autocli cheat sheet

Install

Single Rust binary. No runtime, no deps. Works on Windows, macOS, Linux.

macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nashsu/AutoCLI/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Windows

Download the latest release binary from GitHub and drop it on your PATH. Mike's binary lives at:

C:\Users\mikem\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\autocli.exe

Releases page: github.com/nashsu/AutoCLI/releases/latest

Verify

autocli --version
autocli doctor

Load the Chrome extension

Required for browsercommands (Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Bilibili, etc.). Public-mode sites like HackerNews and Wikipedia don't need it.

Public commands

No browser, no extension, no login. Hits public APIs or RSS.

Browser commands

Require Chrome running with the autocli extension installed and the target site logged in.

Desktop commands

Drive native desktop apps (Cursor, Codex, Notion, ChatGPT, Discord, Antigravity). The app must be running.

Common flags

Work on almost every command.

• --formatOutput format: table (default), json, yaml, md, csv. Use json when piping to another tool.
• --limit NNumber of results. Default varies by command (usually 15–20). Check per-command max.
• --querySearch string for search subcommands (English sites).
• --keywordSearch string for Chinese sites (Zhihu, Weibo, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Douban, etc.).
• --helpPer-site or per-command help. autocli twitter --help, autocli --help.
• --versionPrint version.

Pipe to jq

autocli hackernews top --limit 50 --format json | jq '.[] | {title, url}'

External CLI passthrough

autocli can proxy a handful of external tools so you hit everything through one entrypoint:

autocli gh pr list
autocli docker ps
autocli kubectl get pods
autocli obsidian ...
autocli readwise ...

Auto-generate adapters

When autocli doesn't ship an adapter for a site, create one. Three escalation levels.

1. Explore & cascade

autocli explore https://example.com
autocli cascade https://example.com

explore probes the site for hidden APIs. cascade tries common auth strategies (cookie, token, nothing).

2. Generate an adapter

autocli generate https://example.com --goal "get trending posts"

If generation works, autocli writes a YAML to ~/.autocli/adapters/ and you can call it immediately.

3. Hand-write the YAML

If auto-generation fails, drop a YAML at ~/.autocli/adapters/<site>/top.yaml. Minimal shape:

site: example
name: top
description: Top posts from example.com
domain: example.com
strategy: public
browser: true

args:
  limit:
    type: int
    default: 10

pipeline:
  - navigate: https://example.com/trending
  - evaluate: |
      (async () => {
        const limit = ${{ args.limit }};
        return [...document.querySelectorAll('.post')]
          .slice(0, limit)
          .map((el, i) => ({
            rank: i + 1,
            title: el.querySelector('h2')?.innerText,
            url: el.querySelector('a')?.href,
          }));
      })()

columns: [rank, title, url]

Troubleshooting

Diagnose

autocli doctor

Runs the full health check — CLI version, extension reachable, Chrome state, adapter paths. Start here.

"Command not found"

The binary isn't on your PATH. On Windows, confirm C:\Users\mikem\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps is in your Path env var. On macOS/Linux, re-run the install script.

"Extension not connected"

Chrome not running, extension disabled, or extension loaded from a folder that got moved. Reload at chrome://extensions.

"Not logged in" on browser command

Open the site in Chrome and log in. autocli uses your existing session — if Chrome isn't authenticated, neither is autocli.