Add ask-web and tts: the two AI tools we already pay for

.claude-plugin/marketplace.json

@@ -63,6 +63,25 @@
         "llm"
       ]
     },
+    {
+      "name": "ai",
+      "description": "Ask a question and get an answer from the live web with the pages it came from, numbered to match the markers in the text, and read text aloud in a named voice. The paid APIs worth a command: a grounded answer you can check, and speech you can keep.",
+      "source": "./plugins/ai",
+      "category": "productivity",
+      "author": {
+        "name": "profullstack",
+        "url": "https://profullstack.com"
+      },
+      "homepage": "https://github.com/profullstack/cli-tools#ask-web",
+      "keywords": [
+        "search",
+        "citations",
+        "perplexity",
+        "tts",
+        "speech",
+        "elevenlabs"
+      ]
+    },
     {
       "name": "bo",
       "description": "BufferOverride from the terminal: wrap a failing command, keep what it printed with the environment that produced it, strip the secrets, and find the existing answer before asking. Answers declare the versions they are valid for, who or what wrote them, and how many people reproduced them.",

README.md

@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ TypeScript, installed as executables on `PATH`.
 | [`domainjson`](#domainjson) | whois-style, JSON-first name lookup |
 | [`domainfree`](#domainfree) | Which of these domains you can actually register |
 | [`blog-post`](#blog-post) | Publish to a plain-HTML blog without breaking the feed |
+| [`ask-web`](#ask-web) | Answer a question from the live web, with its sources |
+| [`tts`](#tts) | Read text aloud and keep the audio |
 
 ## Requirements
 
@@ -93,8 +95,9 @@ ln -sf ~/scripts/bin/gh-prs-merge ~/.local/bin/gh-prs-merge   # and so on
 
