OpenCLI hit 20k stars 🎉, https://t.co/UiH5TIKKFG. Honestly, star counts don’t mean much to me anymore. The real joy comes from interacting with users, sharing usage tips, and exchanging experiences. I’ll keep iterating and improving to make opencli even better. https://t.co/NeZVdLOJ2D

jackwener/OpenCLI

Source: https://github.com/jackwener/OpenCLI

OpenCLI

Turn websites, browser sessions, Electron apps, and local tools into deterministic interfaces for humans and AI agents. Reuse your logged-in browser, automate live workflows, and crystallize repeated actions into reusable CLI commands. Chinese Docs npm (https://www.npmjs.com/package/@jackwener/opencli) Node.js Version (https://nodejs.org) License

OpenCLI gives you one surface for three different kinds of automation:

• Use built-in adapters for sites like Bilibili, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, Reddit, HackerNews, Twitter/X, and many more.
• Let AI Agents operate any website — install the opencli-adapter-author skill in your AI agent (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), and it can navigate, click, type/fill, extract, and inspect any page through your logged-in browser via opencli browser primitives.
• Write new adapters end-to-end with opencli browser + the opencli-adapter-author skill, which guides from first recon through field decoding, code, and opencli browser verify.

It also works as a CLI hub for local tools such as gh, docker, tg-cli, discord-cli, wx-cli, and other binaries you register yourself, plus desktop app adapters for Electron apps like Cursor, Codex, Antigravity, ChatGPT, and Notion.

Highlights

• Desktop App Control — Drive Electron apps (Cursor, Codex, ChatGPT, Notion, etc.) directly from the terminal via CDP.
• Browser Automation for AI Agents — Install the opencli-adapter-author skill, and your AI agent can operate any website: navigate, click, type/fill, extract, screenshot — all through your logged-in Chrome session.
• Multi-profile Browser Bridge — Install the extension in each Chrome profile you want to use, then route commands with --profile, OPENCLI_PROFILE, or opencli profile use.
• Website → CLI — Turn any website into a deterministic CLI: 100+ site surfaces are already registered, or write your own with the opencli-adapter-author skill + opencli browser verify.
• Account-safe — Reuses Chrome/Chromium logged-in state; your credentials never leave the browser.
• AI Agent ready — One skill takes you from site recon through API discovery, field decoding, adapter writing, and verification.
• CLI Hub — Discover, auto-install, and passthrough commands to any external CLI (gh, docker, obsidian, tg-cli, discord-cli, wx-cli, etc).
• Zero LLM cost — No tokens consumed at runtime. Run 10,000 times and pay nothing.
• Deterministic — Same command, same output schema, every time. Pipeable, scriptable, CI-friendly.

Quick Start

1. Install OpenCLI

OpenCLI requires Node.js >= 21.

node --version
npm install -g @jackwener/opencli

2. Install the Browser Bridge Extension

OpenCLI connects to Chrome/Chromium through a lightweight Browser Bridge extension plus a small local daemon. The daemon auto-starts when needed.

Option A — Chrome Web Store (recommended): Install OpenCLI from the Chrome Web Store (https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/opencli/ildkmabpimmkaediidaifkhjpohdnifk).

Option B — Manual install:

1. Download the latest opencli-extension-v{version}.zip from the GitHub Releases page (https://github.com/jackwener/opencli/releases).
2. Unzip it, open chrome://extensions, and enable Developer mode.
3. Click Load unpacked and select the unzipped folder.

3. Verify the setup

opencli doctor

4. Optional: name your Chrome profile

Each Chrome profile runs its own OpenCLI extension instance. If you use multiple Chrome profiles, list the connected profiles and assign local aliases:

opencli profile list
opencli profile rename work
opencli profile use work
opencli --profile work browser state

With only one connected profile, OpenCLI uses it automatically. With multiple connected profiles and no default, OpenCLI asks you to choose instead of guessing.

5. Run your first commands

opencli list
opencli hackernews top --limit 5
opencli bilibili hot --limit 5

For Humans

Use OpenCLI directly when you want a reliable command instead of a live browser session:

• opencli list shows every registered command.
• opencli <command> runs a built-in or generated adapter.
• opencli external register mycli exposes a local CLI through the same discovery surface.
• opencli doctor helps diagnose browser connectivity.

Extending OpenCLI

If you want to add your own commands, start with the Extending OpenCLI guide. README keeps this short; the guide covers the directory layout, source-control model, and install commands.

For AI Agents

OpenCLI’s browser commands are designed to be used by AI Agents — not run manually. Install skills into your AI agent (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), and the agent operates websites on your behalf using your logged-in Chrome session.

