jebi
A supercharged terminal for Mac with built-in local AI.
I spend most of my day in the terminal. And like most developers, I kept hitting the same moments — a cryptic error, a half-remembered flag, a "what should I run next" pause — where I'd alt-tab to a browser, lose context, and come back 5 minutes later.
AI tools helped, but they all had the same problem: you had to explain your situation from scratch every time. Copy the error. Paste the output. Add context. It felt backwards.
So I built jebi.
What it is
jebi is a modern Mac terminal — GPU-accelerated, tab/split support, slash commands — with built-in local AI baked in. The AI sees your actual session — commands you ran, output, working directory — so it always knows what's going on.
The four things it does that I use every day:
Auto error explanation — when a command fails, jebi explains what went wrong without you having to ask
Suggest what to run next — after every command, it surfaces relevant next steps based on your session context
Natural language to command — type what you want in plain English, jebi converts it to the right shell command
All local — no API key, no subscription, nothing leaves your machine
The thing I'm most intentional about: jebi never runs commands on your behalf. It only suggests. You always decide what gets executed. That felt important to get right.
Why local AI
Privacy was the real reason. Your terminal session has everything — API keys in env vars, internal hostnames, production commands. Sending that to a cloud API never sat right with me. With jebi, inference runs entirely on your machine. No API key. No subscription. Nothing leaves your Mac.
Building it while employed
I'm a Principal Engineer full time. jebi was early mornings, late nights, and weekends for months. The hardest part wasn't the code — it was staying consistent when you're already mentally drained from the day job.
What kept me going was dogfooding it daily. Once I started using jebi for my actual work, going back felt painful. That's usually a good sign.
Where it is now
Just launched on Product Hunt — featured on day one. Currently free, Apple Silicon only (M1+).
How to install
Install with homebrew,
brew tap jebi-sh/tap
brew install --cask jebi
Or grab it at https://jebi.sh
Happy to answer anything — about the product, the local AI tradeoffs, or building on the side.
5 Comments
The interesting shift here is that you're not adding AI to the terminal—you’re giving AI state. Most tools treat each prompt as isolated, which forces the user to reconstruct context every time. By letting the model see the actual session history, you're effectively turning the terminal into a continuous environment instead of a stateless tool. That context continuity feels like the real unlock, more than the suggestions themselves.
That's a great way to put it, context continuity is exactly what we were going for. And honestly there's a lot more scope to add on that area. Thanks for your input !
Glad it resonated.
One thought stayed with me after reading your reply. I don't think the biggest strategic decision is about adding more AI capabilities—it's about what decisions the accumulated context should actually be trusted to influence.
I have a couple of thoughts on that which are easier to explain than squeeze into a thread. If you're interested, what's the best email to reach you on?
Sure, find me on LinkedIn as Jawahar Selvaraj. Would love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks, Jawahar.
I took a look, but I couldn't confidently identify the right LinkedIn profile.
If it's easier, feel free to email me at hello@beryxa.com instead. I'd be happy to share my thoughts there.