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AISH

Empower the Shell to think. Evolve Operations.

A Real AI Shell: Complete PTY + Configurable Security & Risk Control

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Why Choose AISH
Quick Start
Installation
Uninstallation
Configuration
Usage
Security & Risk Control
Skills (Plugins)
Data & Privacy
Documentation
Community & Support
Development & Testing
Contributing
License

Why Choose AISH

True Interactive Shell: Full PTY support, runs interactive programs like vim / ssh / top
AI Native Integration: Describe tasks in natural language, generate, explain and execute commands
Secure & Controllable: AI commands have risk grading and confirmation flow; optional sandbox pre-run for change assessment
Extensible: Skills plugin system with hot loading and priority override
Low Migration Cost: Compatible with regular commands and workflows, everything in terminal by default

Feature Comparison

| Feature | AISH | Claude Code | |---------|------|-------------| | 🎯 Core Positioning | Ops/System Troubleshooting CLI | Development Coding Assistant | | 🤖 Multi-Model Support | ✅ Fully Open | ⚠️ Mainly Claude | | 🔧 Sub-Agent System | ✅ ReAct Diagnostic Agent | ✅ Multiple Agent Types | | 🧩 Skills Support | ✅ Hot Loading | ✅ | | 🖥️ Native Terminal Integration | ✅ Full PTY Support | ⚠️ Limited Support | | 🛡️ Security Risk Assessment | ✅ Security Confirmation | ✅ Security Confirmation | | 🌐 Local Model Support | ✅ Fully Supported | Fully Supported | | 📁 File Operation Tools | ✅ Minimal Essential Suppport | ✅ Full Support | | 💰 Completely Free | ✅ Open Source | ❌ Paid Service | | 📊 Observability | ✅ Langfuse Optional | ⚠️ Built-in | | 🌍 Multi-language Output | ✅ Auto Detection | ✅ |

Quick Start

1) Install and Launch

Option 1: One-line install (Recommended)

curl -fsSL https://www.aishell.ai/repo/install.sh | bash

Option 2: Manual bundle install

Download the matching aish-<version>-linux-<arch>.tar.gz bundle from the official release directory, then run:

tar -xzf aish-<version>-linux-<arch>.tar.gz
cd aish-<version>-linux-<arch>
sudo ./install.sh

Then launch:

aish

Note: aish without subcommands is equivalent to aish run.

2) Use Like a Regular Shell

aish> ls -la
aish> cd /etc
aish> vim hosts

3) Let AI Do the Work (Start with ;)

Starting with ; or ； enters AI mode:

aish> ;find files larger than 100M in current directory and sort by size
aish> ;explain this command: tar -czf a.tgz ./dir

Installation

Linux Release Bundle

curl -fsSL https://www.aishell.ai/repo/install.sh | bash

The installer resolves the latest release directory under https://www.aishell.ai/repo, downloads the matching bundle for your architecture, and installs aish, aish-sandbox, and aish-uninstall into /usr/local/bin.

Run from Source (Development/Trial)

uv sync
uv run aish
# or
python -m aish

Uninstallation

Uninstall (keep configuration files):

sudo aish-uninstall

Complete uninstallation (also removes system-level security policies):

sudo aish-uninstall --purge-config

Optional: Clean user-level configuration (will clear model/API keys etc.):

rm -rf ~/.config/aish

Configuration

Configuration File Location

Default: ~/.config/aish/config.yaml (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/aish/config.yaml if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set)

Priority (High to Low)

Command-line arguments
Environment variables
Configuration file

Minimal Configuration Example

# ~/.config/aish/config.yaml
model: openai/deepseek-chat
api_base: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
api_key: your_api_key

Alternatively via environment variables (more suitable for secrets):

export AISH_MODEL="openai/deepseek-chat"
export AISH_API_BASE="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"
export AISH_API_KEY="your_api_key"

Tip: LiteLLM also supports reading vendor-specific environment variables (e.g., OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY).

Interactive configuration (optional):

aish setup

Tool calling compatibility check (confirm selected model/channel supports tool calling):

aish check-tool-support --model openai/deepseek-chat --api-base https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 --api-key your_api_key

Langfuse (optional observability):

Enable in configuration:

enable_langfuse: true

Set environment variables:

export LANGFUSE_PUBLIC_KEY="..."
export LANGFUSE_SECRET_KEY="..."
export LANGFUSE_HOST="https://cloud.langfuse.com"

aish check-langfuse will run checks when check_langfuse.py exists in project root.

Usage

Common Input Types

| Type | Example | Description | |:----:|---------|-------------| | Shell Commands | ls -la, cd /path, git status | Execute regular commands directly | | AI Requests | ;how to check port usage, ;find files larger than 100M | Enter AI mode with ;/； prefix | | Built-in Commands | help, clear, exit, quit | Shell built-in control commands | | Model Switching | /model gpt-4 | View or switch model |

Shell Compatibility (PTY)

aish> ssh user@host
aish> top
aish> vim /etc/hosts

Security & Risk Control

AI Shell only performs security assessment on AI-generated and ready-to-execute commands.

Risk Levels

LOW: Allowed by default
MEDIUM: Confirmation before execution
HIGH: Blocked by default

Security Policy File Path

Policy files are resolved in this order:

/etc/aish/security_policy.yaml (system-level)
~/.config/aish/security_policy.yaml (user-level; auto-generated template if not exists)

Sandbox Pre-run (Optional, Recommended for Production)

Default policy has sandbox pre-run disabled. To enable:

Set in security policy:

global:
  enable_sandbox: true

Start privileged sandbox service (systemd):

sudo systemctl enable --now aish-sandbox.socket

Default socket: /run/aish/sandbox.sock. When sandbox is unavailable, it will fallback according to sandbox_off_action (BLOCK/CONFIRM/ALLOW) in policy.

Skills (Plugins)

Skills extend AI's domain knowledge and workflows, supporting hot loading and priority override.

Default scan directories and priority:

~/.config/aish/skills/ (or $AISH_CONFIG_DIR/skills)
~/.claude/skills/

Packaged versions will attempt to copy system-level skills to user directory on first launch (e.g., /usr/share/aish/skills).

For more details, see: docs/skills-guide.md

Data & Privacy

This project stores the following data locally (for troubleshooting and traceability):

Logs: Default ~/.config/aish/logs/aish.log
Sessions/History: Default ~/.local/share/aish/sessions.db (SQLite)
Large Output Offload: Default ~/.local/share/aish/offload/

Recommendations:

Don't commit real API keys to repository; prefer environment variables or secret management systems.
Production environments can combine security policies to limit AI-accessible directory scope.

Documentation

Configuration Guide: CONFIGURATION.md
Quick Start: QUICKSTART.md
Skills Usage: docs/skills-guide.md
Command Correction Mechanism: docs/command-interaction-correction.md

Community & Support

| Link | Description | |------|-------------| | Official Website | Project homepage and more information | | GitHub Repository | Source code and issue tracking | | GitHub Issues | Bug reports | | GitHub Discussions | Community discussions | | Discord | Join the community |

If you find AISH helpful, please consider giving us a Star ⭐ It helps more people discover the project and keeps us motivated to continue improving it.

Development & Testing

uv sync
uv run aish
uv run pytest

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

LICENSE (Apache 2.0)

Aish

Install / Use

README