chap - A Python interface to chatgpt and other LLMs, including a terminal user interface (tui)

System requirements

Chap is developed on Linux with Python 3.11. Due to use of the list[int] style of type hints, it is known not to work on 3.8 and older; the target minimum Python version is 3.9 (debian oldstable).

Installation

Install with e.g., pipx install chap, or pip install chap in a virtual environment.

Installation for development

Install in developer mode e.g., with pip install -e .. In this mode, you get the "chap" commandline program installed but can edit the source files in place. This is the recommended practice per PyPA.

A shim script chap.py is included so that the older development style of pip install -r requirements.txt + python chap.py (or ./chap.py) functions as well.

Configuration

Put your OpenAI API key in the platform configuration directory for chap, e.g., on linux/unix systems at ~/.config/chap/openai_api_key

Commandline usage

• chap ask "What advice would you give a 20th century human visiting the 21st century for the first time?"

• chap render --last / chap cat --last

• chap import chatgpt-style-chatlog.json (for files from pionxzh/chatgpt-exporter)

• chap grep needle

Interactive terminal usage

• chap tui

Sessions & Commandline Parameters

Details of session handling & commandline arguments are in flux.

By default, a new session is created. It is saved to the user's state directory (e.g., ~/.local/state/chap on linux/unix systems).

You can specify the session filename for a new session with -n or to re-open an existing session with -s. Or, you can continue the last session with --last.

You can set the "system message" with the -S flag.

You can select the text generating backend with the -b flag:

• openai_chatgpt: the default, paid API, best quality results
• llama_cpp: Works with llama.cpp's http server and can run locally with various models, though it is optimized for models that use the llama2-style prompting. Set the server URL with -B url:....
• textgen: Works with https://github.com/oobabooga/text-generation-webui and can run locally with various models. Needs the server URL in $configuration_directory/textgen_url.
• lorem: local non-AI lorem generator for testing

Environment variables

The backend can be set with CHAP_BACKEND. Backend settings can be set with CHAP_<backend_name>_<parameter_name>, with backend_name and parameter_name all in caps. For instance, CHAP_LLAMA_CPP_URL=http://server.local:8080/completion changes the default server URL for the llama_cpp back-end.

Importing from ChatGPT

The userscript https://github.com/pionxzh/chatgpt-exporter can export chat logs from chat.openai.com in a json format. This format is different than chap's, especially since chap currently only represents a single branch of conversation in one log. You can use the chap import command to import all the branches of a chatgpt-style chatlog in json format into a series of chap-style chat logs.