountWarning - Informs the user when a certain word-count is reached (for cost-saving purposes)
• PreLoad - Preloads messages from a file or string. Optionally "lock" the loaded messages
• Commands - In-chat commands, such as clipboard access and API settings
• ShortTerm - ShortTerm(Memory) starts pruning early messages when a certain word threshold is reached - in order to avoid token limit
• Functions - Allows OpenAI chat to call Powershell functions during an answer/chat-completion
• Api - Allows you to set chat-completion API parameters, such as base-url, model and temperature
• SaveAudio - NEW: Allows you generate audio using the TTS api. Requires ffmpeg (install it using homebrew, apt or choco)

Extensions can have multiple parameters, that can be set when calling Invoke-PsChat, such as Invoke-PsChat -Api_Model "gpt-4". With multiple parameters a Powershell alias can come in handy:

# setup function
function Invoke-PsChat-Yaml { Invoke-PsChat -Api_Model "gpt-4" -PreLoad_Prompt "Answer only with YAML" -PreLoad_Lock $true }

# define alias
New-Alias -Name q -Value Invoke-PsChat-Yaml -Force -Option AllScope -Description 'Usage: q "What is consciousness?"'

# usage
q "Describe the rules of tic-tac-toe?"

List of extension parameters

All extension parameters are optional.

Extension	Parameter	Type	Description
Api	Enabled	bool	Enable/disable extension. Defaults to $true.
Api	Verbose	bool	If $true writes out parameters on startup
Api	AuthToken	string	OpenAI auth token to use
Api	Model	string	Model name, eg. gpt-4
Api	Temperature	decimal	Model temperature
Api	Top_P	decimal	Model top_p
Api	Baseurl	string	Base url for model API
AutoSave	Enabled	bool	Enable/disable extension. Defaults to $false.
AutoSave	Path	string	Specifies the path the chat will be saved to, eg. ~/my-chat.json. If not specified the path ./pschat-$(Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd-HHmmss").json will be used.
Functions	Enabled	bool	Enable/disable extension. Defaults to $true.
Functions	Names	string[]	Powershell functions to expose in the chat. Eg. @( "Get-Uptime" )
PreLoad	Prompt	string	Simple prompt to start chat with.
PreLoad	Role	string	Role for Prompt, for OpenAI can be user, assistant or system.
PreLoad	Path	string	Load chat from this path eg. ./my-chat.json.
PreLoad	Objects	object[]	Allows preloading based on PsObjects, eg. @( @{ "Role"="system"; "Content"="Hi!"; "Locked"=$true } )
PreLoad	Verbose	bool	Makes the extension more talkative.
PreLoad	Lock	bool	Locks the preloaded prompt/chat, so an extension like ShortTerm does not affect them.
SaveAudio	Enabled	bool	Enable/disable extension. Defaults to $true.
SaveAudio	Path	string	Output file path. Defaults to autogenerated based on timestamp.
SaveAudio	Model	string	Optional TTS model to use
SaveAudio	UserVoice	string	Maps to OpenAI voice parameter for users voice
SaveAudio	AssistantVoice	string	Maps to OpenAI voice parameter for assistants voice
SaveAudio	Response_Format	string	Maps to OpenAI Response_Format paramter
SaveAudio	Speed	decimal	Maps to OpenAI speed parameter
SaveAudio	ShowProgress	bool	Shows Powershell progress bar while processing. Defaults to $true
SaveAudio	ConcatUsingFfmpeg	bool	FFmpeg: Merge audio clips using ffmpeg. Defaults to $true
SaveAudio	TurnDelay	int	FFmpeg: Amount of time in ms between each audio clip. Defaults to 600
SaveAudio	FfmpegExecutablePath	string	FFmpeg: Executable to use
SaveAudio	FfmpegQuality	int	FFmpeg: Audio quality from 1 (best) - 10 (worst). Defaults to 3
ShortTerm	Enabled	bool	Enable/disable extension. Defaults to $true.
ShortTerm	Verbose	bool	Makes the extension more talkative.
ShortTerm	Compress	bool	Compresses messages that are due to be removed.
ShortTerm	CompressPrompt	string	Prompt to use when compressing messages to be "forgotten".
ShortTerm	TokenCountThreshold	int	Number of (approx) tokens that triggers removal of the oldest messages. Defaults to model context size minus 1.000.
ShortTerm	WordCountThreshold	int	Same as TokenCountThreshold, but based on words. Considered deprecated.

Commands

Commands are extensions for the UI chat, such as changing the model on-the-fly. These are available when the user enters 'h' in the chat.

Dev notes

For development this approach seems to work best:

# open chat ui (talkative, with debug)
pwsh -NoProfile -Command { Remove-Module PsChat -Force; $DebugPreference="Continue"; Import-Module ./src/PsChat/PsChat.psd1 -Verbose -Force && Invoke-PsChat }

# get anwer (quiet)
pwsh -NoProfile -Command { Remove-Module PsChat -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue; Import-Module ./src/PsChat/PsChat.psd1 -Force && Get-PsChatAnswer "hello" }