explain is a fast C++ CLI utility that sends natural-language queries from your terminal to Google's Gemini API and returns customized explanations directly in your shell. Built using modern C++ and CMake.

Installation

1. Enable the COPR repository

sudo dnf copr enable saturno/explain

2. Install explain

sudo dnf install explain

3. Configure your Gemini API key

explain uses Google's Gemini API to generate responses. You must provide a Gemini API key through the GEMINI_API_KEY environment variable.

Get an API key from Google AI Studio, then run:

export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Note: The API key is required every time explain is run unless you configure the environment variable permanently in your shell configuration.

For Bash, you can make it persistent with:

echo 'export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-api-key"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

4. Run explain

You can now pass a question or request directly to the command:

explain how do I use curl?

For example:

explain what does chmod 755 do?

explain how does a TCP handshake work?

The command-line arguments are sent as a query to Google's Gemini API, and the generated response is displayed directly in your terminal.