aims — AI Model Selector

A terminal UI for selecting AI models from multiple providers. Browse, search, and select models from Ollama, OpenRouter, Cline, and more — all in one place.

Features

• Multi-provider: Ollama, OpenRouter, Cline, and ClinePass in one unified list
• Provider tabs: Switch between providers or view all models at once
• Fuzzy search: Filter by model name, description, provider, or metadata
• Detail panel: See context length, pricing, modality, and more
• Caching: Per-provider filesystem cache with configurable TTL
• Clipboard: Copy the selected model ID to the clipboard
• Extensible: Add new providers by implementing a single interface

Installation

Pre-built binary (macOS / Linux)

curl -fsSL https://code.paulg.it/paulgit/ai-model-selector/raw/branch/main/install.sh | sh

The script detects your OS and architecture, downloads the matching binary from the latest release, verifies it against the published SHA256SUMS, and installs it to /usr/local/bin (or ~/.local/bin if you don't have sudo).

To review the script before running it:

curl -fsSL https://code.paulg.it/paulgit/ai-model-selector/raw/branch/main/install.sh | less

To install to a custom directory:

curl -fsSL https://code.paulg.it/paulgit/ai-model-selector/raw/branch/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --prefix ~/.local/bin

Build from source

Requires Go 1.26 or later.

git clone https://code.paulg.it/paulgit/ai-model-selector.git
cd ai-model-selector
go build -o aims .

Usage

# Interactive model selection (prints model ID to stdout)
aims

# Copy selected model to clipboard
aims -c

# Force refresh from all providers (bypass cache)
aims -r

# Force refresh a specific provider only
aims -refresh-provider ollama

# Disable caching
aims -cache-ttl 0

# Custom cache TTL for all providers
aims -cache-ttl 6h

Using with command substitution

MODEL=$(aims)
echo "Selected: $MODEL"

Configuration

aims reads its config from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/aims/config.json (or ~/.config/aims/config.json on Linux/macOS, %AppData%\aims\config.json on Windows):

{
  "providers": {
    "ollama": {
      "enabled": true
    },
    "openrouter": {
      "enabled": true
    },
    "cline": {
      "enabled": true,
      "api_key_ref": "op://AIMS/Cline/credential"
    },
    "clinepass": {
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

If no config file is found, aims will prompt:

No configuration file found at /home/user/.config/aims/config.json
Would you like to create a default configuration? [y/N]

Answering y creates a default config (with Ollama and OpenRouter enabled, Cline disabled) with 0600 permissions. Answering n exits.

Provider options

Field	Description
enabled	Whether the provider is active
api_key_ref	1Password reference (e.g. op://AIMS/Key/credential)
base_url	Override the default API endpoint
cache_ttl	Per-provider cache TTL (Go duration, e.g. "6h")

Authenticated providers require an HTTPS base_url. Plain HTTP is accepted only for explicit loopback hosts such as localhost, 127.0.0.1, and ::1.

API key resolution

API keys are resolved in order:

1. 1Password CLI (op read <api_key_ref>) — if api_key_ref is set
2. Environment variable — AIMS_<PROVIDER>_API_KEY (e.g. AIMS_CLINE_API_KEY)

Adding a new provider

1. Create a package under providers/<name>/
2. Implement the aims.Provider interface:

type Provider interface {
    Name() string
    DisplayName() string
    FetchModels(ctx context.Context, opts FetchOptions) ([]Model, error)
    DefaultCacheTTL() time.Duration
    RequiresAPIKey() bool
}

3. Register it in an init() function:

func init() {
    aims.RegisterProvider(Provider{})
}

4. Add a blank import in main.go:

_ "aims/providers/yourprovider"

5. Add the provider to the config file

Architecture

aims/
├── main.go              # Entry point, CLI flags, provider orchestration
├── ui.go                # Bubble Tea TUI (list, tabs, detail panel)
├── config.go            # JSON config loading
├── keychain.go          # API key resolution (1Password + env vars)
├── install.sh           # One-line install script (curl | sh)
├── internal/aims/       # Shared types and cache logic
│   ├── aims.go          # Model, Provider, FetchOptions types
│   ├── cache.go         # CacheProvider, DefaultCacheProvider
│   ├── fetch.go         # FetchWithCache (shared cache-aware fetch)
│   └── registry.go      # Provider registry
└── providers/
    ├── ollama/          # Ollama Cloud provider
    ├── openrouter/      # OpenRouter provider
    ├── cline/           # Cline API provider
    └── clinepass/       # ClinePass subscription provider (static catalog)

License

MIT