HKUDS/CLI-Anything

"CLI-Anything: Making ALL Software Agent-Native" -- CLI-Hub: https://clianything.cc/

CLI‑Anything – Turn any desktop or server app into an agent‑native command‑line interface

What it is – A Python‑based framework that lets you (or an AI coding agent) automatically generate a full‑featured CLI wrapper around existing software. The generated CLIs expose the underlying program’s functionality as structured JSON‑friendly commands that LLM‑driven agents can call, chain, and reason over.

Why it matters – Modern AI agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Pi, OpenClaw, etc.) work best with text‑based, deterministic interfaces. By converting GUIs, libraries, or custom tools into a uniform CLI, you give agents a reliable way to automate anything from CAD builds to video captioning without writing bespoke glue code.

Core concepts

Concept What you get
CLI‑Hub A tiny package manager (cli-anything-hub) that indexes all community‑built CLIs. cli‑hub install <name> fetches, installs, and registers a wrapper in one step.
Harness generator A 7‑phase pipeline that, given a software path or repo, produces a ready‑to‑use Click‑based CLI, a SKILL.md description for agents, and optional test scaffolding.
Agent‑first design All commands output JSON + human‑readable text, making parsing trivial for LLMs. --help is self‑describing, so agents can discover capabilities automatically.
Meta‑skill A single cli‑hub‑meta‑skill that agents can install (via npx skills …) to browse the registry, install missing CLIs, and invoke them without human intervention.

Quick start for users

# Install the hub (Python 3.10+ required)
pip install cli-anything-hub

# List what’s available
cli-hub list

# Find a tool (e.g., GIMP image editor)
cli-hub search gimp

# Install and run it in one line
cli-hub install gimp
cli-hub launch gimp --help   # shows the generated commands

The hub also supports third‑party CLIs from PyPI, npm, Homebrew, or system binaries, so you can manage a mixed ecosystem from a single command.

Quick start for developers / AI agents

  1. Pick an agent platform – Claude Code, Cursor, Pi, OpenClaw, etc.
  2. Add the marketplace (Claude Code example):
    /plugin marketplace add HKUDS/CLI-Anything
/plugin install cli-anything
  3. Generate a wrapper for any software you control:
    /cli-anything ./path/to/your/app   # runs all 7 phases automatically
    The result is a new your-app command that:
    • parses arguments with Click
    • calls the underlying program (or its API)
    • returns structured JSON
    • ships a SKILL.md so agents can discover it.

Notable built‑in CLIs (as of May 2026)

  • GIMP, Blender, FreeCAD, Unreal Editor – graphics and 3‑D pipelines.
  • Zoom, Obsidian, Joplin, Zotero – productivity and knowledge‑base tools.
  • ArcGIS Pro, QGIS – GIS and cartography.
  • Rekordbox, MuseScore – audio/video creation.
  • Ethereum staking (Eth2‑Quickstart), CloudAnalyzer – cloud/infra ops.
  • n8n, Dify Workflow – automation orchestration.
  • RenderDoc, GPU capture, video captioning – low‑level debugging.

Each entry comes with dozens of unit and end‑to‑end tests (2 461 passing at time of writing) and a security‑hardened harness.

Ecosystem & Community

  • Registry website: https://hkuds.github.io/CLI-Anything/ – browse, search, and view demo videos.
  • Contribution flow: Fork, add a SKILL.md and harness under skills/, open a PR. Merged CLIs become instantly available via the hub.
  • Communication: Feishu and WeChat groups for rapid feedback; issue templates for contributor sign‑up and wishlist requests.
  • Academic backing: A technical report on arXiv (2606.03854) describing the design and evaluation of agent‑native CLIs.

Maturity & Quality

  • Tests: 2 461 passing unit/E2E tests across the core framework and all published CLIs.
  • Coverage: Unit + integration coverage badges indicate thorough testing of command parsing, JSON output, and security hardening (e.g., path‑traversal guards, defusedxml).
  • Release cadence: Daily news updates; recent releases added dozens of new CLIs and hardened existing ones.
  • License: Apache 2.0 – permissive for commercial and research use.

Who should use it?

  • AI‑agent developers who need a reliable way for their models to interact with existing software.
  • Tool builders who want to expose their GUI or library to agents without hand‑crafting a CLI.
  • Power users looking for a unified command‑line interface to launch and script a wide variety of desktop applications.

Bottom line

CLI‑Anything is a concrete, open‑source bridge that turns any piece of software into a deterministic, JSON‑outputting CLI that modern LLM agents can discover and invoke automatically. With the cli‑anything‑hub package you can instantly browse a growing catalog of ready‑made wrappers, or generate your own with a single command.

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