Taskless CLI

The Taskless CLI (@taskless/cli) manages rules, runs checks, and installs the agent skill. It ships as an npm package and runs via npx without a global install.

For Humans and For Agents

For humans: run npx @taskless/cli (no args) to install or update Taskless in this repository.
For agents: the installed skill is a thin router. When an agent needs to act, it runs npx @taskless/cli agent <topic> to fetch the canonical recipe (Goal, Preconditions, Steps, Schema, Errors, See Also) and follows it.

The docs site covers the human-facing surface. For the full machine-readable recipe behind any sub-command, run npx @taskless/cli agent <topic>.

Quick Start

npx @taskless/cli info

Topics

Most CLI topics have a corresponding recipe. Run npx @taskless/cli agent <topic> for the full text.

agent returns a recipe for an agent to follow; the commands below are what those recipes run.

Commands:

Topic	Summary
`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)
`check`	Run rules against your codebase
`auth`	Manage authentication with taskless.io
`rule`	Create, improve, and delete rules
`onboard`	Guided post-install pass that surfaces rule candidates from your project
`verify`	Check that a rule has the components its engine requires
`test`	Run a rule’s tests, after verifying the rule itself
`demo`	Write an example rule into this project
`feedback`	Answer or dismiss the short survey a recipe occasionally invites

Running the CLI with no sub-command in a terminal opens the install wizard; init is that install without the wizard, for agents, scripts, and CI.

Authoring recipes. Where a new rule is authored and routed, plus wiring checks into CI (see Authoring Rules):

These are recipe-only topics, reachable as npx @taskless/cli agent <topic> rather than as bare commands.

Topic	Summary
`route`	Decide which recipe authors a rule. Start here
`create-legacy-rule`	Author a rule in a linter the repo already uses, in that tool’s dialect
`create-sg-rule`	Author a local ast-grep rule over code (no login)
`create-vale-rule`	Author a local Vale rule over prose (no login)
`create-runtime-rule`	The runtime engine, and why it needs Taskless Cloud
`create-remote-rule`	Generate a rule via the Taskless service (login)
`improve-rule`	Iterate on an existing rule
`delete-rule`	Remove a rule and its tests
`ci`	Wire `taskless check` into your CI (see Continuous Integration)

Run npx @taskless/cli detect --json to see the repo scan detect produces, or npx @taskless/cli agent detect for its recipe. Run npx @taskless/cli agent (no args) for the live topic list.

The `--anonymous` Flag

--anonymous is a top-level flag 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, since they need no account either way. It is a no-op on most other commands and errors on auth login. Pass it to keep everything on-device without sending anything to taskless.io.

Error Output

When you pass --json and a command fails, the CLI emits a stable error shape with a code field (e.g., AUTH_REQUIRED, NO_GITHUB_REMOTE, RULE_GENERATION_FAILED). Recipes can branch on this code without parsing prose. For the per-topic error catalog, see the Errors section in npx @taskless/cli agent <topic>.