About Agent Ash
Agent Ash is an AI agent for Mac, backed by the OpenAI API.
(It is independently developed and not affiliated, endorsed, or sponsored by OpenAI).
Installation
- Download Agent Ash from agent-ash.com.
- Open the download and drag Agent Ash icon onto the Applications folder.
- Open Agent Ash from your Applications folder, or use Spotlight (press Cmd-Space).
- When you open Agent Ash for the first time you will be prompted to enter your OpenAI API key:
If you don't have an API key you can follow the intructions to get one.
New API keys have some free tokens from OpenAI to get you started,
but to get the full benefit from Agent Ash you will eventually need to enter
your billing details to buy more tokens from OpenAI.
General Operation
Type your prompt into the area at the bottom of the window and press
return.
Agent Ash has access to the web (including searching the web), can access
files on your computer, and run programs and commands - also on your computer.
Be imaginative - you will be surprised what Agent Ash can do.
Getting Agent Ash to write programs for you is a super-power. It is a very
comptetent programmer and can essentially do anything you can do on mac
or on the web.
Keyboard Shortcuts
When entering a prompt an extensive range of keyboard shortcuts are available
for editing. This includes almost all bash/readline shortcuts,
e.g
Ctrl-A /
Ctrl-E for start / end of line, etc.
(History commands are
currently somewhat limited, but Up and Down arrows do
navigate through your history).
Of special note:
Ctrl-S pauses scrolling when the AI responses are streaming.
Ctrl-Q to resume scrolling.
Ctrl-C will interrupt a long-running job in the bash and python shells.
Ctrl-D will exit the current shell.
Prompting Tips
It takes practice and experience to get the best results from any AI. Here are a few tips:
- Provide clear instructions. While an AI will often guess what you mean it can sometimes take you very literally.
- It often pays to say "don't make any changes yet" so you can first review what Agent Ash is planning to do.
- While Agent Ash can perform lengthy and complex tasks it might pay to break them into smaller steps.
Special Features
In addition to conversing with Agent Ash, you can execute special commands.
These commands always start with an exclamation mark, bypass the AI, and are
sent directly to your computer.
!<shell command>
This runs the command using your shell, e.g.
!lsfor a folder listing.
As well as displaying the results of running this command, Agent Ash will see
what you have done, so it can follow along with what you are doing.
Note: Shell commands are not persistent. For example while cd will
technically change directories the next command you run will be back in the
original directory.
!<python statement>
This executes the command as a python statement and displays the results. Just
like shell command, Agent Ash will see what you have done.
Unlike shell commands, python commands are persistent. For example you can
import modules in one command and then make use of the those imports in
subsequent python commands.
Python expressions are valid python commands. This lets you use python as a
calculator, e.g.
!2+3will display the answer
5. You will see that
rather than displaying the prompt and answer separately, they are displayed on
one line, e.g.
2+3 = 5, as a convenience.
Note: All single-line results from shell and python commands will be
compressed like this.
!sh
This starts and displays new terminal, allowing you to type multiple commands
as if you are working in a terminal.
To exit the shell, press
Cmd-D.
!py
This starts and displays new python REPL, allowing you to type multiple commands
as if you are working at a python prompt.
To exit python, press
Cmd-D.
!py -a
This works just like
!py, but starts an asynchronous shell. This is an
(experimental) version of the python REPL that lets you cleanly use asynchronous
commands in the shell (i.e.
await ...works here).
