7.20. dasllama-cli — dasLLAMA from the shell

dasllama-cli (utils/dasllama-server/cli.das) is the shell front end of dasLLAMA: the same engine, the same public facade and the same backend pick as dasllama-server, without the HTTP layer. One model, one conversation, one process - a script or a cron job asks a model, hears a clip or speaks a line with no server running. It ships beside the server in every bundle (dasllama-cli.exe on Linux and Windows, dasllama-server.app/Contents/MacOS/dasllama-cli on a Mac) and runs from the source tree under the JIT:

bin/daslang -jit utils/dasllama-server/cli.das -- chat --model <model.gguf>

7.20.1. Commands

Command	What it does
`complete`	Complete a prompt, streamed to stdout; the prompt is `--prompt`, `--file` or the first bare argument. `--image <file>` with `--image-mmproj <gguf>` asks about a picture. `--quiet` drops the token counters.
`chat`	A conversation from the terminal, or from `--script <file>` one message per line. `/help` lists the slash commands: `/image` and `/audio` attach a file to the next message (`--image-mmproj` / `--audio-mmproj`; the gemma-4 E-series mmproj carries both towers, pass it twice), `/read` sends a file’s text, `/save` and `/load` keep the transcript as JSON, `/regen`, `/clear`, `/system`, `/stats`, `/speak on` (with `--tts`, every reply lands in `reply_<n>.wav` under `--out-dir`), `/exit`. A line of `"""` opens and closes a multi-line message. A thinking model’s reasoning streams before its answer, a blank line between; `--hide-thinking` hides it, `--no-think` answers directly on a hybrid model.
`transcribe`	An audio file (wav, mp3, flac, ogg) to text through `--asr` (a GGUF pair takes `--mmproj`); `--out` writes it to a file, `--lang` hints the language where the model takes one - a model that detects it refuses a hint, and a code the model does not speak is refused with the codes it does.
`speak`	Text to a 16-bit WAV through `--tts` (`--voice`, `--speed`, `--tts-lane q8 \| f32`). A voice the model does not carry is refused with the voices it does; a speed on a model that takes none is refused.
`talk`	The chain: `--in <audio>` heard by `--asr`, answered by `--model`, spoken by `--tts` into `--out`. `--prompt <text>` skips the hearing. The transcript, the reply and the three stage times are printed.
`embed`	A text’s embedding vector, one float per line, or `--json`.
`tokenize`	A text’s token ids and pieces, one `id<TAB>piece` per line, or `--ids`.
`bench`	The llama-bench rows on a model: `pp512` and `tg128` (`-p`, `-n`, `-r`), and `tg128@N` with `--npl N`; `-o md` prints the table. The standalone `dasllama-bench` remains the records instrument.

Every example runs as written on a box whose models directory carries the named files; utils/dasllama-server/test_cli.das runs each one:

dasllama-cli complete -m SmolLM2-135M-Instruct-Q8_0.gguf --quiet "The capital of France is"
dasllama-cli speak --tts kitten-nano.gguf -o hello.wav "Hello from the command line."
dasllama-cli transcribe --asr Qwen3-ASR-0.6B-Q8_0.gguf --mmproj mmproj-Qwen3-ASR-0.6B-bf16.gguf question.wav
dasllama-cli talk --asr Qwen3-ASR-0.6B-Q8_0.gguf --mmproj mmproj-Qwen3-ASR-0.6B-bf16.gguf --model Qwen3.5-0.8B-Q8_0.gguf --tts kokoro-82m.gguf --in question.wav --out answer.wav
dasllama-cli chat -m gemma-4-E2B-it-Q4_K_M.gguf --image-mmproj mmproj-gemma-4-E2B-it-bf16.gguf --audio-mmproj mmproj-gemma-4-E2B-it-bf16.gguf
dasllama-cli bench -m SmolLM2-135M-Instruct-Q8_0.gguf --npl 2 -o md

7.20.2. Shared flags and the config file

Every command takes the server’s knobs under the server’s names: --gpu auto | off | metal | metal-required | vulkan (the same automatic pick - Metal on a Mac, Vulkan on a card, the CPU otherwise; vulkan serves a model that fits the card whole from the device, the conversation’s cache with it), --quant, --kv-dtype, --ctx, --threads, --models-dir, and the sampler where a command samples (--temp, --top-k, --top-p, --min-p, the penalties, --seed, -n / --max-tokens); <command> --help lists them (from the source tree -? or --show-help, since the daslang host takes --help for itself). A sampler knob left unset takes the command’s default: greedy for complete, and for chat and talk temperature 0.7, top-k 20, top-p 0.95 - under greedy decoding a thinking model loops on its own draft and never reaches its answer. <command> --help lists them beside the command’s own flags. A bare model name resolves under --models-dir (~/.dasllama/models, where the server’s catalog downloads land; DASLLAMA_MODELS_DIR overrides).

The dasllama-server.toml in the current directory, else beside the program - the server’s own lookup - fills whatever the flags leave empty: the model (a [[models]] roster’s default entry included), its image_mmproj, the asr and mmproj pair, the tts model and its lane, gpu and the Vulkan detail keys, threads, ctx, models_dir. On a box the server’s setup page configured, dasllama-cli chat with no flags talks to the served model on the served backend. Explicit flags win; --config names another file.

Output goes three ways: the answer - the completion, the reply, the transcript, the vector, the ids - on stdout alone, so it pipes; the CLI’s progress lines and the token counters (prompt and generated tokens, time to first token, prefill and decode rates) on stderr, --quiet dropping the counters; and the engine’s own notices - a missing Metal profile, a GPU decline - in logs/dasllama-cli.log under the das root, where the server’s land too (from the source tree the tune policy guard still prints its one status line first). A refusal - no model, a file that does not exist, a flag value that does not parse - names what is missing and exits non-zero.

7.20.3. Tuning

The CLI shares the box’s tune winners with the server: requiring dasLLAMA pulls in its [tune_scope], and the policy is auto - the first run from the source tree on an untuned box tunes and relaunches, every later run is instant, --tune forces a re-tune. A fat bundle carries no tuner: its kernels are the class clones, and its first dasllama-cli run on a Mac races the Metal crowns once into dasllama-cli.tune.json beside the program, as the server’s first run does into its own. See Kernel tuning.

7.20.4. Testing

utils/dasllama-server/test_cli_args.das is the model-free half, run everywhere: the plan a command line parses to, the help surfaces, the config file’s keys and roster, the model-path resolution, and the chat loop’s line logic. utils/dasllama-server/test_cli.das runs every command end to end, one child process per cell, on the small models a stocked box carries - the talk chain on two model columns and the picture and the clip through the gemma-4-E2B towers - and skips by name where a model is absent.