App Store is for humans. CliHub is for agents.
_{Discover, install, and manage 100+ CLI tools. Built for AI agents.}

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💡 The Insight

App stores were built for humans. Buttons, screenshots, star ratings — everything optimized for eyes and thumbs. That made sense when the user was a person browsing on a screen.

But the user is changing. AI agents are becoming the primary way software gets discovered, installed, and orchestrated. And agents don't browse — they query. They don't click — they pipe. They don't read screenshots — they read structured metadata.

The App Store needed a new interface. Not a GUI — a CLI. Not for humans — for agents.

That's CliHub. The App Store redesigned from the ground up for a world where the user is an LLM.

	🧑 App Store	🔌 MCP	🤖 CliHub
👤 Built for	Humans browsing a GUI	Agents via JSON-RPC	AI agents calling a CLI
🔍 Discovery	Screenshots, ratings, reviews	Schemas dumped into every prompt	clihub list --json — on demand
📦 Install	Click a button	Configure server + restart	clihub install jq — one command
🧠 Intelligence	Store ranks and recommends	Agent reads schema	Agent reads catalog and decides
💸 Context cost	N/A	8,000+ tokens per server	0 tokens until --help
🔗 Composability	Apps are siloed	One tool per call	Unix pipes: curl | jq | grep
🌍 Ecosystem	Walled garden	Hundreds of servers	Open — thousands of tools, 50 years

💡 LLMs are already trained on jq, ffmpeg, curl, and grep. They don't need a new schema — they need a way to find and install the right tool. That's all CliHub does.

⚡ Get Started

pip install clihub-ai

For humans — search, install, use:

clihub search "resize images"      # 🔍 fuzzy search across 104 tools
clihub install imagemagick          # 📦 auto-detects brew/pip/npm/cargo
clihub info jq                      # 📖 metadata, examples, and --help output
clihub list                         # 📋 browse all categories
clihub doctor                       # 🩺 check available package managers

For agents — add --json to any command:

clihub list --json                  # full catalog with descriptions + agent_hints
clihub install jq --json            # {"status": "success", "message": "Installed jq@1.7.1 via brew"}
clihub info ruff --json             # full metadata, install method, example commands

✅ Every response is valid JSON   ✅ Errors go to stderr   ✅ Exit codes: 0 success, 1 error, 2 not found

🧩 Agent Integration

The design is simple: CliHub is a dumb pipe. The agent is the brain.

An agent doesn't need a search algorithm — it is one. CliHub gives it a structured catalog. The agent reads it, picks the right tool, and installs it:

# 📥 Step 1: Read the catalog (87KB — fits in any context window)
$ clihub list --json
[
  {
    "name": "jq",
    "description": "Lightweight command-line JSON processor.",
    "categories": ["data", "json"],
    "agent_hints": {
      "when_to_use": "Parse, filter, or transform JSON data",
      "example_usage": ["jq '.users[] | select(.age > 30)' data.json"]
    },
    "install": {"method": "brew", "package": "jq"}
  },
  ... 103 more tools
]

# 📦 Step 2: Install what it needs
$ clihub install jq --json
{"status": "success", "message": "Installed jq@1.7.1 via brew"}

# 🚀 Step 3: Use it
$ jq '.users[] | .name' data.json

That's the entire integration. Two calls. Done.

🔗 Composable with anything

# Find all installed Python tools
clihub list --installed --json | jq '[.[] | select(.categories[] == "python")]'

# Get example commands for a tool
clihub info ffmpeg --json | jq '.agent_hints.example_usage'

# Check which package managers are missing
clihub doctor --json | jq '[.[] | select(.ok == false) | .check]'

📚 All Commands

Command	What it Does
clihub list [--json]	📋 Browse the full tool catalog (104 tools with metadata)
clihub search <query> [--json]	🔍 Fuzzy-search tools by keyword
clihub install <tool> [--json]	📦 Install via auto-detected package manager
clihub info <tool> [--json]	📖 Show metadata, agent hints, and --help output
clihub doctor [--json]	🩺 Check system readiness and available package managers
clihub convert <tool> [--json]	⚙️ Auto-generate a manifest from an installed tool
clihub submit <file> [--json]	✅ Validate a manifest for registry submission

📦 Tool Catalog

104 tools across 17 categories — every one has agent_hints with natural-language descriptions and example commands.

Category	Tools	Use Case
📊 Data	jq, yq, csvkit, xsv, dasel, gron, fx, jless	Parse JSON, transform YAML, query CSV
🗄️ Database	mycli, pgcli, litecli, iredis, usql	MySQL, Postgres, Redis, SQLite clients
🔍 Search & Files	ripgrep, fd, fzf, bat, eza, lsd, broot, ranger, nnn	Find files, search code, browse directories
🌐 Network	httpie, curl, wget, aria2, ngrok, mosh, nmap	HTTP requests, downloads, tunneling, scanning
🐍 Python	ruff, black, mypy, uv, pipx, poetry	Lint, format, type-check, manage packages
💛 JavaScript	prettier, eslint, tsx, npm-check-updates	Format, lint, run TypeScript, update deps
🛠️ Dev Tools	gh, lazygit, gitui, tokei, hyperfine, just, grex, shellcheck	Git workflows, benchmarks, task running
🐳 Docker & Cloud	lazydocker, k9s, dive, act, awscli, terraform	Containers, Kubernetes, CI, infrastructure
🎬 Media	ffmpeg, imagemagick, yt-dlp, svgo, gifsicle, asciinema	Video, images, downloads, GIFs, recordings
📄 Documents	pandoc, glow	Convert Markdown/HTML/PDF, render in terminal
✂️ Text	sd, choose, sad	Find-and-replace, cut columns, batch edits
✏️ Editors	neovim, micro, helix	Terminal-based text editing
⏱️ Productivity	tmux, tldr, zoxide, starship, taskwarrior, watson, nb	Sessions, navigation, tasks, time tracking
🚀 Release	semantic-release, release-it, commitizen, cookiecutter	Versioning, changelogs, project scaffolding
🔒 Security	openssl, age, mkcert	TLS, encryption, local certificates
💻 System	htop, btop, procs, bandwhich, pv, ncdu, dust	Processes, bandwidth, disk usage, pipelines
🎉 Fun	lolcat, fortune, cmatrix	Rainbow text, quotes, Matrix rain

➕ Add Your Tool

Got a CLI tool? Add it to CliHub in 30 seconds:

clihub convert mytool           # ⚙️ auto-detects version, description, license, homepage
vim clihub.yaml                 # ✏️ fill in categories, tags, agent_hints
clihub submit clihub.yaml       # ✅ validates and prints PR-ready JSON

convert pulls metadata from --help, --version, and package managers (brew, pip, npm, cargo). You fill in what makes your tool discoverable to agents — categories, tags, and agent_hints.when_to_use:

name: mytool
version: "2.1.0"
description: "Do something useful from the terminal"
categories: [utilities]
install:
  method: brew
  package: mytool
agent_hints:
  when_to_use: "When you need to do something useful quickly"
  example_usage:
    - "mytool input.txt --output result.json"

Then open a PR. 🎉

🧑‍💻 Development

git clone https://github.com/ZiYang-xie/clihub.git
cd clihub
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest                      # unit tests
ruff check src/ tests/      # lint

🤝 Contributing

The easiest way to contribute: clihub convert <tool>, fill in the TODOs, open a PR.

📄 License

MIT © Ziyang Xie

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⭐ Star History

If CliHub helps your agent get things done, give it a star — it helps others find it too.

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clihub.net · PyPI · Issues