🪈 pipper

Drive Claude Code headlessly in a tmux session — script and automate the claude CLI from shell, cron, or code.

pipper is a tiny harness that runs the interactive claude CLI inside tmux, auto-accepts its permission dialogs, sends a prompt, and returns Claude's answer. It lets you call Claude Code from scripts, cron jobs, pipelines, or another program — without sitting at the terminal.

It drives your normal, already-logged-in claude client, so it inherits whatever plan and limits that login has. Use it within Anthropic's terms of service.

Why

• Automate Claude Code in CI, cron, or batch jobs
• Glue it into other tools — get an answer back as text or JSON
• TUI-version-proof — instead of scraping the terminal, pipper asks Claude to write its answer to a temp file, then reads it back

Requires

• tmux
• the claude CLI — installed and already authenticated (claude runs without a login prompt)

Install

pip install pipper-cli      # once published; command is `pipper`
# or from source:
git clone https://github.com/sanjoxtech/pipper && cd pipper && pip install -e .

Zero dependencies — Python stdlib only.

Use

pipper "summarize this repo's README in 3 bullets"
echo "list the riskiest lines in auth.py" | pipper --cwd ./myproject
pipper -f task.txt --timeout 900 --json

Options: --cwd <dir>, --session <name>, --timeout <s>, --boot-timeout <s>, --json.

From Python:

import pipper
answer = pipper.run("explain what this project does", cwd="./repo")

How it works

1. Spawns claude --permission-mode bypassPermissions in a fresh tmux session
2. Auto-accepts the startup/permission dialogs (handles different orderings + plain y/n)
3. Pastes your prompt via an isolated tmux buffer (so parallel runs don't clash)
4. Asks Claude to write its final answer to a temp file, then polls that file
5. Returns the answer; tears the session down; bails early on repeated API errors

Limitations / honest notes

• Relies on tmux + the interactive claude TUI. If Claude Code changes its startup dialogs a lot, the auto-accept heuristics may need a tweak.
• bypassPermissions means Claude can run tools without asking — only point it at directories you trust.
• It automates your normal claude login; respect Anthropic's usage terms and rate limits.

Author

Built by Sanjay (sanjoxtech) — sanjox.tech · sanjox.tech@gmail.com

License

MIT — see LICENSE.