GPTel: A simple ChatGPT client for Emacs

• Installation
  • Straight
  • Manual
  • Doom Emacs
  • Spacemacs
• Usage
  • In any buffer:
  • In a dedicated chat buffer:
• Using it your way
• Why another ChatGPT client?
• Will you add feature X?

GPTel is a simple, no-frills ChatGPT client for Emacs.

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/8607532/230516812-86510a09-a2fb-4cbd-b53f-cc2522d05a13.mp4

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/8607532/230516816-ae4a613a-4d01-4073-ad3f-b66fa73c6e45.mp4

• Requires an OpenAI API key.
• Async and fast (streams responses).
• Interact with ChatGPT from any buffer in Emacs.
• ChatGPT's responses are in Markdown or Org markup (configurable).
• Supports conversations (not just one-off queries) and multiple independent sessions.
• You can go back and edit your previous prompts, or even ChatGPT's previous responses when continuing a conversation. These will be fed back to ChatGPT.

GPTel uses Curl if available, but falls back to url-retrieve to work without external dependencies.

Installation

GPTel is on MELPA. Install it with M-x package-install⏎ gptel.

(Optional: Install markdown-mode.)

Straight

  (straight-use-package 'gptel)

Installing the markdown-mode package is optional.

Manual

Clone or download this repository and run M-x package-install-file⏎ on the repository directory.

Installing the markdown-mode package is optional.

Doom Emacs

In packages.el

(package! gptel)

In config.el

(use-package! gptel
 :config
 (setq! gptel-api-key "your key"))

Spacemacs

After installation with M-x package-install⏎ gptel

• Add gptel to dotspacemacs-additional-packages
• Add (require 'gptel) to dotspacemacs/user-config

Usage

Procure an OpenAI API key.

Optional: Set gptel-api-key to the key or to a function that returns the key (more secure).

In any buffer:

1. Select a region of text and call M-x gptel-send. The response will be inserted below your region.
2. You can select both the original prompt and the response and call M-x gptel-send again to continue the conversation.
3. Call M-x gptel-send with a prefix argument to

• set chat parameters (GPT model, directives etc) for this buffer,
• to read the prompt from elsewhere or redirect the response elsewhere,
• or to replace the prompt with the response.

With a region selected, you can also rewrite prose or refactor code from here:

Code:

Prose:

In a dedicated chat buffer:

1. Run M-x gptel to start or switch to the ChatGPT buffer. It will ask you for the key if you skipped the previous step. Run it with a prefix-arg (C-u M-x gptel) to start a new session.
2. In the gptel buffer, send your prompt with M-x gptel-send, bound to C-c RET.
3. Set chat parameters (GPT model, directives etc) for the session by calling gptel-send with a prefix argument (C-u C-c RET):

That's it. You can go back and edit previous prompts and responses if you want.

The default mode is markdown-mode if available, else text-mode. You can set gptel-default-mode to org-mode if desired.

Using it your way

GPTel's default usage pattern is simple, and will stay this way: Read input in any buffer and insert the response below it.

If you want custom behavior, such as

• reading input from or output to the echo area,
• or in pop-up windows,
• sending the current line only, etc,

GPTel provides a general gptel-request function that accepts a custom prompt and a callback to act on the response. You can use this to build custom workflows not supported by gptel-send. See the documentation of gptel-request, and the wiki for examples.

Why another ChatGPT client?

Existing Emacs clients don't reliably let me use it the simple way I can in the browser. They will get better, but I wanted something for now.

Also, AI-assisted work is a new way to use Emacs. It's not yet clear what the best Emacs interface to tools like it is.

• Should it be part of CAPF (completions-at-point-functions)?
• A dispatch menu from anywhere that can act on selected regions?
• A comint/shell-style REPL?
• One-off queries in the minibuffer (like shell-command)?
• A refactoring tool in code buffers?
• An org-babel interface?

Maybe all of these, I don't know yet. As a start, I wanted to replicate the web browser usage pattern so I can build from there – and don't need to switch to the browser every time. The code is fairly simple right now.

Will you add feature X?

Maybe, I'd like to experiment a bit first.