CLI-Anything CLI-Anything
CLI-Anything turns existing software into agent-native tooling. Installed as a skill or plugin for Claude Code, Codex, Pi, OpenClaw, Cursor or Qoder, its 7-phase harness generator wraps an application — Blender, GIMP, FreeCAD, Obsidian, n8n, Godot, Zotero and dozens more — in a structured-JSON command-line interface with a generated SKILL.md, and CLI-Hub is the registry where agents and humans browse, install and update those community-built CLIs.
The HKUDS/CLI-Anything repository reached roughly 50,000 GitHub stars and trended on GitHub in September 2026; the maintainers reported the ecosystem surpassing one million CLI calls, and 2026 releases added CLI-Hub v0.2.0 with multi-source public CLIs, unified skills, and new harnesses such as QGIS, Obsidian, n8n and Godot.
As of
- 7-phase harness generator (HARNESS.md) that produces agent-ready CLIs with tests and SKILL.md files
- CLI-Hub registry and `cli-hub` package manager to list, search, install, update and launch CLIs
- Community harnesses for Blender, GIMP, FreeCAD, Krita, MuseScore, Obsidian, n8n, Godot, Zoom, QGIS and more
- Meta-skill that lets agents discover and install CLIs autonomously
- Skills for Claude Code, Codex, Pi, OpenClaw, Cursor, Qoder and Hermes
- Structured JSON output and --help self-description designed for LLM consumption
Developers and researchers who want coding agents to drive desktop or server software that has no API, and contributors building reusable agent tool harnesses.
Teams that only need to expose their own web service (an MCP server or OpenAPI spec is simpler), or environments where installing many third-party generated CLIs is a security concern.
Open source under the Apache-2.0 license from the University of Hong Kong data science group (HKUDS). The harness generator skill, generated CLIs and the CLI-Hub package manager (`pip install cli-anything-hub`) are all free; you supply the coding agent and model.
A fast-growing, academically backed project that gives agents deterministic control over real-world software via CLIs rather than screen-scraping; the registry model makes it practical today, though quality varies across community harnesses.
Is CLI-Anything free?
Yes - CLI-Anything is Open Source. Open source under the Apache-2.0 license from the University of Hong Kong data science group (HKUDS). The harness generator skill, generated CLIs and the CLI-Hub package manager (`pip install cli-anything-hub`) are all free; you supply the coding agent and model.
Is CLI-Anything open source?
Yes - CLI-Anything is open source. Open source under the Apache-2.0 license from the University of Hong Kong data science group (HKUDS). The harness generator skill, generated CLIs and the CLI-Hub package manager (`pip install cli-anything-hub`) are all free; you supply the coding agent and model.
Who is CLI-Anything best for?
Developers and researchers who want coding agents to drive desktop or server software that has no API, and contributors building reusable agent tool harnesses.
Who is CLI-Anything not ideal for?
Teams that only need to expose their own web service (an MCP server or OpenAPI spec is simpler), or environments where installing many third-party generated CLIs is a security concern.
What are the best CLI-Anything alternatives?
The closest CLI-Anything alternatives on ai.dosa.dev are Pieces for Developers, agenttrace, Vibe Kanban - all listed under Developer Productivity & Workflow.
Who makes CLI-Anything?
CLI-Anything is developed by HKUDS. It is listed in the Developer Productivity & Workflow category on ai.dosa.dev.
Favorite this tool to revisit it later, or Zap it to contribute to the public vote count.
Content on this page is AI-generated. Please verify details with the vendor's website for accuracy.