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CLI Generation

CLI generation

Speakeasy can generate a fully functional command-line interface (CLI) from an OpenAPI specification. The generated CLI is written in Go using Cobra, wraps a generated Go SDK, and ships with human-friendly and automation-friendly interfaces out of the box.

Getting started

Section titled “Getting started”
  • Generate a CLI — Create a CLI from an OpenAPI document using speakeasy quickstart
  • Customize a CLI — Configure command naming, environment variables, interactive features, release artifacts, and more
  • Distribute a CLI — Distribute a CLI using GoReleaser, install scripts, or go install
  • Configuration reference — Full gen.yaml configuration reference for the cli target

What the generated CLI includes

Section titled “What the generated CLI includes”
Capability
Per-operation command tree
Details
Each operation becomes a Cobra command, grouped by tags with stutter removal to keep names concise.
Flexible request input
Details
Users can supply request data through typed flags, whole-body JSON via --body, stdin piping, and bytes fields using file: or b64: prefixes.
Rich output modes
Details
Supports pretty, json, yaml, table, and toon, plus built-in --jq filtering.
Binary-safe workflows
Details
Binary responses support --output-file, --output-b64, and TTY protections to prevent dumping raw bytes to a terminal by accident.
Interactive UX
Details
Optional interactive prompting, an explore TUI command, interactive configure, and auth login/logout flows for human terminal use.
Agent-aware UX
Details
Automatically detects AI coding agents and switches to TOON-friendly defaults, structured errors, and non-interactive behavior.
Runtime controls
Details
Includes pagination, SSE/JSONL streaming, retries, timeouts, custom headers, response headers, and diagnostics like --dry-run and --debug.
Machine-readable docs surfaces
Details
Provides grouped help output and a --usage KDL schema for tooling, automation, and agent consumption.
Distribution tooling
Details
Generates GoReleaser config, release workflows, install scripts, and built-in shell completions for Bash, Zsh, Fish, and PowerShell.

Key features

Section titled “Key features”
  • Per-operation commands with smart grouping and stutter removal
  • Multiple output formats — pretty, JSON, YAML, table, and TOON
  • Built-in jq filtering via --jq
  • Flexible input — individual flags, --body, stdin, and bytes fields with file: / b64: input
  • 4-tier authentication — flags → environment variables → OS keychain → config file
  • Interactive mode — auto-prompting for unresolved fields, explore, configure, and auth forms
  • Agent mode — auto-detected for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Aider, and similar environments
  • Pagination with --all and --max-pages
  • SSE and JSONL streaming
  • Retries and timeouts
  • Response headers via --include-headers
  • Binary downloads with --output-file and --output-b64
  • Shell completions for Bash, Zsh, Fish, and PowerShell
  • Machine-readable usage output via --usage
  • Cross-platform release — GoReleaser config, install scripts, and GitHub Actions workflow