AI Assistant

NyaTerm includes an AI Assistant panel that can start from terminal context, selected text, file operations, or a manual prompt. It supports two working modes: Ask and Agent.

Working modes

Ask mode

Ask is the default mode and fits one-off help:

• Generate commands
• Explain terminal output
• Analyze errors
• Derive a fix command from selected text

Commands returned by AI are shown as structured cards with risk labels.

Agent mode

Agent mode lets AI perform multi-step work. It uses a ReAct-style loop: observe terminal output → decide the next command → execute → observe again until the task is complete or a step limit is reached.

Agent mode characteristics:

• Requires an active terminal session
• Shows each command's state: running, completed, failed, timed out, needs approval, or blocked by policy
• Configurable maximum steps and per-step timeout in Settings → AI → Agent Settings
• Uses Terminal Output Lines to control how much AI-executed command output is shown inline near the terminal
• High-risk commands still require manual approval before execution

Agent tools and final answers

Newer Agent workflows separate "run terminal commands" from "summarize the result":

• Agent can propose commands to run in the active terminal session
• Commands still go through risk levels, policy checks, and manual approval
• Execution state is recorded, and output summaries can be shown near the terminal according to Terminal Output Lines
• After terminal steps finish, Agent uses a final-answer tool to provide the user-facing summary instead of mixing it into command output

This makes multi-step troubleshooting, build checks, deployment checks, and similar workflows easier to audit: the terminal keeps the real execution record, while the final answer explains the outcome and next steps.

Conversation management

AI Assistant supports multiple conversations:

• New conversation creates an independent context
• History groups conversations by time, such as today, yesterday, last 7 days, and older
• Search history fuzzy-searches conversation content
• Delete conversation removes history you no longer need

Session mentions

Type @ in the input box to mention other terminal sessions and bring their context into the current AI conversation. This is useful for cross-session analysis or comparisons.

Command cards and risk control

AI commands are displayed as structured cards with:

• Command text
• Risk level: low / medium / high / critical
• Execute or approval actions
• Save-as-quick-command option

Risk levels

Level	Meaning	Default behavior
Low	Read-only or information-query commands	Can be auto-executed
Medium	File or configuration changes	Depends on settings
High	Deletion, permission changes, and similar impact	Requires approval
Critical	Destructive patterns such as chmod, chown, or rm -rf	Requires confirmation text

In Settings → AI, you can configure:

• Highest risk level that may auto-execute
• Whether risk checks are enabled
• Whether generated commands can be saved as quick commands

Safer alternatives

When AI detects a high-risk command, it may also provide a safer alternative command.

Recent output and inline terminal output

AI Assistant can work around "what just happened" instead of only selected text.

• Use Explain recent output from the terminal context menu to send recent output from the current session to AI
• In Agent mode, AI command execution events are captured and summarized near the terminal workflow
• Terminal Output Lines controls the maximum number of inline feedback lines; set it to 0 to disable them

Reasoning content

If the selected model exposes a reasoning channel, such as DeepSeek R1 or QwQ-style models, AI Assistant can show reasoning content in the response. Reasoning content is collapsed by default and can be expanded when needed.

Provider and model configuration

Manage providers and models in Settings → AI.

Provider configuration

• Built-in providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and DeepSeek
• Custom OpenAI Compatible providers
• Each provider needs an API key and optional Base URL

Model management

• Fetch available models from providers
• Manually add models that a provider does not return automatically
• Group models by provider and credential group
• Enable / disable individual models
• Choose a default model

Other settings

• Context lines: maximum terminal output lines sent to AI
• Request timeout: timeout for one AI request
• Record history: whether to save AI conversation history
• Sensitive redaction: redact sensitive content before sending

Invoke from terminal and file explorer

AI Assistant can be invoked from context menus, not only from the panel input.

Terminal context menu

• Explain recent output sends recent output from the current session
• Explain selected text explains the selected log, error, or fragment
• Analyze error asks AI to generate repair suggestions from an error context
• Fix selected text derives the next command from selected error text
• Generate command asks AI to produce a command for your goal

File explorer context menu

For files in the SFTP file explorer, you can send file content to AI for analysis from the context menu. File size limits apply and can be adjusted in settings.

Error auto-detection

When terminal output matches error patterns, AI Assistant can suggest analyzing the error automatically.