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Archive: project superseded by Claude Code
AICodeBot was built in June 2023, before AI coding assistants were a product category. The hypothesis was right — developers needed an AI peer in their terminal. The industry caught up. Claude Code does everything this project set out to do, and more. Updating README to celebrate the early work and point people forward. See: https://claude.ai/code
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‎README.md‎

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# AI Code Bot 🤖
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## Your AI-powered coding sidekick
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> **This project has been archived.** See the note below.
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AICodeBot is a terminal-based coding assistant designed to make your coding life easier.
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Think of it as your AI version of a pair programmer.
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Perform code reviews, create helpful commit messages, debug problems, and help you think through building new features.
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A team member that accelerates the pace of development and helps you write better code.
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---
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We've planned to build out multiple different interfaces for interacting with AICodeBot. To start, it's a [command-line tool](https://pypi.org/project/aicodebot/) that you can install and run in your terminal, and a [GitHub Action for Code Reviews](https://github.com/marketplace/actions/aicodebot-code-review).
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## A Note on This Project
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Status: This project was built before AI Coding Assistants were cool. 🤓 As such, much of the functionality has
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been replicated in various IDEs. Where AICodeBot shines is a) it's in the terminal, not GUI, and b) it can be used
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in processes like GitHub actions.
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I built AICodeBot in June 2023 — back when "AI coding assistant" wasn't really a product
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category yet. The idea was simple but felt radical at the time: what if your terminal had
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an AI pair programmer baked in? One that understood your git history, reviewed your code,
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wrote your commit messages, and helped you think through hard problems?
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We're using AICodeBot to build AICodeBot, and it's upward spiraling all the time.️ We're looking for contributors to help us build it out. See [CONTRIBUTING](https://github.com/TechNickAI/AICodeBot/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) for more.
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At the time, the tools didn't exist. So I built one.
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## Current features - how you can use it today
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AICodeBot could:
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- Generate quality commit messages from your staged changes
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- Run AI-powered code reviews on diffs and PRs
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- Debug errors by capturing command output and reasoning through it
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- Act as a terminal-based AI sidekick that understood your codebase
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- Integrate directly into GitHub Actions for automated PR reviews
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| Task | Status |
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| --- | --- |
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| Generating quality commit messages | ✅ |
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| Thinking through tasks as a pair programmer | ✅ |
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| Coding with a small number of files | ✅ |
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| Debugging | ✅ |
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| Doing code reviews | ✅ |
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| Explaining code | ✅ |
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| Writing tests | ✅ |
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| Integration with GitHub | ✅ |
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| Modifying local files | Early stages |
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| Searching the internet for answers | In Progress |
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| Reading library documentation | Early stages |
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| Coding with a large number of files | As LMs get larger token limits |
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| Writing senior developer level code | Eventually |
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| Major refactors | Eventually |
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| Build entire apps | Eventually |
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| Replace Developers | Nope |
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It worked. People used it. It was useful.
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### AI Sidekick 🦸‍♂️
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### Then the industry caught up.
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`aicodebot sidekick` Your AI-powered coding assistant. It's designed to help you with your coding tasks by providing context-aware suggestions and solutions. Think ChatGPT with the ability to read the local repository for context.
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In 2024, Anthropic released **[Claude Code](https://claude.ai/code)** — a natively agentic
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coding assistant that does everything AICodeBot did, and far more, far better. It can edit
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files, run commands, navigate large codebases, and operate with real autonomy. It's the
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terminal-based AI coding partner I was trying to build, built by the people who know how
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to build it best.
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By default it will pass along a directory of files from the current working directory, and you can also pass in a list of files to use as context for the task you are working on. For example:
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**If you're looking for an AI coding assistant, use Claude Code.** It's the real deal.
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```bash
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aicodebot sidekick file1.py file2.py
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```
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I'm proud of what AICodeBot was: an early bet on a future that turned out to be exactly
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right. The hypothesis — that developers needed an AI peer in their terminal, not just a
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chatbot in a browser — was validated by every major AI lab. We just got there first with
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the resources we had.
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In this example, the sidekick will read the contents of file1.py and file2.py and use them to provide context-aware answers.
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That's enough. This repo is now archived as a record of that early work.
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Pro-tips:
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---
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* Add your README.md to the list of files to get context-aware answers.
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* Paste in error messages from log files or stack traces and it will help you debug
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* Brainstorm new features
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* Have it write unit tests for you that cover all the cases
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This feature is in its early phases right now, but it's already useful. We'll be adding support for tools that the sidekick can use, including GitHub integration, ingesting repository specific domain knowledge, writing local files, and more. For now, it just *reads* files and provides suggestions.
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### AI-Assisted Git Commit 📝
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`aicodebot commit` improves the git commit process. It will run pre-commit for you to check syntax, and then generate a commit message for you based on the changes you've made. In about as much effort as typing "fix bug" for the commit message, you will get a high-quality commit message that thoroughly describes the change.
