Provide documentation to set defaults

[igorgatis]

I struggled to find a way to setup defaults. I'd like to make responses shorter and wrap at 80 cols. I know that's possible with templates, I'm looking for a way to set the default template so I don't need to specify it every time.

It would be nice if there was documentation or even a bootstrap command to write initial config files so one can tweak the default behavior. I'd send a PR if I knew how to do it. :)

Example of other kinds of defaults people may want:

• Provide context about the runtime environment: system: if the use input relates to computer program, remember you're running on OS foo and shell bar
• Choose specific language: system: I speak English, Portuguese and Mandarin, pick the best option while replying
• Enhance response: system: you may include ANSI sequences and emojis

[simonw]

Oh interesting! So you're looking for a way to set a default system prompt that's used each time?

I'm worried about adding that to llm core because it might break its usage in other shell scripts - I have plenty of scripts on my own system that wrap llm and I wouldn't want those breaking because I set a new default system prompt and forgot it would affect them.

Instead, I suggest setting up your own alias. Here's an example for zsh (put this at the end of ~/.zshrc)

alias lm='function _lm() { llm -s "keep answers concise" "$@" }; _lm'

[igorgatis]

That makes sense. I end up with:

llm --system 'keep answers concise, no markdown' --save concise

Then added alias lm='function _lm() { llm -t concise "$@" }; _lm'.

My point was about adding documentation about it. I guess I had .cursorrules in mind when spent time trying to find the same feature in llm. Perhaps this very issue suffices as doc!