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The ouroborai CLI provides both single-command execution and an interactive REPL mode for conversing with the agent directly from your terminal. It communicates with the same Hono API server used by all other clients.

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Commands

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Examples

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Interactive REPL

The chat command starts a persistent REPL session with multi-turn thread context. Each prompt in the session is sent with the same threadId, allowing the agent to reference previous messages:
Thread context is maintained for the duration of the REPL session. Exiting with exit, quit, or Ctrl+C ends the session and discards the thread reference.

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Authentication

The CLI supports API key authentication via a flag or environment variable: The API key is sent as a Bearer token in the Authorization header.

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Global Flags

Global flags can appear before the command and are parsed before dispatch.

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Environment Variables

Flags take precedence over environment variables.

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API Communication

All commands follow the same request lifecycle:
POST /agent/prompt with a JSON body containing the prompt text and an optional threadId (REPL mode only). Returns a jobId.
GET /agent/job/{jobId} polled every 2 seconds until the job reaches a terminal state (complete, failed, or cancelled). Timeout is 120 seconds.
Completed jobs display the result.text field. Failed jobs display the error message. In REPL mode, a spinner animates during both the submission and polling phases.

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Setup

The CLI entry point is a Bun script:
To use it as a global arb command, link the binary:
Or set environment variables:

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Terminal Output

The CLI uses ANSI color codes for readable terminal output: A box-drawing utility formats structured output with borders and headers. The REPL spinner cycles through braille animation frames during async operations.
The chat command is the most powerful mode — it preserves conversation context across turns, so you can issue follow-up instructions like “close half that position” without repeating context.