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### AI-Assisted Code Review 👀
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`aicodebot review` will run a code review on your code and suggest improvements. By default, it will look at [un]staged changes, and you can also supply a specific commit hash to review.
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Its goal is to suggest how to make the code better, and we've found that it often teaches us new things about our code and makes us better programmers. It is a great way to get a second set of robot eyes on your code.
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### AI-Assisted Debugging 🐞
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`aicodebot debug $command` will run the $command and capture the log output. It will pass the error message, stack trace, command output, etc. over to the AI and respond with some suggestions on how to fix it.
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[![PyPI version](https://badge.fury.io/py/aicodebot.svg?0.6.2)](https://badge.fury.io/py/aicodebot)
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## Installation and Usage
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To install AICodeBot, run:
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`pip install aicodebot`
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And then, run `aicodebot configure` to get started.
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```bash
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Usage: aicodebot [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...
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Options:
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-V, --version Show the version and exit.
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-h, --help Show this message and exit.
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-d, --debug Enable langchain debug output
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Commands:
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alignment A message from AICodeBot about AI Alignment ❤ + 🤖.
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commit Generate a commit message based on your changes.
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configure Create or update the configuration file
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debug Run a command and debug the output.
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review Do a code review, with [un]staged changes, or a...
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sidekick Coding help from your AI sidekick
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```
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### API Key setup
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AICodeBot supports multiple Large Language Models, including Anthropic's Claude 3.x, and OpenAI's GPT-3/4x.
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Pull requests for Gemini or Ollama are welcomed, but we feel these two do the trick.
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The first time you run AICodeBot, you'll be prompted to enter your API keys
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## Integration with GitHub Actions
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How about automated code reviews on every commit? You can have AICodeBot run as a GitHub action on your repository. See [The AICodeBot GitHub Action for Code Reviews](https://github.com/marketplace/actions/aicodebot-code-review). It will look at every commit and pull request, and then either:
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* ✅ Pass
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* 🗒️ Comments - pass the action, but leave a comment with minor issues, suggestions, or improvements.
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* ❌ Fail the action - if a serious issue is found, it will leave a comment and let you know about something that should be addressed.
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## Roadmap of Upcoming Features ️
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### Code Workflow Improvements
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* [X] **Assisted Git Commit**: Automatically generate a commit message based on the changes you've made
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* [X] **Assisted Debugging**: Run a command with aicodebot and it captures the log message and tries to figure out what's going on from the error message. Eventually, it could also suggest fixes for the error and make the changes for you. Try it out with `aicodebot debug $command`
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* [X] **Code Review**: Provides feedback on potential issues in code, and suggests improvements to make it better.
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* [ ] **Dependency Management**: Updating dependencies to their latest versions with pull requests that run tests.
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* [ ] **Documentation Generation**: Generates comprehensive documentation for code, including docstrings, README files, and wiki pages.
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* [ ] **Performance Optimization Suggestions**: Suggests potential performance optimizations for code.
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* [X] **Test Generation**: Generates unit tests for code, improve test coverage.
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* [X] **Integration with CI/CD pipelines**: Integrates with CI/CD pipelines to automate tasks like code review, testing, and deployment (via GitHub Actions). Eventually: Fix the build automatically when there are small errors.
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* [X] **Rubber Ducky Chat Bot**: Helps developers think through design issues by providing a conversational interface to discuss and solve problems, using data from the current repository.
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* [X] **Linting/Formatting**: Checks code for linting errors and automatically fixes them where possible (via pre-commit)
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* [ ] **Automatically Generate ChangeLogs and Release Notes**: Generates release notes and changelogs based on commit messages and code changes.
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### User Interfaces
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* [X] **Command-line, installable via pip**: aicodebot can be installed as a Python package using `pip install aicodebot`
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* [ ] **Mention the @aicodebot GitHub user**: Mentioning the [@aicodebot](https://pypi.org/project/aicodebot/) GitHub user in a comment will trigger it to perform a task, review code, or pull in an appropriate GIF.
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* [X] **Callable as a GitHub action**: Can be called as a GitHub action to perform tasks on GitHub repositories. [AICodeBot Action](https://github.com/marketplace/actions/aicodebot-code-review)
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* [ ] **Jupyter Notebook Extension**: Provides a Jupyter Notebook extension that can be used to debug code in the notebook.
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* [X] **Chat**: CLI chat interface that knows the context of your codebase and can answer questions about it. No more going back and forth between ChatGPT and command-line.
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* [ ] **Slack Bot**: Interacts with aicodebot via slack, sends notifications, performs tasks, and provides real-time assistance to developers.
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* [ ] **Bug Report service integrations**: Listen for bug reports from Sentry, [Honeybadger](http://honeybadger.io), and other bug reporting tools and automatically create issues, assign them to developers, and notify them via Slack. Eventually: FIX the bug automatically and notify the team.
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### Repository / Project Management
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* [ ] **Project best practices**: Suggest things like pre-commit, linting, license, CI/CD, etc. Eventually: Implement them for you.
