coding-cli-runtime 0.4.1

Reusable CLI runtime primitives for provider-backed automation workflows

coding-cli-runtime

A Python library for orchestrating LLM coding agent CLIs — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, and GitHub Copilot.

These CLIs each have different invocation patterns, output formats, error shapes, and timeout behaviors. This library normalizes all of that behind a common CliRunRequest → CliRunResult contract, so your automation code doesn't need provider-specific subprocess handling.

What it does (and why not just subprocess.run):

• Run any provider CLI with unified request/result types and timeout enforcement
• Query the model catalog (with user-override and live-cache fallback)
• Classify failures as retryable vs fatal per provider
• Look up provider auth, config dirs, and headless launch flags
• Build non-interactive launch commands without hardcoding provider flags
• Find session logs after a run (Codex, Claude)
• Run long-lived sessions with process-group cleanup and transcript mirroring
• No Python package dependencies — only requires the provider CLIs themselves

Installation

pip install coding-cli-runtime
# or
uv add coding-cli-runtime

Requires Python 3.10+.

Examples

Execute a provider CLI

import asyncio
from pathlib import Path
from coding_cli_runtime import CliRunRequest, run_cli_command

request = CliRunRequest(
    cmd_parts=("codex", "--model", "gpt-5.4", "--quiet", "exec", "fix the tests"),
    cwd=Path("/tmp/my-project"),
    timeout_seconds=120,
)
result = asyncio.run(run_cli_command(request))

print(result.returncode)        # 0
print(result.error_code)        # "none"
print(result.duration_seconds)  # 14.2
print(result.stdout_text[:200])

Swap codex for claude, gemini, or copilot — the request/result shape stays the same. A synchronous variant run_cli_command_sync is also available.

Pick a model from the provider catalog

from coding_cli_runtime import get_provider_spec

codex = get_provider_spec("codex")
print(codex.default_model)   # "gpt-5.3-codex"
print(codex.model_source)    # "codex_cli_cache", "override", or "code"

for model in codex.models:
    print(f"  {model.name}: {model.description}")

The catalog covers all four providers — each with model names, reasoning levels, default settings, and visibility flags.

Model lists are resolved with a three-tier fallback:

1. User override — drop a JSON file at ~/.config/coding-cli-runtime/providers/<provider>.json to use your own model list immediately, without waiting for a package update.
2. Live CLI cache — for Codex, the library reads ~/.codex/models_cache.json (auto-refreshed by the Codex CLI) when present. Other providers fall through because their CLIs don't expose a machine-readable model list.
3. Hardcoded fallback — the model list shipped with the package.

Override file format:

{
  "default_model": "claude-sonnet-4-7",
  "models": [
    "claude-sonnet-4-7",
    {
      "name": "claude-opus-5",
      "description": "Latest opus model",
      "controls": [
        { "name": "effort", "kind": "choice", "choices": ["low", "high"], "default": "low" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Set CODING_CLI_RUNTIME_CONFIG_DIR to change the config directory (default: ~/.config/coding-cli-runtime).

Decide whether to retry a failed run

from coding_cli_runtime import classify_provider_failure

classification = classify_provider_failure(
    provider="gemini",
    stderr_text="429 Resource exhausted: rate limit exceeded",
)

if classification.retryable:
    print(f"Retryable ({classification.category}) — will retry")
else:
    print(f"Fatal ({classification.category}) — giving up")

Works for all four providers. Recognizes auth failures, rate limits, network transients, and other provider-specific error patterns.

Common integration tasks

Check whether a provider CLI is installed

from coding_cli_runtime import is_provider_installed

if not is_provider_installed("claude"):
    raise RuntimeError("Claude Code is not available on PATH")

This is intentionally minimal: it checks whether the provider binary exists on PATH. Deeper CLI drift validation belongs in maintainer tooling, not the runtime API.

Resolve workspace env vars and session search paths

from coding_cli_runtime import (
    get_provider_contract,
    resolve_session_search_paths,
    resolve_workspace_env,
)

gemini = get_provider_contract("gemini")

# Derive provider-specific workspace env vars from contract metadata
env = resolve_workspace_env(gemini, "/tmp/run-dir")
# {"GEMINI_CLI_IDE_WORKSPACE_PATH": "/tmp/run-dir"}

# Expand concrete host paths for session log searches
paths = resolve_session_search_paths(gemini)
# (Path.home() / ".gemini" / "tmp",)

Use these helpers when you want the contract facts turned into concrete filesystem/env values without rebuilding the same glue logic in each consumer.

