Docker-based wrapper to run Mentat

Mentat is an AI tool that assists with any coding task directly from the command line.

This projects makes it easier to use it: In the command line, go into whatever coding directory you want to use mentat with. Then just type mentat and you're ready to go! (without needing to worry about a python and mentat installation on your computer). Mentat will make commits in your git name or you can let it use a custom git configuration.

Setup

1. Clone this repository
2. Add a file .env with your OpenAI API key (OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-... - see .env.example)

Simplify usage so that you don't have to call it with the full path /path/to/mentat/bin/mentat every time:

• Create a symlink from bin/mentat into your $PATH so that you can easily run the wrapper script from anywhere on your computer, e.g. ln -s /path/to/mentat/bin/mentat ~/.local/bin/mentat

Configuration

This wrapper can automatically use your Mentat configuration. E.g. you can create a ~/.mentat/.mentat_config.json with

{
    "model": "gpt-4-1106-preview"
}

and Mentat will always use this model. Alternatively add a per-project .mentat-config.json into the directory you want to work on.

By default mentat will make commits with the same git name as if you would make a git commit (by reading ~/.gitconfig). You can change that by specifying another config file it should use: GITCONFIG=/path/to/.gitconfig mentat

Usage

In the command line: Go into the directory containing the code you want to work on with Mentat. Start the wrapper script bin/mentat - if you created the symlink you just need to type mentat. Mentat will spin up and you can ask your questions. No files are automatically added to the context because context would quickly get large (queries can get more expensive) / too large - add the files/folders you want to have as context with /include .... See the Mentat Readme for further information and introduction videos

Explanations

Dockerfile: The container is based on Debian and is also available on Docker Hub: holybiber/mentat. I decided for Debian to make it easier to integrate Firefox / Chromium in the future.

docker-compose.yml: Docker compose setup, make git and mentat configuration available to the container

bin/mentat: Wrapper for docker compose to be able to run mentat easily

Contributing

This is a first working version - feedback and suggestions welcome.

Known issues:

Mentat's /screenshot functionality isn't working yet (it didn't work by just installing firefox-esr or chromium into the docker container)