# Openagents CLI > Use the OpenAgents CLI to read and write issues, projects, repositories, and the forum, to call any API route, to sign a person in, and to run Autopilot. Use it whenever the work touches OpenAgents itself rather than the files in this repository, or when the person says run Autopilot. - Skill: `openagentsinc/openagents-cli` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add openagentsinc/openagents-cli` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/openagentsinc/openagents-cli/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Integrations & APIs - Author: openagentsinc (https://skillmd.com/u/openagentsinc) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/openagentsinc/openagents-cli --- # The OpenAgents CLI You are running inside `openagents coder`, which is one subcommand of the `openagents` CLI. The `openagents` tool runs the rest of it. The same binary answers, so what you see is this machine's build, not a remembered one. ## Finding a command, and reading its answer The `openagents` tool's own description lists every command and subcommand, read from this binary. You do not need to go looking for them, and you do not need `--help` to find out that a command exists. Use ` --help` for a flag you do not know. This file lists no flags on purpose: a written copy goes stale the first time one changes, and the help output cannot. **Read the plain output.** It is what a person reads and it is small. A list of three issues is 442 bytes plain and 20,000 as JSON, because the JSON carries every issue's whole body — and a session that reads twenty thousand bytes to answer one question pays for them on every turn after it, too. Add `--json` only when you need one field out of one record. Prefer a narrower command over a wider one you then read past: `--label`, `--state`, `--limit` and a search term cost nothing and cut the answer to what was asked. ## What works with no credential - `openagents computer probe|policy|status` — inspects this machine. The local machine controls all access; no account is involved. - `openagents coder --offline` — answers from a built-in stand-in. - `openagents coder --autopilot --dry-run` — prints the Autopilot plan; no model, no thread, no token. - `--help` anywhere. Everything else reaches the API and needs a token. Without one you get: ``` openagents: No OpenAgents token is available for https://openagents.com. Set OPENAGENTS_TOKEN. ``` Read that as "this person is not signed in", not as a broken command. ## What signing in involves A token is per API origin, stored in the OS credential store, and carries scopes. Two matter: - `chat:account` — open a thread and talk to a model. - `forge:write` — push to the forge and write to issues, projects, and the forum. An ordinary sign-in mints both. Do not ask for one scope on its own: a token minted for `chat:account` alone cannot push, and one minted for `forge:write` alone cannot open a thread, and each failure arrives a command later where it reads as the product being broken. One privileged scope exists beyond these: `deployments:promote`, which the `openagents deploy` commands need and which the server mints only for a current operator. Do not request it unless the person is an operator asking to deploy the fleet; `forge:write` cannot promote. Check with `openagents auth status`, which names the account, the eligible namespaces, and the expiry without printing the token. ### Signing a person in You cannot complete this for them; it needs a browser and their approval. 1. Run `openagents auth login --headless`. It returns a URL and a short code and does not block. 2. Give the person the URL and the code, and say what they are approving: this CLI, on this machine, for their OpenAgents account. 3. When they say they have approved it, run `openagents auth login --resume`. 4. Confirm with `openagents auth status`. Tell them what it is for in a sentence — "so the CLI can push to the forge and open a thread" — rather than only handing over a link. A person asked to approve something unexplained is right to refuse. Never print a token, and never paste one into a file, a commit message, or an issue. ## Autopilot When the person says run Autopilot, or wants the CLI to take stock of this workspace and keep going, start it: ``` openagents coder --autopilot openagents coder --autopilot "work the open issues" openagents coder --autopilot --dry-run openagents --autopilot ``` It is headless. It reads the workspace snapshot, recent local Coder sessions, and open issues, then iterates until a stop condition (default one hour, or a turn that cannot reach a model). The optional prompt is the pick filter. `--dry-run` prints that plan and exits without calling a model or opening a thread. Run it when you need to see what Autopilot would take stock of before it goes. Hosted lanes need a token. `--lane local` can run unsigned when Ollama answers. `--offline` cannot combine with Autopilot; `--dry-run` is the no-model path. This is the one case where starting another coder process is the work. An interactive `openagents coder` without `--autopilot` is still a nested session — do not start one. Parallel named work still uses the `delegate` tool. ## Reaching a route with no command `openagents api ` sends an authenticated request to any API route and writes the body as JSON. A path without a leading slash resolves under `/api/v1/`. Use it when no named command covers what you need — several routes have no command of their own. ## Two cautions **Never read stdin from a tool call.** `--body-file -` (and every other stdin-reading flag, like `auth login --token-stdin`) blocks forever when the harness spawns the CLI with no stdin — no output, no error, no timeout. The tool path now closes stdin so the call fails fast instead of hanging, but the working pattern is unchanged: write the content to a real file with the write tool and pass its path. The pipe form (`printf '%s' "$body" | openagents ...`) belongs in the `bash` tool, where EOF arrives. A resumed turn after a hang re-issues the failed write with a file path — never the verbatim call. **You are already a coder session.** Do not start another interactive one. To run work in parallel, use the `delegate` tool. Autopilot (`openagents coder --autopilot`) is the unattended loop; start that when the person asked to run Autopilot. **Writes are real.** Closing an issue, posting to the forum, or pushing to a repository is visible to other people immediately and is not yours to undo. Say what you are about to write and get agreement before a first write in a session. Reads need no ceremony.