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Pieces CLI UX problems + bug #622

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Pieces CLI UX problems + bug#622
@brandonzylstra

Description

@brandonzylstra
brandonzylstra
opened on Jul 9, 2025

Take a look at this session:

brandon@Air ~ % which pieces
/opt/homebrew/bin/pieces
brandon@Air ~ % pieces --help
It looks like this is your first time using the Pieces CLI.
Would you like to start onboarding [y/n/skip]: y
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃                                          Welcome to the Pieces CLI                                          ┃
┃                               Remember Anything and Interact with Everything                                ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
Whenever you want to exit the onboarding flow type `exit`.
✅ PiecesOS is running
Step 1: Sign into Pieces
You must be signed in to use Pieces. Type pieces login to sign into an account.                                
brandon@Air.local brandon$ pieces login
Signed in as Brandon Zylstra
email: brandon.zylstra@gmail.com
Press any key to proceed

Step 2: Save a Material
Let's get started by saving a material to Pieces. Copy the following python material:                          

                                                                                                               
 import requests                                                                                               
 response = requests.get("https://pieces.app")                                                                 
 print(response.text)                                                                                          
                                                                                                               
Press any key to proceed

You can save the material by typing pieces create                                                              
brandon@Air.local brandon$ pieces create

############################

Content to save: 

############################

import requests
response = requests.get("https://pieces.app")
print(response.text)

Do you want to save this content? [y/n]: y
Saving...

Material successfully saved. Use pieces list to view.                                                          
Step 3: Open your Saved materials
Now, let's view all of your saved materials by typing pieces list.                                             
brandon@Air.local brandon$ pieces list

Code content:
import requests

    def connect_to_pieces_os(port):
        endpoint = f"http://localhost:{port}/connect"
        seeded_application = {
            'application': {
                      "'name': 'OPEN_SOURCE',
                      'version': '0.0.1"',
                    ‘platform’: 'MACOS',

            response   requests.    (endpoint, json=seeded_ application)

            if not response.
                raise Exception(f"HTTP error! status: {response.

            context = response.    ()
            return context

        except Exception as error:
            print('Error:', error)
            ralse error

Step 4: Start a Session
Starting a session allows you to run multiple commands without having to start the Pieces CLI every time.Start 
a session with pieces run. To exit your session, use exit.                                                     
brandon@Air.local brandon$ pieces run

############################

Pieces CLI Started

############################

Operating System: macOS-15.5-arm64-arm-64bit-Mach-O
 Python Version: 3.13.5
 PiecesOS Version: 12.1.0
 Pieces CLI Version: 1.15.2
 Application: PIECES_FOR_DEVELOPERS_CLI

Enter command:
  'help' to see all commands
  '-h' after a command to see detailed help
  'exit' to quit

Ready...

############################

User: brandon
Invalid command: 'brandon'
Did you mean run?
User: exit

Exiting...

