Pipelines CLI

Pipelines CLI

Use the pipelines CLI for direct local one-shot execution of standalone pipeline specs. This is not the Flow CLI: do not run flow init, do not start a Flow runtime, and do not translate standalone pipeline requests into .flow/workflows.

CLI Availability

Verify the binary before using it:

pipelines --version

If the command is missing, install the published package from GitHub Packages:

npm config set @workbench-ai:registry https://npm.pkg.github.com
npm install -g @workbench-ai/pipeline-cli
pipelines --version

If npm reports a GitHub Packages auth or registry error, tell the user that npm needs @workbench-ai GitHub Packages access with a token that can read packages, then stop cleanly instead of falling back to Flow.

Working Rules

• Use pipelines validate before pipelines run unless the user explicitly asks to skip validation.
• Use exactly one spec source: --file PATH for YAML or .json files, or --stdin for YAML or JSON from stdin.
• Use --schema-only only for structural validation when repo readiness, harnesses, or secrets are intentionally unavailable.
• Treat pipelines run --dry-run as the readiness preflight before mutation.
• Default to --mode scratch; use --mode project only when the user explicitly wants side effects in the target repo.
• Use --repo PATH for readiness checks and runs. Do not use --server.
• For payloads, use repeated --input key=value, exactly one --payload-json, or exactly one --payload-file PATH.
• Use --payload-file - when raw JSON payloads should come from stdin.
• Prefer --json when another tool or agent needs structured output.
• Do not use removed Flow-owned pipeline flags such as --pipeline-file, --pipeline-stdin, or --pipeline-json.

Common Flow

pipelines validate --file pipeline.yaml --repo . --json
pipelines run --file pipeline.yaml --repo . --dry-run --json
pipelines run --file pipeline.yaml --repo . --json

For generated specs:

cat pipeline.yaml | pipelines validate --stdin --repo . --json
cat pipeline.yaml | pipelines run --stdin --repo . --json

For an intentional in-place run:

pipelines run --file pipeline.yaml --repo . --mode project --json

JSON Output

For pipelines validate --json, read success, schema_valid, readiness_checked, pipeline_id, workspace_mode, stage_ids, harnesses, and errors.

For pipelines run --json, read status, terminal_reason, workspace_path, final_output, trace.summaries[], and harness_events.

Do not treat provider stderr or tool-level error spans as terminal unless the top-level status or stage summary failed.

Local References

• Read references/docs/cli.md for the canonical command contract. In the authored repo tree, the same content lives under docs/cli.md.
• Use references/docs/examples/pipelines for standalone pipeline examples.
• Use evals/evals.json and evals/README.md when improving this skill's product-local eval surface.