The Settings dialog is not at all clear about whether the AI features are enabled or disabled. The only indicator is an empty OpenAI Key text entry field and that also doesn't say that the feature isn't activated unless a key is provided (e.g. I would assume that the OpenAI REST API is free until some quota is exhausted?)
The iTerm release notes clearly spell out that you need a key to make this feature work.
I guess if you knew nothing about iTerm2, OpenAI, or the myriad of open source tools that use OpenAI and/or are compatible with its API structure (aka, can use something like ollama/LMStudio/etc) you could think that there was some free tier or iTerm2 was footing the bill for the first X requests. Having used iTerm2 for many years and knowing how these types of features work (and knowing OpenAI itself doesn’t have a free tier) it was immediately clear that this was a “bring your own key”-type feature and a “it’s not going to do anything unless you supply a key”.
That's a lot of assumptions about users that are ignorant about OpenAI or anything AI related in general.
I used iTerm2 for the last decade or so without any complaints, but seriously, sneaking in features like this into a minor version and without upfront communication is poor form (as would be something less sinister like a Google search engine or StackOverflow integration, stuff like this is entirely unexpected in a terminal application). It's fine though, I will simply go terminal shopping again.
Again, people using the word “sneaking”, are you sure you know what that word means? It makes absolutely 0 sense in this context.
To work in tech and not have a surface level understanding of LLMs and the biggest player in the field, OpenAI is borderline incompetence in my book. You don’t need to be using it, you don’t need to like it, but you should be aware of it.
All of that is off topic though, there are countless settings in iTerm2 that I don’t use or don’t need, I don’t go complaining online about them or call them “sneaky”. The level of entitlement in these comments astounds me.
> stuff like this is entirely unexpected in a terminal application
Why? Because you wouldn’t use it? Should we remove tmux support because not everyone uses it? And who are you to say what should or shouldn’t be in a terminal? I think a “Google this line/error” or “search SO for this error” would be completely valid ____optional____ features for a terminal to have.
> It's fine though, I will simply go terminal shopping again.
> I’ll take “things you won’t actually do for 100”
...too late ;) I actually wasn't using any advanced iTerm2 features except installing color themes so no big loss. Right now I'm giving wezterm a try which looks pretty good so far. Next on the list is ghostty. All I actually need is a fast text renderer in a window which houses a shell (eg what a UI terminal usually is).
The tone, vascilating between condescension and brow beating, of your reply is atrocious. My take is that AI is the buzzword du jour much like fuzzy logic was. In any case:
Should we remove tmux support because not everyone uses it?
tmux doesn't exfiltrate your data to third-party servers.
These AI features aren't behind the scenes things. You either have to call "Codecierge" or "Engage Artificial Intelligence" explicitly. Unless I've missing something. As per release notes:
- Add AI-powered natural language command generation. Enter a prompt in the composer and select Edit
> Engage Artificial Intelligence. You will need to provide an OpenAI API key since GPT costs money
to use.
- A new AI feature in the Toolbelt, "Codecierge", lets you set a goal and then walks you
step-by-step to completing it by watching the terminal contents. It requires you to supply an
OpenAI API key.
