Installing the Taskless CLI

The Taskless CLI (@taskless/cli) installs the agent skill, runs rules against your codebase, and generates new rules from the terminal. Run it via npx; no global install needed.

The Taskless CLI requires Node.js ^20.20.0 or >=22.22.0.

npx @taskless/cli <command>

Authentication

Some commands (like API-backed rule generation) require authentication. Log in using a browser-based device flow:

npx @taskless/cli auth login

1. The CLI displays a URL and a short code (e.g., WDJB-MJHT).
2. Open the URL in your browser and enter the code.
3. Approve the authorization.

To log out:

npx @taskless/cli auth logout

Available Sub-Commands (npx @taskless/cli ...)

Sub-Command	Description
init	Install or upgrade the Taskless skill in detected tools, no questions asked
update	Learn what an upgrade changed for existing rules, or record a reconciliation
info	Show CLI version, installed tools, and auth status
detect	Scan the repo for configured linters, languages, and rule styles (offline)
onboard	Guided post-install pass that surfaces rule candidates from your codebase
check	Run rules against your codebase
check --json	Run rules with machine-readable JSON output
verify <path>	Check that a rule has the components its engine requires
test <path>	Run a rule’s tests, after verifying the rule itself
demo	Write an example rule into this project
rule create --from <file>	Generate a new rule from a JSON request file
rule improve --from <file>	Improve an existing rule with natural language guidance
rule delete <id>	Remove a rule and its test files
auth login	Authenticate with taskless.io
auth logout	Clear stored authentication
feedback send|dismiss	Answer or dismiss the short survey a recipe occasionally invites
agent <topic>	Return a recipe for an AI coding agent to follow

Running the CLI with no sub-command in a terminal opens the install wizard; init is that install without the wizard.

Recipes and commands are different things

agent <topic> returns a recipe, meaning instructions for a coding agent to follow. The other entries are the commands those instructions run. You will use both: your agent fetches agent route to work out where a rule belongs, then runs rule create to make it.

Run npx @taskless/cli agent to see the live topic list, and npx @taskless/cli agent <topic> for a full recipe.

Top-Level Options

Flag	Effect
-d, --dir	Set the working directory
--json	Output as JSON
--allow-version-mismatches	Proceed when .taskless/ is newer than this CLI understands (skips migrations)

The --anonymous Flag

--anonymous is accepted on every command. It forces local-only behavior on rule create and rule improve, skipping the Taskless API. On check it skips runtime rules. Your sg and vale rules still run, because they need no account either way. It is a no-op on most other commands and errors on auth login.

npx @taskless/cli rule create --from request.json --anonymous

Checking Your Status

Run npx @taskless/cli info to verify the CLI is working and see your login status.