A previous request for an official ChatGPT CLI was acknowledged by OpenAI Support and forwarded to the engineering team, but that thread is now closed. I would like to expand on that request with a specific use case that I think is distinct from both Codex CLI and API access.
The request
Please consider a first-party, general-purpose ChatGPT CLI that authenticates through an existing ChatGPT account/subscription, without requiring an API key.
For example:
chatgpt login
chatgpt
Authentication could use an official browser/OAuth or device-login flow.
The second command would provide an interactive terminal conversation with ordinary ChatGPT, rather than specifically launching a coding agent.
Why this is different from Codex CLI
Codex CLI is excellent for agentic software-development work. But many terminal workflows don’t require an autonomous coding agent.
Examples include writing and editing Markdown, research and discussion, summarization, transforming documents, producing structured output, analyzing logs, preparing specifications, or simply using ChatGPT from an SSH/Linux terminal.
Using a terminal as the interface should not necessarily require consuming coding-agent usage.
Unix stdin/stdout would make this particularly useful
In addition to an interactive REPL, a first-party client could support normal shell workflows:
chatgpt "Summarize this document" < input.md
and:
chatgpt "Convert these notes into a concise technical brief" \
< notes.md > brief.md
This would make ChatGPT composable with existing tools such as Git, Bash, grep, jq, SSH and other command-line utilities without requiring users to build an API application.
Why not just use the API?
The API is appropriate for applications and programmatic workloads. This use case is different: it is primarily another user interface to ChatGPT, analogous to choosing the web or desktop interface.
Ideally, signing in with a ChatGPT account would therefore use the user’s ChatGPT subscription/usage entitlement rather than requiring separate API billing.
Security is also an important reason for a first-party CLI
Unofficial command-line clients exist, but some approaches require users to trust third-party software with authentication/session information. Many users understandably won’t provide browser cookies or account session credentials to an unofficial client.
An OpenAI-maintained CLI with supported account authentication would provide a trusted alternative.
Where I think it fits
I see four complementary interfaces:
- ChatGPT web/desktop — graphical conversational interface
- ChatGPT CLI — general conversational interface for terminals and shell workflows
- Codex CLI — agentic software-development interface
- OpenAI API — programmatic/application interface
This would be particularly useful for Linux users, WSL users, remote-development environments, SSH workflows, researchers, writers, system administrators and developers who spend much of their working day in a terminal.
Other AI ecosystems are beginning to demonstrate how useful a subscription-authenticated general-purpose CLI can be. I think an official first-party ChatGPT equivalent would be a significant addition to the ChatGPT ecosystem.
Previous discussion
A similar request titled “Please consider an official ChatGPT CLI” was acknowledged by OpenAI Support in July 2026, with the feedback being passed to the engineering team. That topic is now closed, so this post expands on the general-purpose, subscription-authenticated CLI use case.