CLI-Anything: giving a command line to software that ships none
An HKUDS lab framework (Apache 2.0) that manufactures a command line for software that exposes none, then publishes it to a shared registry, the CLI-Hub. The chain is automated end to end: analysing the target application, designing the commands, implementing them, planning tests, running them, writing docs, publishing. Around sixty applications are already covered, from creative tools (Blender, GIMP, Inkscape) to desktop and local software (LibreOffice, Obsidian, ComfyUI, Ollama). An agent then installs those interfaces from the hub and drives the application by typing commands.
Strengths
- Makes desktop software drivable without waiting for its vendor to ship an API
- Full chain from analysis to tests, docs and publishing: not a throwaway command generator
- Shared registry, so a CLI built by someone else is immediately useful to you
Limitations
- You delegate the installation of third-party executables from an open registry to an agent
- A generated CLI stays an interpretation layer: it can miss the real application edge cases
Best for
- Automating a creative application that exposes neither an API nor a usable plugin
- Avoiding a home-made server maintained just to plug one tool into an agent
- Testing how far the command-over-connector stance holds on your own stack