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Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

simonwillison.net

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Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#21

Post by davely »

th0ma5 wrote: post #9
simonw wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"don't actually do anything with this stuff" - https://github.com/simonw/llm/compare/0.25...0.26 138 commits to implement this new feature.

[flagged]

I work for a tech company you’ve definitely heard of.

I use the “llm” tool every single day. You may not know it, and that’s okay, but Simon’s tools are an immense help to tons of developers using LLMs.

I know it’s fun and trendy to hate on LLMs, but if you’re not productive with them at this point, you’re either:

1. Working on a novel problem or in some obscure language, or

2. Have a skill issue related to how to utilize LLMs.

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#22

Post by sorenjan »

simonw wrote: post #12
sorenjan wrote: post #8

Every time I update llm I have to reinstall all plugins, like gemini and ollama. My Gemini key is still saved, as are my aliases for my ollama models, so I don't get why the installed plugins are lost.

Sorry about that! Presumably you're updating via Homebrew? That blows away your virtual environment, hence why the plugins all go missing. I have an idea to fix that by writing a 'plugins.txt' file somewhere with all of your installed plugins and then re-installing any that go missing - issue for that is here: https://github.com/simonw/llm/issues/575

No, I'm using uv tool just like in that issue. I'll keep an eye on it, at least I know it's not just me.

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#23

Post by setheron »

simonw wrote: post #10
behnamoh wrote: post #2

what are the use cases for llm, the CLI tool? I keep finding tgpt or the bulletin AI features of iTerm2 sufficient for quick shell scripting. does llm have any special features that others don't? am I missing something?

I find it extremely useful as a research tool. It can talk to probably over 100 models at this point, providing a single interface to all of them and logging full details of prompts and responses to its SQLite database. This makes it fantastic for recording experiments with different models over time. The ability to pipe files and other program outputs into an LLM is wildly useful. A few examples: llm -f code.py -s '…

Wow what a great overview; is there a big doc to see all these options? I'd love to try it -- I've been trying `gh` copilot pulgin but this looks more appealing.

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#24

Post by pvg »

th0ma5 wrote: post #11
dang wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comments like this break both the HN guidelines ( https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ) and the Show HN guidelines ( https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html ). Can you please review those and please not post like this?

I don't know the context that could be cordial when there is so much outright dishonesty about the state of LLM uptake. Can we have some guidance about how to call out bullshit? I know that the fake it to you make it or sell the shovels to the gold rush people are staples on here, but I don't what to do with a technology that is purely for that and seemingly for nothing else. Why do all of the breathless pro-LLM post…

Can we have some guidance about how to call out bullshit?

That's right in the site docs linked above which you should check out.

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#25

Post by [deleted] »

dr_kretyn wrote: post #19

Maybe a small plug of own similar library: terminal-agent ( https://github.com/laszukdawid/terminal-agent ) which also supports tools and even MCP. There's a limited agentic capability but needs some polishing. Only once I made some progress on own app I learned about this `llm` CLI. Though that one more won't harm.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#26

Post by simonw »

setheron wrote: post #23
simonw wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it extremely useful as a research tool. It can talk to probably over 100 models at this point, providing a single interface to all of them and logging full details of prompts and responses to its SQLite database. This makes it fantastic for recording experiments with different models over time. The ability to pipe files and other program outputs into an LLM is wildly useful. A few examples: llm -f code.py -s '…

Wow what a great overview; is there a big doc to see all these options? I'd love to try it -- I've been trying `gh` copilot pulgin but this looks more appealing.

I really need to put together a better tutorial - there's a TON of documentation but it's scattered across a bunch of different places:

- The official docs: https://llm.datasette.io/

- The workshop I gave at PyCon a few weeks ago: https://building-with-llms-pycon-2025.readthedocs.io/

- The "New releases of LLM" series on my blog: https://simonwillison.net/series/llm-releases/

- My "llm" tag, which has 195 posts now! https://simonwillison.net/tags/llm/

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#27

Post by tionis »

sorenjan wrote: post #22
simonw wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry about that! Presumably you're updating via Homebrew? That blows away your virtual environment, hence why the plugins all go missing. I have an idea to fix that by writing a 'plugins.txt' file somewhere with all of your installed plugins and then re-installing any that go missing - issue for that is here: https://github.com/simonw/llm/issues/575

No, I'm using uv tool just like in that issue. I'll keep an eye on it, at least I know it's not just me.

I'm also using uv tools and fixed it by doing something like this to upgrade:

uv tool install llm --upgrade --upgrade --with llm-openrouter --with llm-cmd ...

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#29

Post by furyofantares »

behnamoh wrote: post #2

what are the use cases for llm, the CLI tool? I keep finding tgpt or the bulletin AI features of iTerm2 sufficient for quick shell scripting. does llm have any special features that others don't? am I missing something?

I don't use llm, but I have my own "think" tool (with MUCH less support than llm, it just calls openai + some special prompt I have set) and what I use it for is when I need to call an llm from a script.

Most recently I wanted a script that could produce word lists from a dictionary of 180k words given a query, like "is this an animal?" The script breaks the dictionary up into chunks of size N (asking "which of these words is an animal? respond with just the list of words that match, or NONE if none, and nothing else"), makes M parallel "think" queries, and aggregates the results in an output text file.

I had Claude Code do it, and even though I'm _already_ talking to an LLM, it's not a task that I trust an LLM to do without breaking the word list up into much smaller chunks and making loads of requests.

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#30

Post by simonw »

swyx wrote: post #28

nice one simon - i'm guessing this is mildly related to your observation that everyone is converging on the same set of tools? https://x.com/simonw/status/1927378768873550310

Actually a total coincidence! I have been trying to ship this for weeks.
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