Uni-CLI

Give agents every interface
Install once. Search, run, inspect, repair.

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Uni-CLI turns intent into a selected operation and a structured receipt across web, browser, desktop, local, and MCP surfaces.

npm install -g @zenalexa/unicli
unicli search "list the top Hacker News stories"
unicli hackernews top --limit 3 -f json

Check releases or open an interactive Y/N update choice.

unicli upgrade --check -f json
unicli upgrade

Persistent non-interactive Agent installations update in a detached worker by default. Structured output reports progress through meta.update.automatic_update. Interactive terminals keep the Y/N choice, and unicli upgrade --no-auto-update switches a machine back to explicit approval.

Route By Task

The catalog handles discovery and operation contracts. Execution then selects the strongest operator with the smallest effective scope. One provider runs; a failed path keeps its original cause and repair command.

unicli search "export my saved posts"     # discover and rank
unicli list --site reddit                  # inspect one surface
unicli browser doctor --json               # inspect browser delivery state
unicli repair reddit saved                 # verify a supported drift path

The Operation Contract

The public model stays compact.

intent → candidate operations → explicit selection → policy → substrate → receipt

Uni-CLI supplies the interface runtime. The model, planner, agent loop, and sandbox remain independent choices.

Surfaces

Static catalog

• 338 sites
• 1891 registered commands
• 1268 adapters
• 113 pipeline actions
• 10392 tests

Fixed core and host-discovered commands join at runtime.

The generated operation catalog is the authoritative inventory.

Use It From An Agent

Native CLI

unicli search "download the latest arXiv paper on computer use" -f json
unicli arxiv search "computer use agents" --limit 5 -f json
unicli --auth-retry openreview conference "ICML.cc/2026/Conference" --rpm 20 -f json
unicli extract https://example.com --max-chars 1200

Piped output defaults to Markdown. Use -f json, yaml, csv, or compact when the next step needs a stable machine format. The OpenReview archive guide covers authenticated, resumable conference and multi-year research archives.

MCP

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "unicli": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@zenalexa/unicli-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Equivalent command

npx -y @zenalexa/unicli mcp serve

The default profile exposes four meta-tools. Deferred and expanded profiles project adapter operations when the host needs tool-level discovery. Inspect the live projection with unicli mcp health -f json.

Local Computer

unicli compute apps --format compact
unicli compute snapshot --app Calculator --format compact
unicli compute find --app Calculator --role AXButton --title "7"
unicli compute click --ref <ref-from-find>

Desktop actions prefer accessibility references. Visual routes require an explicitly selected backend and never appear as a hidden fallback.

Results That Explain Themselves

Success

ok: true
schema_version: "2"
command: "hackernews.top"
meta:
  duration_ms: 412
  count: 3
  surface: web
data:
  - { rank: "1", title: "...", url: "...", author: "..." }
error: null

Failure

ok: false
schema_version: "2"
command: "reddit.saved"
data: null
error:
  code: auth_required
  adapter_path: "src/adapters/reddit/saved.yaml"
  step: 1
  suggestion: "Run: unicli auth setup reddit"
  retryable: false

Exit codes distinguish success, empty results, unavailable dependencies, temporary failures, auth, and configuration. See the output and exit-code reference.

Repair Drift At The Owned Boundary

Adapters stay agent-readable and locally replaceable.

run → read error.adapter_path → patch the owned step → save override → verify once

unicli repair <site> <command>

repair does not edit source or Git state. It reruns the original command as a bounded subprocess and succeeds only when the target returns ok: true with exit code 0. Local overrides under ~/.unicli/adapters/ survive npm updates.

For repeated failures, evolve adapter keeps proposal evidence, validation, and held-out cases separate. The agent supplies one isolated YAML candidate and a falsifiable prediction. Uni-CLI runs paired baseline and candidate evaluations, records prediction misses and regressions, and installs a user override only after the promotion gate passes.

unicli evolve adapter <site> <command> \
  --run <proposal-run> \
  --candidate <candidate.yaml> \
  --hypothesis "<expected mechanism>" \
  --expect <validation-case-id> \
  --risk <held-out-case-id> \
  --validation <validation-eval.yaml> \
  --held-out <held-out-eval.yaml> \
  --promote

Without --candidate, the command creates an editable draft. Every verification preserves its candidate snapshot, patch, and report as one hash-checked attempt. evolve verify --promote reuses the latest eligible attempt when the candidate is unchanged. Promotion and rollback recover after an interrupted write and serialize competing Agent processes. evolve inspect returns the complete attempt history, reports corrupt sessions, and evolve rollback restores the exact pre-promotion overlay.

The first evolution scope keeps the operation identity, input and output contracts, pipeline action topology, request methods and headers, and existing subprocess invocations fixed. Same-origin endpoint and extraction repairs remain editable. A replacement network origin requires an explicit --allow-origin <origin> declaration when the session is created.

A minimal YAML adapter follows.

site: example
name: search
description: Search example.com
transport: http
strategy: public
pipeline:
  - fetch: { url: "https://api.example.com/search?q=${{ args.query }}" }
  - select: data.results
  - map: { title: "${{ item.title }}", url: "${{ item.url }}" }
  - limit: "${{ args.limit }}"
args:
  - { name: query, type: string, required: true, positional: true }
  - { name: limit, type: int, default: 20 }
columns: [title, url]

Read the adapter format, pipeline reference, and self-repair guide.

Trust Boundaries

• Live browser cookies remain in process memory unless the user explicitly runs auth import or browser cookies.
• Browser automation uses Uni-CLI-owned profiles under ~/.unicli/. Chrome 136+ does not support remote debugging on its default user-data directory.
• unicli browser doctor --json reports the available delivery path and exact repair command without starting a browser provider.
• Permission rules authorize before browser, file, clipboard, subprocess, or desktop side effects. Explicit malformed policies fail closed.
• Visual routes require a real configured backend. Missing providers return a structured error.
• Invocation diagnostics exclude arguments, content, URLs, credentials, and raw errors; users can disable new events with UNICLI_NO_LOG=1.

The detailed behavior and storage paths live in Trust, Auth, and Limits.

Development

npm install
npm run typecheck
npm run lint
npm test
npm run verify   # full E2E and adapter coverage; required before release

Requires Node.js 22.19 or newer. See CONTRIBUTING.md for adapter and engine conventions.

Browse every published version on the generated release history. The same data is available to Agents through docs/public/release-history.json.

_{v1.2.1 — Artemis · Wiseman}

License

Apache-2.0