1. Command line interface

The select-ai command line interface (CLI) provides a terminal workflow for using Select AI profiles without writing Python code. It is intended for quick exploration, profile validation, prompt testing, SQL generation, summarization, translation, and interactive chat against an existing profile.

The CLI is useful for developers who want a fast shell workflow and for non-developers who are comfortable running terminal commands but do not want to write Python code. It can help users check whether a profile is configured correctly, inspect generated SQL, try prompts during development, or interact with a curated profile through a simple command.

The CLI works with Select AI profiles. RAG is supported when the selected profile is already configured with a vector index. Additional CLI options and workflows will be added in upcoming releases as the CLI evolves.

The package provides an optional select-ai command line tool. Install the CLI extra to use it:

pip install 'select_ai[cli]'

Use select-ai --help to view the available command groups and select-ai <command> --help to view options for a specific command.

Set the database connection details as environment variables, or pass them as command line options:

export SELECT_AI_USER=<db_user>
export SELECT_AI_PASSWORD=<db_password>
export SELECT_AI_DB_CONNECT_STRING=<db_connect_string>

1.1. Connection options

All CLI commands accept the same database connection options:

Connection options

Option	Environment variable
--user	SELECT_AI_USER
--password	SELECT_AI_PASSWORD
--dsn	SELECT_AI_DB_CONNECT_STRING
--wallet-location	SELECT_AI_WALLET_LOCATION
--wallet-password	SELECT_AI_WALLET_PASSWORD

If --password and SELECT_AI_PASSWORD are not set, the CLI prompts for the database password. Wallet options are optional and are only needed for wallet-based database connections.

1.2. Interactive chat

The chat subcommand starts an interactive profile chat Read-Eval-Print Loop (REPL). A REPL is a terminal session that reads each prompt you type, evaluates it, prints the response, and then waits for the next prompt. Pass an existing Select AI profile with --profile:

select-ai chat --profile OCI_AI_PROFILE

The REPL uses Profile.chat_session() so prompts in the same terminal session share conversation context. Responses stream by default. Use --no-stream to print each response after it is fully generated.

Connected to Select AI profile: OCI_AI_PROFILE
Type /help for commands. Type /exit to quit.
select_ai> What tables can I ask about?
...
select_ai> /exit

Useful options:

• --user, --password, and --dsn override the environment values.

• --wallet-location and --wallet-password configure wallet connections.

• --chunk-size controls the number of CLOB characters read per stream chunk.

• --conversation-length controls how many prompts are retained in context.

• --keep-conversation keeps the database conversation after the REPL exits.

Inside the REPL, use these commands:

Chat REPL commands

Command	Description
/help	Show available REPL commands.
/clear	Start a fresh database conversation.
/exit	Exit the chat session.
/quit	Exit the chat session.

1.3. SQL commands

SQL operations are one-shot subcommands instead of a REPL:

select-ai sql show --profile OCI_AI_PROFILE "count movies by genre"
select-ai sql run --profile OCI_AI_PROFILE "count movies by genre"
select-ai sql explain --profile OCI_AI_PROFILE "count movies by genre"
select-ai sql narrate --profile OCI_AI_PROFILE "count movies by genre"

show, explain, and narrate stream text output by default. Use --no-stream to print the response after it is fully generated, and --chunk-size to control the number of CLOB characters read per stream chunk.

run executes the generated SQL and prints the returned result table. It does not support streaming.

1.4. Profile commands

Summarize and translate are available under the profile command group:

select-ai profile list
select-ai profile list --pattern "OCI.*"

select-ai profile summarize --profile OCI_AI_PROFILE "Text to summarize"
select-ai profile summarize --profile OCI_AI_PROFILE --file notes.txt
select-ai profile summarize \
    --profile OCI_AI_PROFILE \
    --location-uri https://example.com/article.txt
select-ai profile summarize \
    --profile OCI_AI_PROFILE \
    --location-uri https://objectstorage.example.com/n/namespace/b/bucket/o/file.txt \
    --credential-name OBJECT_STORE_CRED

select-ai profile translate \
    --profile OCI_AI_PROFILE \
    --source-language English \
    --target-language German \
    "Thank you"

profile list prints profile names visible to the connected database user. Use --pattern to filter names with a regular expression.

profile summarize accepts one content source at a time: inline text, --file, or --location-uri. Use --prompt to guide the summary and --credential-name when the location URI requires an object storage credential.

1.5. Command summary

CLI command summary

Command	Purpose
select-ai chat	Start an interactive context-aware chat session.
select-ai sql show	Generate SQL without executing it.
select-ai sql run	Generate SQL, execute it, and print the result table.
select-ai sql explain	Explain generated SQL.
select-ai sql narrate	Generate and execute SQL, then return a natural language answer.
select-ai profile list	List saved profile names.
select-ai profile summarize	Summarize inline content, a file, or a URI.
select-ai profile translate	Translate text with a saved profile.