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* [ ] **Manage GitHub Issues**: Provides Level 1 triage of incoming issues on GitHub, including tagging, assigning, and responding with FAQs. It could also escalate issues to human developers when necessary, and provide nudges for tasks that need more input.
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* [ ] **Welcome new contributors**: Automatically welcome new contributors to the project, find out what they're interested in, and suggest issues for them to work on.
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### Fun
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* [X] **Alignment**: Gives a heart-centered inspirational message about how we can build AI in a way that aligns with humanity. Try it out with `aicodebot alignment`.
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* [ ] **Telling Jokes**: We've gotta figure out how to teach language models about humor. :)
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* [ ] **Supportive Encouragement**: High fives and kudos for a job well done
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* [ ] **GIF Reactions**: Reacts to messages with relevant and fun gifs.
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<img src="https://camo.githubusercontent.com/6fc1e79b4aa226b24a756c4c8e20e5b049301a930449a7321d3e45f516e61601/68747470733a2f2f74656e6f722e636f6d2f766965772f6b746f2d6b6f756e6f746f72692d6b6f756e6f746f7269746f6b656e2d6c626f772d73746f726b686f6c646572732d6769662d32353637363438332e676966" width="25%">
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## Alignment ❤️ + 🤖
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Technology itself is amoral; it just imbues the values of the people who create it. We believe that AI should be built-in a way that aligns with humanity, and we're building AICodeBot to help us do just that. We're building from a heart-centered space, and contributing to the healthy intersection of AI and humanity.
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### What it's NOT
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`aicodebot` is a tool for developers, not a replacement for them. It's not going to replace your job, but it will make your job easier and more fun. It won't take over the world, but it will help us build a better one. See the *Alignment* section below for more.
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⚠️ AICodeBot currently uses OpenAI's ChatGPT large language models, which can hallucinate and be confidently wrong. Sometimes AICodeBot does dumb things, so it's mostly *reading* and *advising* and not yet *writing*. Much like Tesla's "Full Self Driving", you must keep your hands on the wheel.
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It's also not a "build a site for me in 5 minutes" tool that takes a well-constructed prompt and builds a scaffold for you. There are [other tools](https://github.com/AntonOsika/gpt-engineer) for that. It's not a no-code platform. Instead, AICodeBot is built to work with existing codebases and the git-commit level. It's designed to multiply the effectiveness of capable engineers.
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## Configuring the language model to use
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To specify a different model, you can set the `language_model` in your `$HOME/.aicodebot.yaml` file. For example:
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```yaml
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openai_api_key: sk-*****
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language_model: gpt-3.5-turbo
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personality: Stewie
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version: 1.3
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```
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### Understanding Tokens and Using Commands Efficiently
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In AI models like OpenAI's GPT-4, a "token" is a piece of text, as short as a character or as long as a word. The total tokens in an API call, including input and output, affect the cost, time, and whether the call works based on the maximum limit.
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Each model has a maximum token limit. For example, GPT-3.5 has a limit of 4096 tokens, and GPT-4 has a token limit of 8192 tokens. If a conversation exceeds this limit, you must reduce your text until it fits.
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When using commands like the Sidekick command in AICodeBot, which allows you to pass in files for context, it's important to manage your tokens effectively. Due to token limits, it's not feasible to load your entire codebase. Instead, you should only load the specific files that are relevant to the task you're working on.
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This ensures that the AI model can process your request efficiently and provide the most relevant suggestions for your current task.
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### How can I get a larger token limit?
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Do you need a larger context window for your task? Are you running into token limits and getting a message like this?
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## What AICodeBot Did
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```bash
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The context is too large (21414) for any of the models supported by your API key. 😞
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aicodebot commit # Generate a commit message from staged changes
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aicodebot review # AI code review on diffs or a commit hash
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aicodebot debug cmd # Run a command, capture errors, get AI debugging help
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aicodebot sidekick # Codebase-aware AI pair programmer in your terminal
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```
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There are a couple of things you can do:
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Also shipped as a [GitHub Action for automated PR reviews](https://github.com/TechNickAI/AICodeBot-action).
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1. Load fewer files into the context (only what you need to work with)
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2. Use Anthropic's Claude, which has much larger context window
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Built on top of Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's GPT-4. Funny how that worked out.
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## Development / Contributing
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---
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We'd love your help! If you're interested in contributing, here's how to get started. See [CONTRIBUTING](https://github.com/TechNickAI/AICodeBot/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) for more details.
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## Go Here Instead
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## Docker
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**[Claude Code](https://claude.ai/code)** — Anthropic's official agentic coding assistant.
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Everything this project aspired to be, and then some.
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Assumes you have changes in current working dir that are already added.
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---
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```shell
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docker build -t aicodebot .
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docker run -v ~/.aicodebot.yaml:/home/user/.aicodebot.yaml -v .:/app aicodebot commit -y
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```
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*Built with ❤️ + 🤖 by [Nick Sullivan](https://github.com/TechNickAI) in 2023.*
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*Archived 2026 — not because the idea failed, but because it succeeded.*

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