advai-cli 1.0.6

CLI for managing skills and external CLIs.

advai-cli

A unified CLI for local skills, external CLIs, and terminal AI chat.

Why • Installation • Quick Start • Commands • AI TUI • Development

advai-cli is a unified command-line interface for managing local skills, working with external CLIs, and chatting with AI from the terminal through a single advai entrypoint.

It is designed as a lightweight Python-first core with npm and Homebrew distribution options, making it easy to install in different developer environments while keeping the runtime model simple and predictable.

Why advai-cli

• One entrypoint for runtime inspection, local skill management, external CLI workflows, and terminal-native AI chat
• Python core for a small, dependency-light implementation
• npm wrapper for teams that prefer JavaScript-based distribution
• Homebrew formula for macOS-friendly installation
• OpenAI-compatible backend support for flexible AI provider integration
• Local-first state stored under ~/.advai

Highlights

• Inspect the current installation, runtime, and recommended update command with advai info and advai update
• Manage locally installed skills with install, list, info, update, and uninstall commands
• Discover and install supported third-party CLIs through the OpenCLI ecosystem
• Create local knowledge bases, add documents, search content, and resync from source files
• Proxy supported external CLIs through advai cli <name> ...
• Launch a terminal chat UI with configurable model, base URL, system prompt, and transcript export

Architecture

flowchart LR
    U[Developer] --> A[advai command]

    subgraph Distribution
        P[PyPI package]
        N[npm wrapper]
        B[Homebrew formula]
    end

    P --> A
    N --> A
    B --> A

    A --> C[Python CLI core]
    C --> S[Local Skills Manager]
    C --> O[OpenCLI Bridge]
    C --> T[Terminal TUI]
    C --> I[Runtime Inspection]

    S --> FS[~/.advai/skills]
    T --> API[OpenAI-compatible API]
    O --> OC[opencli binary]

Installation

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• Node.js 14+ only if you install through npm
• A local Python runtime is still required when using the npm package
• opencli is required only for external CLI discovery, install, and passthrough execution

Install from PyPI

pip install advai-cli

Install from npm

npm install -g advai-cli

Install from Homebrew

brew install Advai-X/advai-cli/advai-cli

Install with the bootstrap script

./install.sh

Quick Start

1. Verify the installation

advai --help
advai info

2. Configure AI access

export ADVAI_API_KEY=your_api_key

3. Start the terminal chat UI

advai tui

4. Explore local skills and external CLIs

advai skill list
advai cli list

Common Commands

These are the canonical commands to use in docs, screenshots, and promotional assets:

advai info
advai skill list
advai cli list
advai tui

Command	Description
advai --help	Show the main command help
advai info	Show runtime, installation, and environment details
advai update	Print the recommended update command for the current install method
advai tui	Start the terminal AI chat interface
advai skill list	List locally installed skills
advai skill info <name>	Show local metadata for a skill
advai skill install <name>	Install a local skill entry
advai skill install <github-url> [--skill <name>]	Install skill definitions from a GitHub repo
advai skill update [name]	Refresh one or all installed skills
advai skill uninstall <name>	Remove an installed skill
advai cli list	List installable external CLIs from OpenCLI
advai cli info <name>	Show details for an external CLI
advai cli install <name> --yes	Install an external CLI without confirmation
advai cli install <github-url> [--cli <name>]	Register external CLI definitions from a GitHub repo
advai cli update <name> --yes	Update an external CLI without confirmation
advai cli uninstall <name> --yes	Uninstall an external CLI without confirmation
advai cli <name> ...	Execute a supported external CLI through advai
advai kb create <name>	Create a local knowledge base
advai kb doc add <name> <path>	Copy a document into a knowledge base
advai kb search <name> <query>	Search stored knowledge base documents
advai kb sync <name>	Refresh stored documents from their source files

AI TUI

The TUI connects to any OpenAI-compatible /chat/completions backend and runs entirely inside the terminal.

Useful examples

advai tui
advai tui --agent default
advai tui --model gpt-4o-mini
advai tui --base-url https://api.openai.com/v1
advai tui --system-prompt "You are a concise terminal coding assistant."
advai tui --timeout 180

Environment variables

advai-cli supports both ADVAI_* and part of the standard OPENAI_* naming for compatibility.

