Lacy

Talk to your shell. Type commands or natural language — it figures out which is which.

Install

curl -fsSL https://lacy.sh/install | bash

Other methods

# Homebrew
brew tap lacymorrow/tap
brew install lacy

# npx (interactive)
npx lacy

# Manual
git clone https://github.com/lacymorrow/lacy.git ~/.lacy
echo 'source ~/.lacy/lacy.plugin.zsh' >> ~/.zshrc

How It Works

Real-time visual feedback shows what will happen before you hit enter:

Commands execute in your shell. Natural language goes to your AI agent. No prefixes, no context switching — you just type.

Input	Routes to	Why
ls -la	Shell	Valid command
what files are here	AI	Natural language
git status	Shell	Valid command
do we have a way to install?	AI	Reserved word — never a real command
fix the bug	AI	Multi-word, not a command
kill the process on 3000	Shell → AI	Valid command, but fails — rerouted
go ahead and fix it	Shell → AI	"go" is valid, but "ahead" triggers reroute
!rm -rf *	Shell	! prefix forces shell

The first word of your input is also syntax-highlighted in real-time: green for shell commands, magenta for AI queries.

Smart rerouting (auto mode): When a valid command contains natural language patterns (3+ bare words with articles, pronouns, etc.) and fails, lacy shows a hint and automatically re-sends it to the AI agent. Shell reserved words like do, then, in, else are routed directly to the agent — they pass command -v but are never standalone commands.

Modes

Mode	Behavior	Activate
Auto	Smart routing (default)	mode auto
Shell	Everything to shell	mode shell or Ctrl+Space
Agent	Everything to AI	mode agent or Ctrl+Space

Supported Tools

Lacy auto-detects your installed AI CLI. All tools handle their own auth — no API keys needed.

tool set claude    # Use Claude Code
tool set lash      # Use Lash
tool set auto      # Auto-detect (first available)

Or edit ~/.lacy/config.yaml:

agent_tools:
  active: claude # lash, claude, opencode, gemini, codex, custom, or empty for auto

Commands

Command	Description
mode	Show current mode
mode [shell|agent|auto]	Switch mode
tool	Show active AI tool
tool set <name>	Set AI tool
ask "query"	Direct query to AI
Ctrl+Space	Toggle between modes

CLI

After installation, the lacy command is available (no Node required):

lacy setup        # Interactive settings (tool, mode, config)
lacy status       # Show installation status
lacy doctor       # Diagnose common issues
lacy update       # Pull latest changes
lacy config edit  # Open config in $EDITOR
lacy uninstall    # Remove Lacy Shell
lacy help         # Show all commands

Uninstall

lacy uninstall
# or
npx lacy --uninstall
# or
curl -fsSL https://lacy.sh/install | bash -s -- --uninstall

Configuration

Config file: ~/.lacy/config.yaml

agent_tools:
  active: claude # lash, claude, opencode, gemini, codex, or empty for auto

modes:
  default: auto # shell, agent, auto

api_keys:
  openai: "sk-..." # Only needed if no CLI tool installed
  anthropic: "sk-ant-..."

Troubleshooting

No AI response — Check tool to see if a tool is detected. Install one: npm i -g lashcode or brew install claude.

Colors not showing — Ensure your terminal supports 256 colors (green=34, magenta=200, blue=75).

Command rerouted unexpectedly — In auto mode, commands with natural language patterns that fail are re-sent to the AI. Switch to mode shell to disable this, or prefix with !.

Emergency bypass — Prefix any command with ! to force shell execution: !rm -rf node_modules

Releasing

Requires Bun, gh, and npm login.

bun run release          # interactive — prompts for patch/minor/major
bun run release patch    # patch bump  (1.5.3 → 1.5.4)
bun run release minor    # minor bump  (1.5.3 → 1.6.0)
bun run release major    # major bump  (1.5.3 → 2.0.0)
bun run release 2.0.0    # explicit version

The script handles the full release flow:

1. Bumps version in both package.json files
2. Commits with release: v<version> and tags
3. Pushes to GitHub and creates a GitHub release
4. Publishes the npm package (prompts for OTP if required)

License

MIT — see LICENSE.