ai-agent-gateway-cli

Python client for the ai-agent-gateway HTTP/SSE protocol, shipped as the hank entrypoint.

Usage

python -m agent_gateway_cli login
python -m agent_gateway_cli chat "hello"
python -m agent_gateway_cli --config-namespace cashnerd login
python -m agent_gateway_cli --config-namespace cashnerd chat --session default "hello"
hank login
hank chat
hank chat "hello"
hank chat --model-key anthropic.claude-sonnet-5 --effort high \
  --model-key-for plan.author=anthropic.claude-opus-5-5 \
  --effort-for plan.author=high "research this company"
hank chat --model-key anthropic.claude-opus-5-5 --save-preference "remember this choice"
hank chat --show-thinking "walk me through the margin bridge"
hank control health

The default config namespace is agent-gateway for python -m agent_gateway_cli and hank for the hank entrypoint, which writes:

• ~/.cache/hank/cli_config.json
• ~/.cache/hank/sessions/<name>.json

--config-namespace cashnerd writes under ~/.cache/cashnerd/ instead. The namespace directory and its sessions/ directory are created mode 0700; the files inside are 0600.

Each named session file holds a local transcript only. Conversation continuity is held by the gateway session for about an hour and does not survive a gateway restart; when it lapses, the CLI prints a notice and starts a new conversation.

hank chat with no message on an interactive terminal replaces the process with the agent-gateway-tui binary (the Node >= 24 package @henrychien/agent-gateway-tui), passing the resolved namespace and session as arguments and the resolved connection as GATEWAY_BASE_URL, GATEWAY_API_KEY, GATEWAY_USER_ID, and AGENT_GATEWAY_ROUTE_PREFIX. hank chat "<message>" and any non-interactive stdout run the Python client in this package instead.

The Python client prints streamed thinking only with --show-thinking: the model's summarized thinking appears dimmed on a [thinking] line ahead of the [text] reply. Without the flag, thinking deltas go to the debug log only. The TUI shows thinking by default and needs no flag.

When the provider refuses a turn (a refusal event), the Python client keeps the text already delivered, prints [refusal] <category>: <explanation> and [refusal] <guidance> after it, and exits 0; nothing is reset, and the guidance is to start a fresh conversation before continuing.

Contract

The CLI sends context.channel = "cli" on every chat request. When user_id is configured, it is sent as a top-level field on both /api/chat/init and /api/chat. Tool approvals post tool_call_id, nonce, approved, and allow_tool_type.

The CLI consumes authenticated capability_choices from /api/chat/init. --model-key accepts only an exact session-eligible stable key, and --effort requires it. When both are omitted, the chat request omits all selection fields and the server resolves the capability default. Repeatable --model-key-for CAPABILITY=MODEL_KEY and optional --effort-for CAPABILITY=LEVEL flags populate strict init-time run overrides. Provider-qualified selectors, upstream model names, display-label aliases, and local fallback catalogs are not accepted.

--save-preference and --clear-preference use the authenticated server preference contract for account-wide session.driver state. Local transcript files do not store or resolve model preferences.

Every gateway request is composed as base_url + route_prefix + path, so the hosted deployment is reached as https://hank.investments/gateway/api/chat/init. The default BaseUrlPolicy accepts any hostname over https, allows http only for a loopback host, and rejects a query or fragment. A base URL may carry the deployment path: it is hoisted out of the base URL into the route prefix, so --base-url https://hank.investments/gateway resolves to base URL https://hank.investments with route prefix /gateway/api, identical to --base-url https://hank.investments --route-prefix /gateway/api. An explicit --route-prefix (or AGENT_GATEWAY_ROUTE_PREFIX) that neither equals nor extends the base URL path is refused, naming both values. TLS verification is on by default; --insecure and HANK_INSECURE=1 are honored only for a loopback gateway, and HANK_CA_BUNDLE selects a custom CA bundle. Products that need a narrower policy can inject BaseUrlPolicy(allowed_schemes=..., allowed_hostnames=...).

Control plane

Chat and control use separate credentials and separate channels. hank login --control-api-key <key> [--control-channel <channel>] stores the control key in the same namespace config file. Chat requests always send context.channel = "cli"; control sessions default to --control-channel tui (cron/scripts convention sets AGENT_CONTROL_CHANNEL=cli instead). Whichever channel is used MUST match the channel of the GATEWAY_USER_KEYS entry the control key belongs to, or session mint fails with ChannelMismatch.

hank control <subcommand> drives /api/control/*: dispatch starts an autonomous run (--profile analyst --mode once|skill … [--follow]); runs, run, logs, watch, cancel observe and steer it; approvals/approve/ deny, batches, artifacts, and schedules cover the rest. Run listings are owner-and-channel scoped: hank control runs shows only runs started on the control key's channel (documented in docs/reference/agent-run-evaluation.md).

Approvals are server-side standing policy, not a per-run CLI flag: the product default auto_approve_all_but_trades prompts only for live trade execution, and hank control approvals --policy request_user_approval is the opt-out that restores prompts for every tool class (--show-policy reads the current one, bare hank control approvals still lists pending approvals).