Variable	Required	Default	Description
ADVAI_API_KEY	Yes*	none	API key for the AI backend
ADVAI_BASE_URL	No	https://api.openai.com/v1	Base URL for an OpenAI-compatible API
ADVAI_AGENT	No	default	Default agent used by advai tui
ADVAI_AGENTS	No	default	Comma-separated agents shown by the interactive /agent picker
ADVAI_MODEL	No	gpt-4o-mini	Default model used by advai tui
ADVAI_MODELS	No	built-in model list	Comma-separated models shown by the interactive /model picker
ADVAI_SYSTEM_PROMPT	No	built-in prompt	Initial system prompt
ADVAI_TIMEOUT	No	120	Request timeout in seconds
OPENAI_API_KEY	Yes*	none	Fallback if ADVAI_API_KEY is not set
OPENAI_BASE_URL	No	none	Fallback if ADVAI_BASE_URL is not set
OPENAI_MODEL	No	none	Fallback if ADVAI_MODEL is not set

* ADVAI_API_KEY or OPENAI_API_KEY must be set before running advai tui.

In-session TUI commands

/help
/clear
/agent
/agent default
/model
/model gpt-4o-mini
/system You are a helpful assistant.
/save ./chat.md
/exit

Run /agent with no arguments to open an interactive agent picker. Run /model with no arguments to open an interactive model picker. Use the up and down arrow keys to choose a model, then press Enter to confirm.

Skills

Skills are stored locally under ~/.advai/skills.

advai skill list
advai skill info demo-skill
advai skill install demo-skill
advai skill install https://github.com/your-org/skill-repo
advai skill install https://github.com/your-org/skill-repo --skill demo-skill
advai skill update demo-skill
advai skill uninstall demo-skill

Current scope:

• Plain skill names still create a lightweight local placeholder skill
• GitHub installs read from the repository root skills/ directory instead of copying the whole repo
• If the repo skills/ directory contains one skill, advai installs it automatically
• If the repo skills/ directory contains multiple skills, advai prompts whether to install all of them; use --skill <name> to choose one explicitly
• advai skill update <name> reuses the saved GitHub repo URL and selected skill directory when the installed skill came from GitHub

External CLI Integration

External CLI support is powered by opencli.

advai cli list
advai cli info demo-cli
advai cli install demo-cli --yes
advai cli install https://github.com/your-org/cli-repo
advai cli install https://github.com/your-org/cli-repo --cli demo-cli
advai cli update demo-cli --yes
advai cli uninstall demo-cli --yes
advai cli demo-cli --help

Notes:

• advai cli list, advai cli info, advai cli install, advai cli update, and advai cli uninstall require opencli to be installed and available on PATH
• GitHub CLI installs read from the repository root clis/ directory and register each selected CLI via opencli external register
• If the repo clis/ directory contains multiple CLIs, advai prompts whether to install all of them; use --cli <name> to choose one explicitly
• Dynamic passthrough execution works only for CLIs exposed by the local OpenCLI registry
• advai-cli does not reimplement third-party CLIs; it provides a consistent entrypoint and installation surface

Knowledge Bases

Knowledge bases are stored locally under ~/.advai/kbs.

advai kb is also designed to be OKF-friendly. Based on the Open Knowledge Format (OKF) direction described by Google Cloud, the current implementation already works well with knowledge bundles that are organized as markdown files on disk, including files that contain YAML frontmatter.

advai kb create team-wiki
advai kb doc add team-wiki ./README.md
advai kb search team-wiki homebrew
advai kb sync team-wiki

Current scope:

• advai kb create <name> initializes a local knowledge base directory and metadata file
• advai kb doc add <name> <path> copies a source document into the knowledge base and tracks its original path
• advai kb search <name> <query> performs a simple case-insensitive text search over stored document content
• advai kb sync <name> refreshes stored copies from the original source paths and reports any missing files
• OKF-friendly ingestion: markdown-based knowledge docs can be added directly without conversion
• YAML frontmatter is preserved as plain text, so OKF metadata remains searchable and does not get stripped during add or sync
• This version does not yet implement full OKF-aware parsing, validation, or structured metadata querying; it focuses on filesystem-native storage and simple text retrieval first

Project Structure

advai/
  ai_client.py      OpenAI-compatible HTTP client
  cli.py            Main CLI entrypoint
  cli_manager.py    Install detection, update commands, OpenCLI integration
  kb.py             Local knowledge base storage and search helpers
  skills.py         Local skill metadata management
  tui.py            Terminal chat UI
bin/
  advai.js          npm bridge that forwards execution to Python
  check-python.js   npm postinstall Python check
docs/
  assets/
    hero.png        README hero image
Formula/
  advai-cli.rb      Homebrew formula
install.sh          Bootstrap installer

Development

Run from source

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .
advai --help
python -m advai.cli info

Packaging model

• PyPI ships the Python implementation directly
• npm publishes a thin wrapper that locates Python and forwards to the Python CLI
• Homebrew installs the Python package through a formula-managed virtual environment

Operational Notes

• Local state lives under ~/.advai
• Knowledge bases are stored under ~/.advai/kbs
• Skills are stored under ~/.advai/skills
• The recommended self-update command changes depending on whether the tool was installed via pip, npm, or brew
• npm installation checks for a working Python interpreter during postinstall

License

MIT