goaichat/dev-plan.md

Goaichat Development Plan

Overview

• Goal Build a terminal-based AI chat client in Go that interacts with an OpenAI-compatible API using settings provided via config.yaml.
• Primary outcomes Provide an interactive chat session with conversational history, robust config handling, and a clean developer experience.
• Assumptions Users run the app locally inside a terminal emulator with network access to the configured API endpoint.

Functional Requirements

• Interactive chat loop Allow continuous message exchange with the AI until the user exits.
• Config-driven startup Parse config.yaml for api.url, api.key, model defaults, and future options (e.g., system prompts, temperature, streaming flag).
• Persistent history Store chats in a SQLite database located at /var/log/goaichat/<username>/goaichat.db, capturing session metadata and full message transcripts.
• History commands Provide /list to enumerate saved chats and allow selecting or reopening them within the session.
• Model management Support /models command to display configured/available models, persist the user’s choice, and use it for subsequent requests.
• Graceful exit controls Support commands like /exit, /reset, /help.
• Error feedback Surface authentication and network issues with actionable terminal messages.

Non-Functional Requirements

• Portability Pure Go solution compatible with Linux/macOS/Windows terminals.
• Security Keep API key out of logs; support environment variable overrides for secrets; ensure persisted data has restrictive filesystem permissions.
• Resilience Retry transient HTTP failures, validate config on load, handle streaming interruptions.
• Observability Include structured logging with verbosity toggle.

Architecture

High-Level Components

• CLI entrypoint cmd/goaichat/main.go handles argument parsing and bootstraps the app.
• Configuration layer internal/config loads, validates, merges config.yaml with environment overrides.
• Application core internal/app wires config, client, history, and UI controller.
• Chat service internal/chat manages conversation state, prompt assembly, tool commands, and transcripts.
• Storage layer internal/storage handles SQLite connections, schema migrations, and CRUD helpers for sessions, messages, and model preferences.
• OpenAI client internal/openai wraps REST calls (Chat Completions or Responses API) with streaming support.
• Terminal UI internal/ui renders chat in the terminal; leverages github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea + lipgloss for layout.
• Logging/metrics internal/telemetry centralizes loggers and future metrics hooks.

Data Flow

dflow LR
    UserInput[(User input)] --> UI[Terminal UI]
    UI -->|Submit| ChatCore[Chat service]
    ChatCore -->|Build request| OpenAIClient[OpenAI client]
    OpenAIClient -->|HTTP call| API[(OpenAI-compatible API)]
    API -->|Response/stream| OpenAIClient
    OpenAIClient --> ChatCore
    ChatCore -->|Update state| Storage[(SQLite history store)]
    Storage --> ChatCore
    ChatCore --> UI
    Config[(config.yaml + env)] --> ConfigPkg[Configuration]
    ConfigPkg --> AppCore[Application core]
    AppCore --> UI
    AppCore --> ChatCore
    AppCore --> OpenAIClient
    AppCore --> Storage

Persistence & Data Storage (internal/storage)

• Data directory Resolve user-specific path /var/log/goaichat/<username>/ (configurable override) and ensure directories exist with secure permissions.
• Database SQLite file goaichat.db managed via modernc.org/sqlite (pure Go) for portability; allow build tag to switch to mattn/go-sqlite3 if desired.
• Schema
  • sessions (id, name, created_at, updated_at, model_name, summary).
  • messages (id, session_id, role, content, token_count, created_at).
  • models (id, name, display_name, provider, is_default, last_used_at).
• Migrations Ship SQL migration files applied on startup; version using goose/atlas or simple in-app migration runner.
• Data access Provide repository interfaces for chat service to create sessions, append messages, list chats, update selected model, and fetch transcripts.
• Performance Enable write-ahead logging, tune connection settings, and guard concurrent access with a request queue or mutex.

Configuration Handling (internal/config)

• Load order Default values → config.yaml → environment overrides (GOAICHAT_API_KEY, etc.) → CLI flags.
• Parsing Use gopkg.in/yaml.v3 with a typed struct, e.g., Config{ API struct{ URL string; Key string }; Model struct{ Name string; Temperature float64; Stream bool }; Logging struct{ Level string } }.
• Validation Ensure non-empty API.URL, API.Key; validate URL format and ranges (temperature 0-2); provide default fallbacks.
• Hot reload (future) Structure API to support reloading without restart.
• Sample config.yaml

api:
  url: "https://api.openai.com/v1"
  key: "${OPENAI_API_KEY}"
model:
  name: "gpt-4o-mini"
  temperature: 0.7
  stream: true
ui:
  show_timestamps: true
logging:
  level: "info"

Terminal UI (internal/ui)

• Framework Adopt Bubble Tea for TUI state management; use textinput component for prompt entry and a scrolling viewport for conversation.
• Features
  • Message formatting Differentiate user/assistant/system with colors via lipgloss.
  • Streaming display Render tokens incrementally if streaming enabled.
  • Shortcut commands /reset, /config, /copy-last, /save, /list, /models.
  • Status bar Show model name, latency, active session, and config hints.
• Accessibility Support basic ANSI-only fallback.

