Ghost v3.3.0 adds file support to the TUI. :r <filepath> reads files into the conversation, vim-style.

[*] ghost

A local, general-purpose AI assistant built in Go, powered by Ollama — inspired by cyberpunk worlds like Shadowrun, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Matrix.

Go stars: 11 forks: 2 MIT

Demo#

ghost TUI file support

Handling Files In Command Mode#

Reading the file in isn’t much different than piping a file in the CLI. The trickier part was specifying the file to read from the TUI.

I updated the command handler to split on the first space to support arguments. :r /path/to/file loads file contents into the message history so the LLM has context. I’ll be able to add new commands that accept arguments easily.

case tea.KeyEnter:
	parts := strings.SplitN(model.cmdBuffer, " ", 2)
	cmd := parts[0]
	var arg string
	if len(parts) > 1 {
		arg = strings.TrimSpace(parts[1])
	}

	switch cmd {
	case "q":
		model.logger.Info("disconnecting from ghost")
		return model, tea.Quit

	case "r":
		if arg == "" {
			model.chatHistory += fmt.Sprintf("\n[%s error: no file path provided]\n", theme.GlyphError)
			model.viewport.SetContent(model.renderHistory())
			model.mode = ModeNormal
			model.cmdBuffer = ""
			return model, nil
		}

		content, err := agent.ReadFileForContext(arg)
		if err != nil {
			model.logger.Error("file read failed", "path", arg, "error", err)
			model.chatHistory += fmt.Sprintf("\n[%s error: %s]\n", theme.GlyphError, err.Error())
			model.viewport.SetContent(model.renderHistory())
			model.mode = ModeNormal
			model.cmdBuffer = ""
			return model, nil
		}

		model.messages = append(model.messages, llm.ChatMessage{Role: llm.RoleUser, Content: content})
		model.logger.Info("file loaded into context", "path", arg)
		model.chatHistory += fmt.Sprintf("\n[%s loaded: %s]\n", theme.GlyphInfo, arg)
		model.viewport.SetContent(model.renderHistory())
	}

	model.mode = ModeNormal
	model.cmdBuffer = ""

File contents get formatted as [FILE: path]\n{contents} and added as a user message. In the CLI I’m appending the contents to the user prompt which I want to go back and change it to this pattern to keep history clean.

What’s Next#

Image support in the TUI. The last piece needed for feature parity with non-interactive mode.

Check the release notes for the full changelog.