lmsh — Natural Language Shell

lmsh is a fast, minimal natural language shell interface that translates conversational commands into editable shell commands. Type what you want in plain English, review the generated command, and execute it.

What It Does

$ lmsh
> show me all python files modified today
find . -name "*.py" -mtime 0
# ^ Editable command — press Enter to run

You type natural language, lmsh translates it into a shell command using an AI agent, presents the command for review/editing, and executes it on confirmation.

Requires Rust/Cargo:

cargo install lmsh

cd lmsh/
cargo build --release
cp target/release/lmsh ~/.cargo/bin/

Or use the convenience target:

make lmsh-install

Usage

# Interactive mode (Claude/Haiku by default)
lmsh

# Translate, edit, execute, then interactive mode
lmsh "show me python files"

# Explicitly choose an agent
lmsh --agent claude          # default
lmsh --agent codex           # use Codex instead

# Version info
lmsh --version

Features

Editable commands — Review and modify before execution.
Fast startup — Optimized Rust binary (~1ms).
Multiple AI agents — Choose between Claude (default) or Codex for command translation.
Shell preservation — Maintains your shell environment and aliases.
Clean output — PTY-based execution with proper echo suppression (no garbled prompts or ANSI codes).

Agent Selection

Claude (default)

Model: Haiku (fast and efficient)
Command: claude -p "<prompt>" --model haiku
Requirement: Claude Code CLI must be installed
Best for: General shell command translation with fast response times

Codex

Model: GPT-5 (advanced reasoning)
Command: codex exec "<prompt>"
Requirement: Codex CLI must be installed
Best for: Complex command construction requiring advanced reasoning

Requirements

At least one of the following CLI tools:
- Claude Code CLI (claude) — for the default Claude agent
- Codex CLI (codex) — for the Codex agent
The translation step adds ~2—3s latency due to AI model inference time.