 ## API keys
 
-`generate-names` needs an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Store one once, and nothing
-has to carry it in an environment again:
+Four commands here call a paid API: `generate-names` (OpenAI or Anthropic),
+`ask-web` (Perplexity) and `tts` (ElevenLabs). Store the keys once, and nothing
+has to carry them in an environment again:
 
 ```sh
 cli-tools config pull              # import them from the logicsrc team vault
@@ -125,8 +128,8 @@ obscurely.
 **It imports only the keys these commands read, and leaves the rest in the
 vault.** Copying a whole vault down would make the local file a second copy of
 every team secret that nobody remembers to invalidate — which is the thing the
-vault exists to avoid. The vault stays the authority; this is a cache of the two
-or three keys `generate-names` actually needs.
+vault exists to avoid. The vault stays the authority; this is a cache of the
+handful of keys these commands actually read.
 
 `logicsrc teams pull` can only write a decrypted `.env` to a path, so the
 plaintext exists for the length of one read: it goes to a `0700` temporary
@@ -143,6 +146,12 @@ carries the same masked previews, not the values.
 | --- | --- | --- |
 | `openai` | `OPENAI_API_KEY` | `generate-names` |
 | `anthropic` | `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` | `generate-names` |
+| `perplexity` | `PERPLEXITY_API_KEY` | `ask-web` |
+| `elevenlabs` | `ELEVENLABS_API_KEY` | `tts` |
+
+A key earns a row here by being read by a command in this repository, not by
+being a key the team owns. The vault holds more than twice as many; the rest
+stay in it.
 
 **The environment wins over the file.** A key exported in your shell or injected
 by CI overrides a stored one, so a one-off `OPENAI_API_KEY=… generate-names …`
@@ -421,6 +430,68 @@ What it refuses to do:
 `check` reports missing, unparseable and future dates, empty descriptions and a
 missing `<h1>`, and exits non-zero, so it works as a pre-publish gate.
 
+### `ask-web`
+
+Answers a question from a live web search and prints the pages the answer came
+from, numbered to match the `[n]` markers in the text:
+
+```sh
+ask-web "what is the latest Node LTS" --recency month
+# The latest stable Node.js LTS version is v24.19.0.[3][5]
+#
+# Sources:
+#   [1] Node.js — https://endoflife.date/nodejs (2026-08-06)
+#   [3] Node.js 24.19.0 (LTS) — https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v24.19.0 (2026-08-03)
+```
+
+```sh
+ask-web "…" --domains nodejs.org,github.com   # only these hosts
+ask-web "…" --model sonar-pro                 # search wider
+ask-web "…" --bare                            # prose only, for piping
+ask-web "…" --json                            # answer and sources as JSON
+```
+
+It is not named `ask` because that name is already taken on `PATH` here, and a
+command that shadows another one silently is worse than a longer name.
+
+**The sources are the feature.** An answer whose `[1]` resolves to nothing is
+indistinguishable from an answer that was invented, so two fields of the
+response are treated differently on purpose: `citations` is a positional URL
+list whose order *is* the numbering, while `search_results` carries the titles in
+whatever order it likes and is joined on by URL. Numbering from `search_results`
+would mislabel every source. When the answer cites a marker no source backs,
+that is reported on stderr rather than dropped.
+
+Answers go to stdout and status to stderr, so `ask-web … | pbcopy` gets prose.
+
+### `tts`
+
+Reads text aloud with ElevenLabs and keeps the audio, printing the path it
+wrote:
+
+```sh
+tts "the deploy finished"          # → the-deploy-finished.mp3
+mpv "$(tts 'build is green')"
+cat post.md | tts --voice George --out post.mp3
+tts --voices                       # the account's voices, by name and ID
+```
+
+The file is named after the text rather than a timestamp, because a directory of
+`speech-1755794400.mp3` tells you nothing about which one it was.
+
+A voice can be given as an ID, a full label, or just the human part of it —
+the account's are called things like `River - Relaxed, Neutral, Informative`,
+which nobody is going to type. An ambiguous prefix is an error naming the
+candidates rather than a pick of the first match: choosing one would be a coin
+flip that changes narrator the day the account gains a voice, with nothing on
+screen to explain why. A voice given as an ID skips the lookup entirely, so
+`--voice <id>` works on a key whose plan cannot list voices.
+
+`--stability`, `--similarity` and `--style` take 0–1. Nothing is sent unless you
+ask: a full settings object would override whatever the voice was tuned with in
+the dashboard, on an account other people share. Synthesis spends characters from
+that shared quota, and nothing here retries, so a failed call never costs twice.
+
 ## As a moshcode plugin
 
 This repo is also a plugin marketplace:

bin/ask-web.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env -S npx --yes tsx
+/**
+ * ask-web — answer a question from the live web, with the sources attached.
+ *
+ *   ask-web "what changed in the EU AI act this month" --recency month
+ *
+ * Not named `ask`: that name is already taken on PATH here, and a command that
+ * shadows another one silently is worse than a longer name.
+ */
+
+import { UsageError, csv, integer, parseArgs } from '../src/args.ts';
+import {
+  DEFAULT_MODEL,
+  MODELS,
+  type Model,
+  RECENCY,
+  type Recency,
+  askWeb,
+  formatAnswer,
+  perplexityCaller,
+} from '../src/ask-web.ts';
+import { resolveCredentials } from '../src/credentials.ts';
+import { isMain } from '../src/is-main.ts';
+
+const USAGE = `Usage:
+  ask-web "<question>"
+  ask-web "what shipped in Node 24" --recency month --domains nodejs.org
+
+Answers from a live web search and prints the pages it used, numbered to match
+the [n] markers in the answer.
+
+Options:
+      --model M      ${MODELS.join(' | ')}
+                     (default: ${DEFAULT_MODEL})
+      --recency R    only pages from the last ${RECENCY.join(' | ')}
+      --domains A,B  restrict the search to these hosts
+      --max-tokens N cap the answer length
+      --bare         print the answer only, no source list
+      --json         the whole answer as JSON, sources included
+      --timeout MS   API timeout (default: 60000)
+  -h, --help         show this help
+
+Needs a Perplexity key. Store one once:
+
+  cli-tools config set perplexity     # prompts, nothing echoed or logged
+  cli-tools config                    # what is set, and where it came from
+
+kept 0600 in ~/.config/cli-tools/credentials.json. PERPLEXITY_API_KEY still
+works and takes precedence over a stored key.
+
+The answer goes to stdout and nothing else does, so it pipes cleanly.
+`;
+
+if (isMain(import.meta.url)) {
+  try {
+    const { flags, values, positional } = parseArgs(process.argv.slice(2), {
+      boolean: ['-h', '--help', '--bare', '--json'],
+      string: ['--model', '--recency', '--domains', '--max-tokens', '--timeout'],
+    });
+
+    if (flags.has('-h') || flags.has('--help') || positional.length === 0) {
+      process.stdout.write(USAGE);
+      process.exit(positional.length === 0 && !flags.has('-h') && !flags.has('--help') ? 1 : 0);
+    }
+
+    const question = positional.join(' ').trim();
+    if (question.length < 3) throw new UsageError('ask an actual question');
+
+    const model = values.get('--model') ?? DEFAULT_MODEL;
+    if (!MODELS.includes(model as Model)) {
+      throw new UsageError(`unknown model: ${model} (expected ${MODELS.join(', ')})`);
+    }
+
+    const recency = values.get('--recency');
+    if (recency !== undefined && !RECENCY.includes(recency as Recency)) {
+      throw new UsageError(`--recency must be ${RECENCY.join(', ')}, got "${recency}"`);
+    }
+
+    const timeout = integer(values, '--timeout', 60_000, { min: 1000, max: 600_000 });
+    const maxTokens = values.has('--max-tokens')
+      ? integer(values, '--max-tokens', 0, { min: 1, max: 32_000 })
+      : undefined;
+
+    // Stored keys first, environment on top — see src/credentials.ts.
+    const credentials = resolveCredentials(process.env);
+    const apiKey = credentials['PERPLEXITY_API_KEY'];
+    if (!apiKey) {
+      throw new UsageError(
+        'no Perplexity key — run `cli-tools config set perplexity`, ' +
+          'or export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY',
+      );
+    }
+
+    const answer = await askWeb(question, perplexityCaller(apiKey, timeout), {
+      model,
+      ...(recency ? { recency: recency as Recency } : {}),
+      domains: csv(values, '--domains'),
+      ...(maxTokens !== undefined ? { maxTokens } : {}),
+    });
+
+    process.stdout.write(
+      flags.has('--json')
+        ? `${JSON.stringify(answer, null, 2)}\n`
+        : formatAnswer(answer, { bare: flags.has('--bare') }),
+    );
+
+    // Status on stderr so it never lands in a pipe. The dangling-citation line
+    // is the one worth reading: it means the answer cited something the search
+    // did not return.
+    process.stderr.write(`${answer.sources.length} sources · ${answer.model}\n`);
+    if (answer.danglingCitations.length > 0) {
+      process.stderr.write(
+        `warning: cites [${answer.danglingCitations.join('], [')}] with no matching source\n`,
+      );
+    }
+  } catch (error) {
+    if (error instanceof UsageError) {
+      process.stderr.write(`ask-web: ${error.message}\n`);
+      process.exit(1);
+    }
+    process.stderr.write(`ask-web: ${error instanceof Error ? error.message : error}\n`);
+    process.exit(2);
+  }
+}