diff --git a/examples/common.cpp b/examples/common.cpp
index 5400f6b01f9d7..9770f83fda220 100644
--- a/examples/common.cpp
+++ b/examples/common.cpp
@@ -164,6 +164,12 @@ bool gpt_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, gpt_params & params) {
                 break;
             }
             params.antiprompt.push_back(argv[i]);
+        } else if (arg == "--stop") {
+            if (++i >= argc) {
+                invalid_param = true;
+                break;
+            }
+            params.stop_keywords.push_back(argv[i]);
         } else if (arg == "--perplexity") {
             params.perplexity = true;
         } else if (arg == "--ignore-eos") {
@@ -209,8 +215,10 @@ void gpt_print_usage(int /*argc*/, char ** argv, const gpt_params & params) {
     fprintf(stderr, "  --interactive-first   run in interactive mode and wait for input right away\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "  -ins, --instruct      run in instruction mode (use with Alpaca models)\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "  -r PROMPT, --reverse-prompt PROMPT\n");
-    fprintf(stderr, "                        run in interactive mode and poll user input upon seeing PROMPT (can be\n");
-    fprintf(stderr, "                        specified more than once for multiple prompts).\n");
+    fprintf(stderr, "                        run in interactive mode and poll user input upon seeing PROMPT\n");
+    fprintf(stderr, "                        (can be specified more than once for multiple reverse prompts).\n");
+    fprintf(stderr, "  --stop KEYWORD        a string that, when output by the model, will stop generation\n");
+    fprintf(stderr, "                        (can be specified more than once for multiple keywords).\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "  --color               colorise output to distinguish prompt and user input from generations\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "  -s SEED, --seed SEED  RNG seed (default: -1, use random seed for <= 0)\n");
     fprintf(stderr, "  -t N, --threads N     number of threads to use during computation (default: %d)\n", params.n_threads);
diff --git a/examples/common.h b/examples/common.h
index 1505aa927eb3a..9e37ec88e959d 100644
--- a/examples/common.h
+++ b/examples/common.h
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ struct gpt_params {
 
 
     std::vector<std::string> antiprompt; // string upon seeing which more user input is prompted
+    std::vector<std::string> stop_keywords; // string upon seeing which the model will stop
 
     bool memory_f16        = true;  // use f16 instead of f32 for memory kv
     bool random_prompt     = false; // do not randomize prompt if none provided
diff --git a/examples/main/main.cpp b/examples/main/main.cpp
index 67a34e6677edf..b74c2a62dacb2 100644
--- a/examples/main/main.cpp
+++ b/examples/main/main.cpp
@@ -209,6 +209,13 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
             fprintf(stderr, "Input prefix: '%s'\n", params.input_prefix.c_str());
         }
     }
+
+    if (params.stop_keywords.size()) {
+      for (auto stop_keyword : params.stop_keywords) {
+        fprintf(stderr, "Stop keyword: '%s'\n", stop_keyword.c_str());
+      }
+    }
+
     fprintf(stderr, "sampling: temp = %f, top_k = %d, top_p = %f, repeat_last_n = %i, repeat_penalty = %f\n",
         params.temp, params.top_k, params.top_p, params.repeat_last_n, params.repeat_penalty);
     fprintf(stderr, "generate: n_ctx = %d, n_batch = %d, n_predict = %d, n_keep = %d\n", n_ctx, params.n_batch, params.n_predict, params.n_keep);
@@ -344,13 +351,28 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
         // check if we should prompt the user for more
         if (params.interactive && (int) embd_inp.size() <= n_consumed) {
 
-            // check for reverse prompt
-            if (params.antiprompt.size()) {
-                std::string last_output;
+            std::string last_output;
+            if (params.antiprompt.size() || params.stop_keywords.size()) {
                 for (auto id : last_n_tokens) {
                     last_output += llama_token_to_str(ctx, id);
                 }
+            }
+
+            // Check for stop keywords, a configurable alternative to the end-of-text token
+            // This should stop also the interactive mode, useful to stop interactive mode without SIGTERM
+            bool stop = false;
+            for (std::string stop_keyword : params.stop_keywords) {
+                if (last_output.find(stop_keyword.c_str(), last_output.length() - stop_keyword.length(), stop_keyword.length()) != std::string::npos) {
+                    stop = true;
+                    break;
+                }
+            }
+            if (stop) {
+                break;
+            }
 
+            // check for reverse prompt
+            if (params.antiprompt.size()) {
                 is_antiprompt = false;
                 // Check if each of the reverse prompts appears at the end of the output.
                 for (std::string & antiprompt : params.antiprompt) {
@@ -430,6 +452,24 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
             }
         }
 
+        // Check for stop keywords, a configurable alternative to the end-of-text token
+        if (!params.interactive && params.stop_keywords.size() && !is_interacting) {
+            std::string last_output;
+            for (auto id : last_n_tokens) {
+                last_output += llama_token_to_str(ctx, id);
+            }
+            bool stop = false;
+            for (std::string stop_keyword : params.stop_keywords) {
+                if (last_output.find(stop_keyword.c_str(), last_output.length() - stop_keyword.length(), stop_keyword.length()) != std::string::npos) {
+                    stop = true;
+                    break;
+                }
+            }
+            if (stop) {
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+
         // end of text token
         if (!embd.empty() && embd.back() == llama_token_eos()) {
             if (params.instruct) {