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Magic Shell

Your First Command

Now that you have Magic Shell installed and configured, let’s try your first command!

Choose Your Mode

Section titled “Choose Your Mode”

Magic Shell offers two ways to work:

Launch the interactive terminal interface:

Terminal window
mshell

The TUI gives you:

  • A persistent interface for multiple queries
  • Command history and context
  • Live model and theme switching
  • Safety analysis display
  • Keyboard shortcuts for everything

Simply type your query and press Enter. The translated command appears with safety info, ready to execute or copy.

TUI Workflow

Section titled “TUI Workflow”
  1. Launch with mshell
  2. Type your query in natural language
  3. Review the translated command and safety analysis
  4. Press Enter to execute, or use keyboard shortcuts to copy/modify

CLI Quick Reference

Section titled “CLI Quick Reference”
CommandDescription
msh "query"Translate and print
msh -x "query"Translate and execute
msh -n "query"Dry run with safety analysis

Example Queries

Section titled “Example Queries”

Try these in either mode:

File Operations

Section titled “File Operations”
  • “find files larger than 100MB”
  • “count lines of code in this project”
  • “show the 10 most recently modified files”

Git Operations

Section titled “Git Operations”
  • “undo my last commit but keep changes”
  • “show commits from the last week”
  • “what files changed in the last commit”

System Operations

Section titled “System Operations”
  • “what process is using port 3000”
  • “show memory usage”
  • “list all running docker containers”

Tips

Section titled “Tips”

  1. Be specific: “find files larger than 100MB in downloads” is better than “find large files”

  2. Use TUI for exploration: The interactive mode makes it easy to refine queries and see history

  3. Check safety analysis: Commands are analyzed for risk before execution

  4. Switch models: Different models have different strengths. Use Ctrl+X M in TUI to switch

Next Steps

Section titled “Next Steps”