agent-cli

Your terminal. Any task. One command.

ac "clone github.com/psf/requests as requests && list the top-level files"

You describe what you want. ac figures out the tools, asks before touching anything new, executes step-by-step, and saves the winning plan as a reusable skill for next time.

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Install

pipx install agent-cli
# or: pip install --user agent-cli

Then point it at any OpenAI-compatible API:

ac -s model "gpt-4o"
ac -s base_url "https://api.openai.com/v1"
ac -s key "sk-..."

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Try it now

# Run a one-shot task
ac "list all files in the current directory"

# No arguments → show current status (tools, skills, config)
ac

ac and agent-cli are interchangeable — ac is the short alias.

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What happens when you run a task

1. Defines success — before touching anything, the agent decides what "done" looks like.
2. Checks skills — if you've run something similar before, it reuses the saved plan.
3. Discovers tools — needs git? It finds it on your system and asks permission to symlink it in.
4. Executes step-by-step — each action is visible; nothing runs silently in the background.
5. Learns — on success, the plan is saved as a skill so the next similar task is instant.

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Tool isolation

Instead of reaching into your full system PATH, ac works with a minimal set of symlinked tools under its config directory:

~/.local/agent-cli/tools/
  doc/bin/    whatis  apropos  man  pydoc
  find/bin/   cat  head  tail  ls
  vcs/bin/    git          ← symlinked on first use, after you say yes
  build/bin/  npm  pip  …

When a task needs a new tool, the agent finds it with whatis/apropos and prompts you:

  ? allow symlink: git → tools/vcs/bin/git  [y/N]

Use -y / --yes to pre-approve all symlinks for non-interactive runs:

ac -y "clone github.com/user/repo as my-repo"

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Skills

Every successful task is saved as a skill — an Anthropic-compatible SKILL.md + plan.json pair under your config directory:

~/.local/agent-cli/skills/
  clone-repository/
    SKILL.md      # YAML frontmatter + instructions (importable to other tools)
    plan.json     # parameterized plan, task_regex, params_map, success condition

Variables (URLs, names, paths) are extracted automatically so the same skill works on new inputs without re-planning.

Skill commands

ac --skills                   # list all saved skills
ac --skills clone-repository  # show detail: instructions, plan, regex, params
ac -d clone-repository        # delete a bad skill so it re-learns from scratch

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Configuration

Config lives at ~/.local/agent-cli/config.json (path varies by platform — see table below).

Set values

ac -s model "gpt-4o"
ac -s base_url "https://api.openai.com/v1"
ac -s key "sk-..."
ac -s                          # show current values (key is masked)

base_url is auto-corrected — if it doesn't already end with /v1 or /v1beta, /v1 is appended:

ac -s base_url "https://integrate.api.nvidia.com"
# → stored as https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1

List available models

Run -m with no value to query the /models endpoint — useful for verifying your key and base_url:

ac -m
#   ✓ models available at https://api.openai.com/v1:
#   · gpt-4o  (openai)
#   · gpt-4o-mini  (openai)

One-shot overrides

Override model, base URL, or key for a single run without changing saved config:

ac -m "gpt-4o-mini" "summarise this repo in 10 bullets"
ac -b "https://my-proxy.example.com/v1" -k "sk-..." "list all files"

Debug: see the raw API call

ac --curlify "say hi"
# prints the equivalent curl command before executing

Config directory

Platform	Default path
Linux	~/.local/agent-cli/
macOS (framework build)	~/Library/Python/3.x/agent-cli/
macOS (non-framework)	~/.local/agent-cli/
Override	-c <path> / --config-dir <path>

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Quick reference

Command	What it does
ac "<task>"	Run a one-shot task
ac	Show status (tools, skills, config)
ac -s model "gpt-4o"	Set default model
ac -s base_url "…"	Set default API base URL
ac -s key "…"	Set default API key
ac -s	Show current config values
ac -m	List models at current base URL
ac -m "model" "<task>"	Run task with a different model
ac -b "url" "<task>"	Run task with a different base URL
ac -k "key" "<task>"	Run task with a different API key
ac --skills	List saved skills
ac --skills <name>	Show skill detail
ac -d <name>	Delete a skill
ac -y "<task>"	Auto-approve all tool symlinks
ac -c <path> "<task>"	Use a different config directory
ac --curlify "<task>"	Print the raw API call as curl

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Contributing

If you've run a task and thought "that should just work" — open an issue with:

• what you typed
• what you expected
• what actually happened

PRs welcome.

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License

MIT