Install skills

npx skills add jackwener/opencli

Or install only what you need:

npx skills add jackwener/opencli --skill opencli-adapter-author
npx skills add jackwener/opencli --skill opencli-autofix
npx skills add jackwener/opencli --skill opencli-browser
npx skills add jackwener/opencli --skill opencli-usage
npx skills add jackwener/opencli --skill smart-search

Which skill to use

How it works

Once opencli-adapter-author is installed, your AI agent can:

1. Navigate to any URL using your logged-in browser
2. Read page content via structured DOM snapshots (not screenshots)
3. Interact — click buttons, fill forms, select options, press keys
4. Extract data from the page or intercept network API responses
5. Wait for elements, text, or page transitions

The agent handles all the opencli browser commands internally — you just describe what you want done in natural language.

Skill references:

• skills/opencli-adapter-author/SKILL.md — browser operation + adapter authoring, end-to-end
• skills/opencli-autofix/SKILL.md — repair broken adapters
• skills/opencli-browser/SKILL.md — browser automation reference
• skills/opencli-usage/SKILL.md — command and site reference
• skills/smart-search/SKILL.md — capability search

Available browser commands include open, state, click, type, fill, select, keys, wait, get, find, extract, frames, screenshot, scroll, back, eval, network, tab list, tab new, tab select, tab close, init, verify, and close.

opencli browser commands require --session <name>. opencli browser --session work open <url> and opencli browser --session work tab new [url] both return a target ID. Use opencli browser --session work tab list to inspect target IDs, then pass --tab <id> to route a command to a specific tab. tab new creates a new tab without changing the default browser target; only tab select <id> promotes that tab to the default target for later untargeted commands in the same session.

Core Concepts

browser: AI Agent browser control

opencli browser commands are the low-level primitives that AI Agents use to operate websites. You don’t run these manually — instead, install the opencli-adapter-author skill into your AI agent, describe what you want in natural language, and the agent handles the browser operations. For example, tell your agent: “Help me check my Xiaohongshu notifications” — the agent will use opencli browser --session open, state, click, etc. under the hood.

Built-in adapters: stable commands

Use site-specific commands such as opencli hackernews top or opencli reddit hot when the capability already exists. These are deterministic and work without browser — ideal for both humans and AI agents.

Writing a new adapter

When the site you need is not yet covered, use the opencli-adapter-author skill. It takes the agent end-to-end:

1. Recon the site and classify its pattern (SPA / SSR / JSONP / Token / Streaming).
2. Discover the right endpoint — network inspection, initial state, bundle search, token trace, or interceptor fallback.
3. Decide the auth strategy — PUBLIC / COOKIE / INTERCEPT / UI / LOCAL.
4. Decode response fields and design output columns.
5. opencli browser --session recon analyze <url> for one-shot recon, then opencli browser --session recon init /<path> → write adapter → opencli browser --session recon verify /<path>.
6. Persist site knowledge to ~/.opencli/sites/<domain>/ so the next adapter for the same site is faster.

CLI Hub and desktop adapters

OpenCLI is not only for websites. It can also:

• expose local binaries like gh, docker, obsidian, tg-cli, discord-cli, wx-cli, or custom tools through opencli ...
• control Electron desktop apps through dedicated adapters and CDP-backed integrations

Prerequisites

• Node.js: >= 21.0.0 (required for the standard npm install path)
• Bun: >= 1.0 (optional alternative runtime)
• Chrome or Chromium running and logged into the target site for browser-backed commands

Important: Browser-backed commands reuse your Chrome/Chromium login session. If you get empty data or permission-like failures, first confirm the site is already open and authenticated in Chrome/Chromium.

Configuration

opencli browser * requires an explicit --session <name>, uses a foreground browser window by default, and keeps that session’s tab lease until browser --session close or idle cleanup. Browser-backed adapters use a background adapter window and release one-shot tab leases by default. Interactive adapters can declare siteSession: 'persistent' to keep a stable site tab for continuity; pass --site-session ephemeral for a one-shot tab.

Update

npm install -g @jackwener/opencli@latest
# If you use the packaged OpenCLI skills, refresh them too
npx skills add jackwener/opencli

Or refresh only the skills you actually use:

npx skills add jackwener/opencli --skill opencli-adapter-author
npx skills add jackwener/opencli --skill opencli-autofix
npx skills add jackwener/opencli --skill opencli-browser
npx skills add jackwener/opencli --skill opencli-usage
npx skills add jackwener/opencli --skill smart-search

For Developers

Install from source:

git clone [email protected]:jackwener/opencli.git
cd opencli
npm install
npm run build
npm link

To load the source Browser Bridge extension:

1. Open chrome://extensions and enable Developer mode.
2. Click Load unpacked and select this repository’s extension/ directory.

Built-in Commands

100+ site surfaces in total — **[→ see all