Look up provider contract metadata

from coding_cli_runtime import get_provider_contract, build_env_overlay, resolve_config_paths, render_prompt

# Get structured metadata for any supported provider
contract = get_provider_contract("claude")
print(contract.binary)                        # "claude"
print(contract.auth.api_key_env_var)          # "CLAUDE_API_KEY"
print(contract.paths.config_dir)              # "~/.claude"
print(contract.headless.approval.flag)        # "--dangerously-skip-permissions"

# Build env var overlay for subprocess
env = build_env_overlay(contract, api_key="sk-...", base_url="https://custom.example.com")
# {"CLAUDE_API_KEY": "sk-...", "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://custom.example.com"}

# Resolve config paths for container mounts
host_dir, container_dir = resolve_config_paths(contract, containerized=True)
# ("/home/user/.claude", "/root/.claude")

# Resolve prompt delivery (stdin vs flag vs activation)
payload = render_prompt(contract.headless.prompt, "Fix the bug")
# payload.args = ()            (stdin delivery for Claude)
# payload.stdin_text = "Fix the bug"

ProviderContract is structured as nested sub-contracts (AuthContract, PathContract, HeadlessContract, OutputContract, IoContract, SessionDiscoveryContract, DiagnosticsContract) so consumers can drill into whichever aspect they need. This is reference metadata, not a command-construction control plane — callers keep their own command assembly and adopt contract fields selectively.

Query provider I/O conventions

from coding_cli_runtime import get_provider_contract

gemini = get_provider_contract("gemini")

# Workspace env vars with value semantics
for wev in gemini.io.workspace_env_vars:
    print(f"{wev.name} = {wev.value_source}")
    # GEMINI_CLI_IDE_WORKSPACE_PATH = execution_dir

# Session discovery (where session logs live)
sd = gemini.session_discovery
print(sd.session_roots)  # ("tmp",)
print(sd.session_glob)   # "*/chats/session-*.json"

# Output format support
codex = get_provider_contract("codex")
print(codex.output.output_path_flag)    # "-o"
print(codex.output.schema_path_flag)    # "--output-schema"

# Diagnostics (Copilot only)
copilot = get_provider_contract("copilot")
if copilot.diagnostics:
    print(copilot.diagnostics.log_glob)  # "logs/process-*.log"

WorkspaceEnvVar.value_source uses a closed vocabulary: "execution_dir" or "workspace_root".

Build headless launch commands

from coding_cli_runtime import build_claude_headless_core, build_codex_headless_core

# Claude: binary + --print + --permission-mode + --dangerously-skip-permissions + --model
cmd = build_claude_headless_core("claude-sonnet-4-6")
cmd.extend(["--output-format", "text", "--disallowedTools", "Bash,Task"])

# Codex: binary + exec + --full-auto + --sandbox + --skip-git-repo-check + --model
cmd = build_codex_headless_core("gpt-5.4", sandbox_mode="read-only")
cmd.extend(["-C", str(workdir)])

Headless core helpers emit the standard flags for non-interactive runs. Consumers append app-specific tails (tool restrictions, output paths, etc.).

Find session logs after a run

import time
from coding_cli_runtime import find_codex_session, find_claude_session

# Find the most recent Codex session log for a given working directory
session = find_codex_session("/path/to/project", since_ts=time.time() - 300)
if session:
    print(f"Session log: {session}")  # ~/.codex/sessions/.../conversation.jsonl

Works for Codex and Claude. Scans provider config directories for session files matching the working directory and time window.

Key types

Type	Purpose
CliRunRequest	Command spec: cmd, cwd, env, timeout, stream paths
CliRunResult	Result: returncode, stdout/stderr, duration, error code
ErrorCode	none · spawn_failed · timed_out · non_zero_exit
ProviderSpec	Provider catalog entry with models, controls, defaults
ProviderContract	Structured provider CLI metadata (auth, paths, headless, I/O, sessions)
WorkspaceEnvVar	Env var with value-source semantics (execution_dir, workspace_root)
FailureClassification	Classified error with retryable flag and category

Run long-lived CLI sessions

For CLI runs that take minutes (e.g., full app generation), use run_interactive_session() instead of run_cli_command(). It adds:

• Process-group cleanup (kills orphaned child processes on timeout)
• Transcript mirroring (streams CLI output to a file while the process runs)
• Automatic retries on transient failures

from coding_cli_runtime import run_interactive_session

result = await run_interactive_session(
    cmd_parts=("claude", "--print", "--model", "claude-sonnet-4-6"),
    cwd=workdir,
    stdin_text=prompt,
    logger=logger,
    timeout_seconds=600,
)

Only cmd_parts, cwd, stdin_text, and logger are required. Other parameters have sensible defaults.

API summary

The full public API is listed in __init__.py. Key function groups:

Group	Functions
Execution	run_cli_command, run_cli_command_sync, run_interactive_session
Provider metadata	get_provider_contract, get_provider_spec, list_provider_specs
Contract helpers	build_env_overlay, resolve_config_paths, render_prompt, resolve_auth, resolve_workspace_env, resolve_session_search_paths
Headless launch	build_claude_headless_core, build_codex_headless_core, build_copilot_headless_core, build_gemini_headless_core
Codex batch	build_codex_exec_spec
Failure handling	classify_provider_failure
Installation check	is_provider_installed
Session logs	find_codex_session, find_claude_session
Schema	load_schema, validate_payload
Utilities	redact_text, build_model_id, normalize_path_str

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and quality checks.

Prerequisites

This package does not bundle any CLI binaries or credentials. You must install and authenticate the relevant provider CLI yourself before using the execution helpers.

Status

Pre-1.0. API may change between minor versions.

License

MIT