File Attachments

Attach images, PDFs, and text files to any prompt. ra detects the MIME type and sends the content in the right format for each provider.

CLI

Use the --file flag. Multiple files can be attached:

ra --file screenshot.png "What's wrong with this UI?"
ra --file report.pdf --file data.csv "Summarize both files"
ra --file architecture.png --file spec.md "Does the implementation match the spec?"

REPL

Use /attach to add files to your next message:

› /attach architecture.png
› /attach requirements.md
› How should we refactor this?

Attached files are sent with the next message you type, then cleared.

Supported formats

ra detects the MIME type automatically and sends files in the format each provider expects.

Format	How it's sent	Notes
Images (PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP)	Vision content block	Requires a vision-capable model
PDFs	Document content block	Sent as base64
Text files (.ts, .md, .json, etc.)	Inlined as text	Content included directly in the message
Other	Inlined as text	Best-effort text extraction

Provider support

All providers support text file attachments. Image and PDF support varies:

Provider	Images	PDFs
Anthropic	Yes	Yes
OpenAI	Yes	No (inlined as text)
Google	Yes	Yes
Azure	Yes	No (inlined as text)
Bedrock	Yes	Yes
Ollama	Depends on model	No

See also

• CLI — --file flag usage
• REPL — /attach command
• Pattern Resolution — inline @file references as an alternative