Klod

Klod (pronounced \klod\), a simple Go-based CLI tool for interacting with the Anthropic API

Motivation

Sometimes you just need to quickly check/ask an LLM something. I basically live in the terminal so I want to avoid the context switch to a browser. Claude code on the other hand is a bit too eager to help (which has its benefits but no necessarily for your quick short messages). Therefore I quickly stiched together klod, originally in bash, still living as ./main.sh at the root of the project.

Features

• Maintains conversation history within a session
• Configurable model and system prompts

Requirements

• Go 1.21 or higher
• Anthropic API key (get one here)

Installation

1. Clone and build:

git clone https://github.com/leoalho/klod.git
cd anthropic-cli
go build

2. Create a symlink for global access:

sudo ln -s $(pwd)/klod /usr/local/bin/klod

Or install via Go:

go install

Configuration

The tool looks for configuration files in the following order:

1. ~/.config/klod/config (XDG standard location)
2. ~/.klod.env (home directory)
3. .env in the current directory (for project-specific overrides)

Setup your config:

# Create the config directory
mkdir -p ~/.config/klod

# Create config file
cat > ~/.config/klod/config << EOF
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
MODEL=claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929
SYSTEM_PROMPT=
KLOD_LOGS=false
KLOD_LOG_FILE=
EOF

Configuration options:

• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (required): Your Anthropic API key
• MODEL (optional): Model to use (default: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929)
• SYSTEM_PROMPT (optional): Custom system prompt for Claude
• KLOD_LOGS (optional): Enable conversation logging (default: false, set to "true" or "1" to enable)
• KLOD_LOG_FILE (optional): Custom log file path (default: $XDG_STATE_HOME/klod/conversations.log or ~/.local/state/klod/conversations.log)

Usage

Start a conversation:

klod Hello, how are you?

This will:

1. Send your initial message to Claude
2. Stream the response in real-time
3. Enter an interactive chat mode where you can continue the conversation

Type exit or quit to end the conversation.

You can also start without an initial prompt:

klod

This starts the service and asks for your first prompt interactively.

Development

Run without building:

go run main.go your message here