Enhance /ask with a parameter for the length of chat history to use as context

[srdas]

Problem

Currently the /ask command will use the two previous interactions (k=2) in conversation history as context. When switching to a different topic of conversation forgetting the current context is useful (k=0). Or, it may be necessary to use a longer conversation chain instead to have bigger context (k>2).

Proposed Solution

Modify the /ask command to take a parameter for the size (n) of conversation history to use, such as:

`/ask k=n <prompt>`

Related code in ask.py:

• jupyter-ai/packages/jupyter-ai/jupyter_ai/chat_handlers/ask.py

  Line 52 in 465d991

  memory_key="chat_history", return_messages=True, k=2

Related code in default.py:

• jupyter-ai/packages/jupyter-ai/jupyter_ai/chat_handlers/default.py

  Line 21 in 465d991

  self.memory = ConversationBufferWindowMemory(return_messages=True, k=2)

• jupyter-ai/packages/jupyter-ai/jupyter_ai/chat_handlers/default.py

  Line 35 in 465d991

  return_messages=llm.is_chat_provider, k=2

Additional context

There are other issues that are related to this one (partially or directly):

• Multi-conversation management: Add multi-conversation management #813
• Clear chat message history: New command to clear chat message history #616
• Clear history with /ask command: Option to clear history with /ask command #428
• Attribute chat history to individual users: Make the chat message history user-specific #619
• Chat memory reset when selecting a new LLM: Chat memory is reset when selecting new LLM #716
• Chat history in magics: Chat history in notebook magics for Chat model providers #392
• Chat editing Enable chat editing #339

[srdas]

Closing this issue as there are two other issues that cover some of the same functionality:
(1) Update functionality to also remove chat history when the /clear command is used. This is already requested in Issue #616.
(2) Allow the user to modify the default chat history length globally in Settings. #817.