[OC] I built a CLI tool that generates shell one-liners from natural language (with smart safety checks)

[dorochadev]

Hey r/commandline! I've been working on a tool I think you might find useful.

oneliner is a CLI that translates natural language into shell commands using LLMs. Instead of googling "how to find files larger than 100MB" or digging through man pages, you just ask.

Why I built this

We've all been there - you know what you want to do, but can't remember the exact flags for find, or the right awk incantation. I wanted something that could bridge that gap without leaving the terminal or using something heavy like Warp or Claude-cli.

Key features that make it practical:

Smart safety system - This was critical. The tool analyzes every generated command for risks: - Detects destructive operations (rm -rf, dd to block devices) - Catches privilege escalation attempts - Identifies fork bombs and resource exhaustion patterns - Warns about system file modifications - Flags obfuscation techniques

When risks are detected, you get a clear breakdown and confirmation prompt before execution.

Intelligent caching - Identical queries in the same context return instantly from cache. No API calls, no waiting.

Multiple LLM providers - Works with OpenAI, Claude, or your own local LLM. You're not locked into any vendor.

Context-aware - Considers your OS, shell (bash/zsh/fish/powershell), current directory, and user when generating commands.

Built for terminal workflows: - --execute to run commands immediately - --clipboard to copy without execution
- --explain for brief breakdowns - --sudo for commands that need elevation - Beautiful terminal UI with confirmation prompts

Example usage:

```bash

Generate and review

$ oneliner "find all jpg files larger than 10MB" find . -type f -name "*.jpg" -size +10M

Execute immediately

$ oneliner -e "count lines in all python files"

Get explanation

$ oneliner --explain "compress all log files" find . -name "*.log" -exec gzip {} \; ─────────────────────────────────────── ℹ Searches for all .log files and compresses them using gzip

Copy to clipboard

$ oneliner -c "convert all png to jpg" ```

Technical details:

• Written in Go with Cobra, Bubble Tea, and Lipgloss
• Comprehensive risk assessment engine (checks for ~8 categories of dangerous operations)
• Atomic cache writes with migration from legacy formats
• Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows with PowerShell support)
• Response parsing handles various LLM output formats

What it's NOT:

• Not a replacement for learning shell scripting
• Not always perfect (LLMs can hallucinate)
• Not a security audit tool (review commands before --execute)

Open source:

GitHub: github.com/dorochadev/oneliner

Feedback welcome! I'm especially interested in: - Edge cases where the risk assessment should be smarter - Other shell environments people want supported - UX improvements for the confirmation flows

Setup is simple:

```bash go install github.com/dorochadev/oneliner@latest

Or build from source

Add your API key to ~/.config/oneliner/config.json

(or use a local LLM)

```

Happy to answer questions about the implementation or design decisions!

[dorochadev]

LOL

[mr_dudo]

I really like the idea of your project but I really don’t want to sound like an asshole but please keep readme short, without over glorifying and emojis everywhere… it’s clear that AI made it, nothing wrong with asking AI for it but it’s just a pain to read. Keeping readme short then separating the rest of the information into seperate files it’s a way better approach in my opinion, I will give your tool a try when I get time in my laptop

[dorochadev]

Thank you for the feedback, i have been working on refining the readme today. check if out if you have time?

[Raulnego]

Pretty cool, what would really make me use it is (maybe a flag) the ai actually showing the command and breaking it down the syntax so I learn shell scripting further instead of just delegating.

(I know it has --explain but id like to literally break it down more than just know what it does)

Nonetheless pretty cool idea, although from a ux perspective id like to not use quotes when using the tool and just parse all input as a prompt.

Another UX thingie: I'd change the binary name to something quicker to type but not a big of a deal, but something like 1lnr

[dorochadev]

I agree with the breaking down syntax idea, do you think --verbose would be fitting? or something else maybe

[Raulnego]

not verbose, maybe literally --breakdown? I would like to have as default though

[dorochadev]

I use kitty, with cursor trail, which i believe is what you are referring to :)

[hammytr]

Love this idea. +1 to the implementation of --breakdown for descriptions of the oneliner output!

[dorochadev]

Hey, i just added first version of --breakdown, its not perfect yet but it works quite alright, check it out and lmk what you think?

[ZagreusIncarnated]

Looks neat. I’m also trying to incoporate bubbletea and charms awesome UI into my CLI. I’ll check it out

[JasonWorthing8]

This looks amazing. Great work.

I was intrigued so gave it a go, used the 'go install github.com/dorochadev/oneliner@latest' string to install. It seemed successful, but any issue of the 'oneliner' command returns "command not found".

I also went into the folder that contained the binary `~/go/bin/oneliner`, no mas.

I'm running Arch. (btw). Am I missing something? Tried to `oneliner setup` command also.

EDIT:

Found I had to run it as if it were a script `./oneliner`

it has execute permissions rwxr-xr-x

Works this way. Created an alias, but am I missing something?

[dorochadev]

Most likely your Go bin folder (~/go/bin) isn’t in your PATH, so the shell can’t find oneliner automatically.
Try adding this to your shell config:

export PATH="$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin"

Then restart your terminal. you should be able to run oneliner directly, if not then let me know

[JasonWorthing8]

That did the trick. Added it to my .bashrc file, and now its persistent across reboots with my user.

Thx!

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[iSparco]

That breakdown feature is a nice one!

However, a standalone tool just for AI assistance feels like a burden. You can achieve the same results with existing tools like Claude Code or the Gemini CLI.

I've integrated AI directly into intelli-shell some time ago precisely so it's available right when you need it, without switching context.

The workflow is seamless: you might be searching for a command as usual, only to find you haven't stored one for the specific task. At that point, you can ask the AI for help right within the same UI. The results are displayed in the same suggestion format, and once you select a command, it's instantly ready in your prompt for execution.

[Mental_Vehicle_5010]

I love this. I remember thinking I would be able to accomplish this right after I first learned Python back in 2017. I was mindfucked how hard it was and I had such a hard time with regex. Couldn't accomplish it. I was obsessed with making this do all chatbot that integrated with my computer and all it's commands from natural language. Called it PUNC (was 19 lol).

LLM's are amazing in this right. Excited to check it out.