Chat Service (internal/chat)

• State Maintain slice of Message{Role, Content, Timestamp} plus metadata (tokens, response duration).
• Prompt assembly Prepend system prompt from config; limit history by token budget using approximate counts and hydrate from stored transcripts when reopening a session.
• Commands Parse / prefixed input before sending to API, including /reset, /help, /exit, /list, /models, /config, /copy-last, /save.
• Persistence integration Manage session lifecycle, store messages, list sessions, and update preferred model through internal/storage.

OpenAI Client (internal/openai)

• HTTP layer Use net/http with context cancellation, timeout, retry (exponential backoff) on 5xx.
• Endpoints Start with Chat Completions POST /chat/completions; optionally add Responses API abstraction.
• Streaming Handle Server-Sent Events (SSE) or chunked responses; emit channel of tokens consumed by UI.
• Auth Inject Authorization: Bearer header from config/environment.
• Telemetry hooks Log request duration; hide sensitive payloads in debug output.
• Testing Mock transport implementation for deterministic tests.

Application Core (internal/app)

• Lifecycle Initialize logger → load config → instantiate client and chat service → start UI program.
• Dependency injection Pass config structs or interfaces to decouple packages for testing.
• Shutdown Capture signals (Ctrl+C) to flush logs, close session transcripts.

Implementation Roadmap

• Milestone 1: Project bootstrap

  • Create module go mod init github.com/<user>/goaichat.
  • Set up CI (GitHub Actions) running go test and lint.
  • Add basic logging using log/slog or zerolog.

• Milestone 2: Config foundation

  • Implement internal/config loader with validation and tests.
  • Support environment overrides and --config CLI flag.

• Milestone 3: API integration

  • Build internal/openai client with non-streaming support first.
  • Add response parsing, error handling, retries.
  • Write integration tests against mock server.

• Milestone 4: Persistence foundation

  • Design SQLite schema and migrations within internal/storage.
  • Implement repositories for sessions, messages, and models.
  • Ensure path resolution to /var/log/goaichat/<username>/ with permission checks and tests.

• Milestone 5: Chat loop MVP

  • Implement CLI loop that reads user input, calls chat client, prints responses.
  • Integrate persistence for session creation, message storage, /list, and /models commands.
  • Instrument logging and simple metrics.

• Milestone 6: Terminal UI

  • Integrate Bubble Tea UI replacing basic loop.
  • Add viewport rendering, streaming display, command palette.
  • Polish keyboard shortcuts and layout.

• Milestone 7: Enhancements & polish

  • Implement transcript saving, timestamp display, configurable prompts.
  • Add optional plugins (command to open last response in $EDITOR).
  • Harden error messages and retries; tune tests and docs.

Testing & Quality Strategy

• Unit tests Cover config parsing, validation, command parsing, token budgeting.
• Integration tests Use httptest server to simulate OpenAI API scenarios (success, auth error, rate limit, streaming).
• UI tests Leverage Bubble Tea test helpers to simulate model update cycles.
• Static analysis golangci-lint for vet, errcheck, gofmt.
• Load testing (future) Add simple script to replay prompts for latency measurement.

Developer Tooling & DX

• Makefile Targets: make build, make test, make lint, make run.
• Task runner Optionally use taskfile or mage.
• Documentation Maintain README.md, docs/configuration.md, docs/development.md.
• Sample configs Provide config.example.yaml without secrets.
• Issue templates For bug reports and feature requests once repo public.

Deployment & Distribution

• Binary releases Cross-compile via goreleaser for Linux/macOS/Windows; ensure CGO_ENABLED=0 for static binaries.
• Packaging Offer Homebrew tap or go install instructions.
• Versioning Semantic versioning with tagged releases; changelog via git-chglog.

Future Extensions

• Plugin commands Shell hooks, sending to external tools, code interpreter.
• Multi-provider support Add adapters for Anthropic, local LLMs via OpenAI-compatible bridges.
• Conversation persistence SQLite-backed history with search.
• Team collaboration Shared sessions via websockets or tmux integration.
• Telemetry dashboard Optional Prometheus exporter for usage stats.

Risks & Mitigations

• API drift Mitigate with client abstraction and compatibility tests.
• Rate limits Implement exponential backoff, expose retry counters in UI.
• Secret leakage Ensure config accepts env vars, redact logs, document best practices.
• Terminal portability Provide fallback non-TUI mode for minimal terminals.