CLI Anything Meerk40t Harness

cli-anything-meerk40t Harness

When to use

Building, testing, extending, or publishing the agent CLI harness for MeerK40t laser software.

Prerequisites

• Python venv with: pyserial, pyusb, numpy, ezdxf, Pillow, requests, websocket-client, click, prompt_toolkit
• MeerK40t pip-installed editable into the venv (pip install -e . from repo root)
• Harness pip-installed editable (pip install -e .)

Backend bootstrap (verified)

The harness wraps the real MeerK40t kernel headless. Bootstrap pattern (from test/bootstrap.py):

from meerk40t.kernel import Kernel
kernel = Kernel("MeerK40t", "0.0.0-cli", "MeerK40t_CLI", ansi=False, ignore_settings=True)
# Add plugins: kernelserver, dummydevice, core, imagetools, fills, coolant,
# lihuiyu, moshi, grbl, ruida, newly, balormk, svg_io, dxf, rotary
kernel(partial=True)
kernel._console_channel.watch(callable)  # capture output
kernel.console("service device start dummy 0\n")

Do NOT run channel print console if you capture via watch() — it pollutes stdout.

Key console syntax

• Stroke/fill: rect 1in 1in 1in 1in stroke red fill blue (inline, NOT -s/-f, NOT pipe)
• Text: text "the text" (NO x/y; position via matrix.post_translate after)
• SVG save: save path.svg (default), save path.svgz -v compressed, save path.svg -v plain
• G-code: service device start -i grbl (the -i activates!), then plan copy preprocess validate blob save_job path.gcode

Critical fixes applied

1. Ops accumulation: kernel auto-creates default ops at boot. Clear op_branch.remove_all_children() BEFORE loading SVG, or ops multiply across save/load cycles (1KB → 1.6MB in 3 cycles).
2. DXF is load-only headless (no saver). SVG is the only truthful headless export.
3. PNG needs wxPython GUI — render-op/make_raster only registered by gui/plugin.py. Error clearly if requested headless.

Running tests

python -m unittest cli_anything.meerk40t.tests.test_core -v      # 27 unit
python -m unittest cli_anything.meerk40t.tests.test_full_e2e -v  # 11 E2E
CLI_ANYTHING_FORCE_INSTALLED=1 python -m unittest cli_anything.meerk40t.tests.test_full_e2e -v

CLI usage

cli-anything-meerk40t --json -p /tmp/job.svg elements circle 1in 1in 1in
cli-anything-meerk40t --json -p /tmp/job.svg elements list
cli-anything-meerk40t --json export svg /tmp/out.svg
cli-anything-meerk40t console 'service device start -i grbl'

Standalone repo + PyPI publishing

Naming convention (strict)

cli-anything-<software> keyed on the SOFTWARE name, never its function. Must be cli-anything-meerk40t, NOT a laser-themed name. The domain goes in registry category + description fields.

Repo structure (this repo)

cli-anything-meerk40t/
├── setup.py              # MUST include meerk40t>=0.9.0 + headless deps in install_requires
├── README.md             # root-level README
├── LICENSE               # MIT
├── .gitignore
├── .github/workflows/publish.yml  # OIDC trusted publishing
├── .omp/skills/cli-anything-meerk40t-harness/SKILL.md  # this skill (repo-scoped)
├── skills/cli-anything-meerk40t/SKILL.md   # canonical CLI-Anything skill
└── cli_anything/          # NO __init__.py (PEP 420 namespace package)
    └── meerk40t/          # HAS __init__.py
        ├── meerk40t_cli.py, __main__.py, README.md
        ├── core/, utils/, tests/
        └── skills/SKILL.md  # packaged copy

setup.py install_requires (critical — omitting these ships a broken package)

install_requires=[
    "click>=8.0",
    "prompt_toolkit>=3.0",
    "meerk40t>=0.9.0",
    "pyusb>=1.0.0", "pyserial", "numpy",
    "Pillow>=7.0.0", "ezdxf>=0.14.0",
    "requests>=2.25.0", "websocket-client",
],

Release flow (OIDC trusted publishing — no credentials needed)

git tag v1.0.1
git push --tags
# GitHub Actions builds + publishes to PyPI automatically via pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish

PyPI trusted publisher configured at pypi.org/manage/account/publishing/:

• Owner: George-RD, Repo: cli-anything-meerk40t, Workflow: publish.yml, Environment: (blank)

CLI-Anything registry (HKUDS/CLI-Anything)

• registry.json is a dict with meta + clis keys; append to clis list
• Registry PR: https://github.com/HKUDS/CLI-Anything/pull/374
• Hold PR until PyPI is live (maintainers reject if install_cmd 404s)
• Verify skill_md raw URL returns 200 before submitting

Current state (as of 2026-07-04)

• Repo: https://github.com/George-RD/cli-anything-meerk40t (live)
• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/cli-anything-meerk40t/ (v1.0.0 live)
• Registry PR: https://github.com/HKUDS/CLI-Anything/pull/374 (submitted, awaiting merge)
• Tests: 38 (27 unit + 11 E2E), 100% pass
• OIDC trusted publishing: configured and working (v1.0.0 published via GitHub Actions)