Step 5: Chat with the Copilot
Start a chat with the Copilot by using pieces ask 'How to print I love Pieces CLI in Python and Java'.         
brandon@Air.local brandon$ pieces ask 'Why is the pieces CLI UX so painful?'
❌ Wrong command. Please use: pieces ask 'How to print I love Pieces CLI in Python and Java'                   
brandon@Air.local brandon$ pieces ask 'How to print I love Pieces CLI in Python and Java'
Command failed: ask
1 validation error for Model
foundation
  value is not a valid enumeration member; permitted: 'UNKNOWN', 'GPT_3.5', 'GPT_4', 'T5', 'LLAMA_2_7B', 
'LLAMA_2_13B', 'LLAMA_2_70B', 'LLAMA_3_2B', 'LLAMA_3_13B', 'LLAMA_3_70B', 'CODE_LLAMA_2_7B', 
'CODE_LLAMA_2_13B', 'CODE_LLAMA_2_70B', 'BARD', 'ALPACA_7B', 'ALPACA_13B', 'ALPACA_33B', 'ALPACA_65B', 
'VICUNA_7B', 'VICUNA_13B', 'VICUNA_33B', 'VICUNA_65B', 'GUANACO_7B', 'GUANACO_13B', 'GUANACO_33B', 
'GUANACO_65B', 'OPENLLAMA_7B', 'OPENLLAMA_13B', 'GORILLA_7B', 'GORILLA_13B', 'GORILLA_33B', 'GORILLA_65B', 
'WIZARDLM_7B', 'WIZARDLM_13B', 'WIZARDLM_30B', 'YULANCHAT_13B', 'YULANCHAT_65B', 'REDPAJAMA_3B', 
'REDPAJAMA_7B', 'REDPAJAMA_13B', 'REDPAJAMA_33B', 'REDPAJAMA_65B', 'DOLLY_70M', 'DOLLY_160M', 'DOLLY_410M', 
'DOLLY_1B', 'DOLLY_1.4B', 'DOLLY_2.8B', 'DOLLY_6.9B', 'DOLLY_12B', 'PYTHIA_70M', 'PYTHIA_160M', 'PYTHIA_410M', 
'PYTHIA_1B', 'PYTHIA_1.4B', 'PYTHIA_2.8B', 'PYTHIA_6.9B', 'PYTHIA_12B', 'MOSS_7B', 'MOSS_13B', 'RMKV_LM_100M', 
'RMKV_LM_400M', 'RMKV_LM_1.5B', 'RMKV_LM_3B', 'RMKV_LM_7B', 'RMKV_LM_14B', 'STARCODER_15.5B', 
'WIZARDCODER_15B', 'SANTACODER_1.1B', 'TEXT_BISON', 'TEXTEMBEDDING_GECKO', 'CHAT_BISON', 'CODE_BISON', 
'CODECHAT_BISON', 'CODE_GECKO', 'DISTILROBERTA', 'MISTRAL_7B', 'GEMINI', 'GEMINI_1.5', 'GEMINI_2', 'FAST_TEXT',
'UNIXCODER', 'PHI_1.5', 'PHI_2', 'MIXTRAL_8_x_7B', 'MIXTRAL_8_x_22B', 'GEMMA_7B', 'GEMMA_2B', 'CODE_GEMMA_7B', 
'CODE_GEMMA_2B', 'RECURRENT_GEMMA_2B', 'GROK_1', 'GROK_1.5', 'CLAUDE_2', 'CLAUDE_3', 'STARLING_7B', 'DBRX', 
'COMMAND_R+', 'GEMMA_1.1_2B', 'GEMMA_1.1_7B', 'GEMMA_2_9B', 'PHI_3_MINI', 'PHI_3_SMALL', 'GRANITE_3B', 
'GRANITE_8B', 'LLAMA_3_8B', 'CLAUDE_3.5', 'CLAUDE_LATEST', 'GRANITE_LATEST', 'LLAMA_LATEST', 'PHI_LATEST', 
'GEMMA_LATEST', 'GEMINI_LATEST', 'GPT_LATEST', 'AZURE_LATEST', 'AZURE_FAST', 'AZURE_BEST', 'AZURE_DEFAULT', 
'AZURE_CUSTOM', 'PERPLEXITY_LATEST', 'PERPLEXITY_FAST', 'PERPLEXITY_BEST', 'PERPLEXITY_DEFAULT', 
'PERPLEXITY_CUSTOM', 'CODESTRAL_LATEST', 'DEEPSEEK_LATEST', 'LLAVA_LATEST', 'MIXTRAL_LATEST', 'MISTRAL_LATEST',
'ORCA_LATEST', 'QWEN_CODER_LATEST', 'QWEN_LATEST', 'QWQ_LATEST', 'STARCODER_LATEST', 'TINYLLAMA_LATEST', 
'VICUNA_LATEST', 'WIZARD_LATEST', 'ZEPHYR_LATEST', 'POTION' (type=type_error.enum; 
enum_values=[<ModelFoundationEnum.UNKNOWN: 'UNKNOWN'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GPT_3_DOT_5: 'GPT_3.5'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.GPT_4: 'GPT_4'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.T5: 'T5'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.LLAMA_2_7_B: 
'LLAMA_2_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.LLAMA_2_13_B: 'LLAMA_2_13B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.LLAMA_2_70_B: 
'LLAMA_2_70B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.LLAMA_3_2_B: 'LLAMA_3_2B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.LLAMA_3_13_B: 
'LLAMA_3_13B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.LLAMA_3_70_B: 'LLAMA_3_70B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.CODE_LLAMA_2_7_B: 
'CODE_LLAMA_2_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.CODE_LLAMA_2_13_B: 'CODE_LLAMA_2_13B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.CODE_LLAMA_2_70_B: 'CODE_LLAMA_2_70B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.BARD: 'BARD'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.ALPACA_7_B: 'ALPACA_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.ALPACA_13_B: 'ALPACA_13B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.ALPACA_33_B: 'ALPACA_33B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.ALPACA_65_B: 'ALPACA_65B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.VICUNA_7_B: 'VICUNA_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.VICUNA_13_B: 'VICUNA_13B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.VICUNA_33_B: 'VICUNA_33B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.VICUNA_65_B: 'VICUNA_65B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.GUANACO_7_B: 'GUANACO_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GUANACO_13_B: 'GUANACO_13B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.GUANACO_33_B: 'GUANACO_33B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GUANACO_65_B: 'GUANACO_65B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.OPENLLAMA_7_B: 'OPENLLAMA_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.OPENLLAMA_13_B: 'OPENLLAMA_13B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.GORILLA_7_B: 'GORILLA_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GORILLA_13_B: 