MiniChat

MiniChat is a command-line chatbot for macOS that grows with you.

It remembers your preferences, your ongoing context, and the way you like to be spoken to, so each conversation feels less like starting over and more like returning to someone who already knows you.

It supports:

• Sign in with ChatGPT
• Sign in with Device Code
• OpenAI API key
• OpenRouter API key
• DeepSeek API key

MiniChat keeps its own state in ~/.minichat/, remembers your ongoing context through SOUL.md, and lets you resume past sessions from the terminal.

Demo

Click the preview to open the full demo video: assets/demo.mov.

Platform

MiniChat currently supports macOS only.

Install

Homebrew cask

Install with:

brew install --cask Icarus603/tap/minichat

Then start MiniChat from any directory:

minichat

Resume a previous conversation:

minichat --resume

From source

If you are running from the repository:

bun install
bun run build
./bin/minichat

First Launch

On first launch, MiniChat opens a setup screen. You can choose one of these login methods:

1. Sign in with ChatGPT
2. Sign in with Device Code
3. Use OpenAI API key
4. Use OpenRouter API key
5. Use DeepSeek API key

If you use Sign in with ChatGPT or Sign in with Device Code, MiniChat delegates authentication to the official codex CLI.

Requirements

• macOS
• codex installed if you want to use ChatGPT or device-code login

Everyday Use

Start a new chat:

minichat

Open the session picker at startup:

minichat --resume

Inside MiniChat, the most useful commands are:

• /model — switch model and, when supported, reasoning effort
• /new — start a new conversation
• /sessions — browse, resume, rename, or delete saved sessions
• /login — clear the current login and return to the login screen
• /logout — clear the current login and exit
• /clear — clear the current conversation
• /quit or /exit — leave MiniChat

Local Files

MiniChat stores its local data under:

~/.minichat/

Important files:

• config.json — current auth mode, provider, model, and settings
• auth.json — imported ChatGPT auth state for Codex-backed use
• SOUL.md — MiniChat’s evolving long-term context, preferences, and relationship style
• transcripts/ — saved chat sessions used by minichat --resume and /sessions

Notes

• OpenAI API key now uses OpenAI’s newer Responses API
• ChatGPT / Device Code auth still runs through codex exec
• OpenRouter stays on the OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions path for now
• DeepSeek API key uses DeepSeek's OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions API with deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner