ai

Natural Language Search

Translate natural-language prompts into structured search filters. Use dry-run mode to preview interpretation before running a full search.

Filter Translation Dry-Run Preview Explanation Support

Prerequisites

The ai command requires a configured AI provider. By default, FileFortress uses Microsoft Foundry Local — a local LLM runtime that keeps your queries on your machine.

Quick setup (one-time):

# 1. Install Microsoft Foundry Local from Microsoft

# 2. Detect the Foundry tool

filefortress tools detect --force

# 3. Enable and set as active AI provider

filefortress tools configure foundry --enable

# 4. Verify it works

filefortress ai "find images" --dry-run

Using a different provider? FileFortress supports any OpenAI-compatible endpoint — Ollama, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, OpenRouter, and more. See the Local AI Setup Guide and the tools command for full configuration details.

Syntax

filefortress ai "natural language query" [options]

The query argument is required and should describe file-search intent (media type, size, date, remote, path, etc.).

Options

Option	Description	Example
`--dry-run`	Interpret query and show filters without executing search	`ai "find images under 5kb" --dry-run`
`--explain`	Show explanation of how the prompt was interpreted	`ai "recent videos" --explain`
`--view`	Control search result format after translation	`ai "find png files" --view summary`
`--save-to-file`	Accepted for compatibility; persistence not implemented for ai output	`ai "find photos" --save-to-file out.txt`

Prompt Patterns That Work

Strong Prompt

ai "find images smaller than 5kb"

Maps directly to media type + size filter.

Weak Prompt

ai "how many remotes do i have?"

Account question, not a search filter query.

Use the right command for account questions

For remote counts and account state, use filefortress remotes list. Use ai when your intent is file discovery.

Examples

Basic AI search

filefortress ai "find images"

Preview interpretation first

filefortress ai "find images smaller than 5kb" --dry-run

Inspect reasoning + filters

filefortress ai "find images smaller than 5kb" --dry-run --explain

AI Provider Management

FileFortress supports multiple AI providers. Only one is active at a time.

Configuring Foundry (Default)

# Enable Foundry (auto-detects endpoint, sets as active)

filefortress tools configure foundry --enable

# Enable with a specific model

filefortress tools configure foundry --enable --model phi-4-mini

# Change model on already-enabled provider

filefortress tools configure foundry --model "phi-4-openvino-gpu:1"

# Disable Foundry

filefortress tools configure foundry --disable

Switching Providers

When you enable Foundry with --enable, it is automatically set as the active AI provider. FileFortress stores provider configurations so you can switch between them. For configuring other providers (Ollama, OpenAI, Azure, OpenRouter), see the Local AI Setup Guide.

Supported Providers

Microsoft Foundry Local — default, local

Ollama — local, any open-weight model

OpenAI — cloud

Azure OpenAI — cloud, enterprise

OpenRouter — cloud, multi-model

Any OpenAI-compatible — self-hosted

Troubleshooting

Provider 400 with Foundry

Commonly caused by model mismatch. Configure the exact model ID reported by your endpoint.

filefortress tools configure foundry --model "phi-4-openvino-gpu:1"

AI could not extract any search filters

Rephrase with explicit search intent (media type, size, date, remote, path). Use --dry-run --explain to validate translation before execution.

Continue Learning

Explore deeper guidance for prompt design and troubleshooting workflows.

Local AI Setup Guide AI Query Patterns AI Troubleshooting Tools Command