'GORILLA_13B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.GORILLA_33_B: 'GORILLA_33B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GORILLA_65_B: 'GORILLA_65B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.WIZARDLM_7_B: 'WIZARDLM_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.WIZARDLM_13_B: 'WIZARDLM_13B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.WIZARDLM_30_B: 'WIZARDLM_30B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.YULANCHAT_13_B: 'YULANCHAT_13B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.YULANCHAT_65_B: 'YULANCHAT_65B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.REDPAJAMA_3_B: 'REDPAJAMA_3B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.REDPAJAMA_7_B: 'REDPAJAMA_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.REDPAJAMA_13_B: 'REDPAJAMA_13B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.REDPAJAMA_33_B: 'REDPAJAMA_33B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.REDPAJAMA_65_B: 'REDPAJAMA_65B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.DOLLY_70_M: 'DOLLY_70M'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.DOLLY_160_M: 'DOLLY_160M'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.DOLLY_410_M: 'DOLLY_410M'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.DOLLY_1_B: 'DOLLY_1B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.DOLLY_1_DOT_4_B: 'DOLLY_1.4B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.DOLLY_2_DOT_8_B: 'DOLLY_2.8B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.DOLLY_6_DOT_9_B: 'DOLLY_6.9B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.DOLLY_12_B: 'DOLLY_12B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.PYTHIA_70_M: 'PYTHIA_70M'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.PYTHIA_160_M: 'PYTHIA_160M'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.PYTHIA_410_M: 'PYTHIA_410M'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.PYTHIA_1_B: 'PYTHIA_1B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.PYTHIA_1_DOT_4_B: 'PYTHIA_1.4B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.PYTHIA_2_DOT_8_B: 'PYTHIA_2.8B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.PYTHIA_6_DOT_9_B: 'PYTHIA_6.9B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.PYTHIA_12_B: 'PYTHIA_12B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.MOSS_7_B: 'MOSS_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.MOSS_13_B: 'MOSS_13B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.RMKV_LM_100_M: 'RMKV_LM_100M'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.RMKV_LM_400_M: 'RMKV_LM_400M'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.RMKV_LM_1_DOT_5_B: 'RMKV_LM_1.5B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.RMKV_LM_3_B: 'RMKV_LM_3B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.RMKV_LM_7_B: 'RMKV_LM_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.RMKV_LM_14_B: 'RMKV_LM_14B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.STARCODER_15_DOT_5_B: 'STARCODER_15.5B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.WIZARDCODER_15_B: 
'WIZARDCODER_15B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.SANTACODER_1_DOT_1_B: 'SANTACODER_1.1B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.TEXT_BISON: 'TEXT_BISON'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.TEXTEMBEDDING_GECKO: 
'TEXTEMBEDDING_GECKO'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.CHAT_BISON: 'CHAT_BISON'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.CODE_BISON: 
'CODE_BISON'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.CODECHAT_BISON: 'CODECHAT_BISON'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.CODE_GECKO: 
'CODE_GECKO'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.DISTILROBERTA: 'DISTILROBERTA'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.MISTRAL_7_B: 
'MISTRAL_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GEMINI: 'GEMINI'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GEMINI_1_DOT_5: 'GEMINI_1.5'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.GEMINI_2: 'GEMINI_2'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.FAST_TEXT: 'FAST_TEXT'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.UNIXCODER: 'UNIXCODER'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.PHI_1_DOT_5: 'PHI_1.5'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.PHI_2: 'PHI_2'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.MIXTRAL_8_X_7_B: 'MIXTRAL_8_x_7B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.MIXTRAL_8_X_22_B: 'MIXTRAL_8_x_22B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GEMMA_7_B: 'GEMMA_7B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.GEMMA_2_B: 'GEMMA_2B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.CODE_GEMMA_7_B: 'CODE_GEMMA_7B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.CODE_GEMMA_2_B: 'CODE_GEMMA_2B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.RECURRENT_GEMMA_2_B: 
'RECURRENT_GEMMA_2B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GROK_1: 'GROK_1'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GROK_1_DOT_5: 'GROK_1.5'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.CLAUDE_2: 'CLAUDE_2'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.CLAUDE_3: 'CLAUDE_3'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.STARLING_7_B: 'STARLING_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.DBRX: 'DBRX'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.COMMAND_R_PLUS: 'COMMAND_R+'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GEMMA_1_DOT_1_2_B: 'GEMMA_1.1_2B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.GEMMA_1_DOT_1_7_B: 'GEMMA_1.1_7B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GEMMA_2_9_B: 'GEMMA_2_9B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.PHI_3_MINI: 'PHI_3_MINI'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.PHI_3_SMALL: 'PHI_3_SMALL'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.GRANITE_3_B: 'GRANITE_3B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GRANITE_8_B: 'GRANITE_8B'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.LLAMA_3_8_B: 'LLAMA_3_8B'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.CLAUDE_3_DOT_5: 'CLAUDE_3.5'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.CLAUDE_LATEST: 'CLAUDE_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GRANITE_LATEST: 'GRANITE_LATEST'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.LLAMA_LATEST: 'LLAMA_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.PHI_LATEST: 'PHI_LATEST'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.GEMMA_LATEST: 'GEMMA_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.GEMINI_LATEST: 'GEMINI_LATEST'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.GPT_LATEST: 'GPT_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.AZURE_LATEST: 'AZURE_LATEST'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.AZURE_FAST: 'AZURE_FAST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.AZURE_BEST: 'AZURE_BEST'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.AZURE_DEFAULT: 'AZURE_DEFAULT'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.AZURE_CUSTOM: 'AZURE_CUSTOM'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.PERPLEXITY_LATEST: 'PERPLEXITY_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.PERPLEXITY_FAST: 
'PERPLEXITY_FAST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.PERPLEXITY_BEST: 'PERPLEXITY_BEST'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.PERPLEXITY_DEFAULT: 'PERPLEXITY_DEFAULT'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.PERPLEXITY_CUSTOM: 
'PERPLEXITY_CUSTOM'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.CODESTRAL_LATEST: 'CODESTRAL_LATEST'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.DEEPSEEK_LATEST: 'DEEPSEEK_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.LLAVA_LATEST: 'LLAVA_LATEST'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.MIXTRAL_LATEST: 'MIXTRAL_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.MISTRAL_LATEST: 'MISTRAL_LATEST'>,
<ModelFoundationEnum.ORCA_LATEST: 'ORCA_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.QWEN_CODER_LATEST: 'QWEN_CODER_LATEST'>,
<ModelFoundationEnum.QWEN_LATEST: 'QWEN_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.QWQ_LATEST: 'QWQ_LATEST'>, 
<ModelFoundationEnum.STARCODER_LATEST: 'STARCODER_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.TINYLLAMA_LATEST: 
'TINYLLAMA_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.VICUNA_LATEST: 'VICUNA_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.WIZARD_LATEST: 
'WIZARD_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.ZEPHYR_LATEST: 'ZEPHYR_LATEST'>, <ModelFoundationEnum.POTION: 
'POTION'>])
brandon@Air ~ %
  1. Disregarding user commands does not get the relationship off on the right foot.

I issued the command pieces --help, but this was completely ignored, and instead I was launched into an onboarding process. That doesn't set a positive tone.

  1. Limited options don't make it clear whether the onboarding can be done later.

If I were to skip it, would I lose my chance?

  1. Deceiving the user to make it look like the user is in the shell when they are not does not engender trust.

The prompt brandon@Air.local brandon$ was close enough to my normal prompt that I didn't notice at first that I was not actually using the shell. This sort of deception is the sort of thing one would expect from malware writers.

At first I thought something had redefined my prompt, but later when other things didn't work properly (keystrokes which would work at a shell prompt) I realized I was not at the shell prompt.

  1. "A material"

What is "a material"? Do you mean a snippet?

There are more problems but I can't remember exactly how everything went before it all blew up in my face. It was certainly confusing, though.

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