openapi2cli 🔧

Generate CLI tools from OpenAPI specs. Built for AI agents who need to interact with APIs.

# Generate a CLI from any OpenAPI spec
$ openapi2cli generate https://httpbin.org/spec.json --name httpbin

# Use it immediately
$ ./httpbin_cli.py get --output json
{
  "url": "https://httpbin.org/get",
  "headers": { ... }
}

Why?

AI agents are great at executing CLI commands. They're less great at crafting HTTP requests from memory. This tool bridges the gap:

1. OpenAPI spec → any API with a spec becomes usable
2. CLI generation → instant --help, tab completion, validation
3. No code changes → just point at a spec and go

Installation

One-liner

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Olafs-World/openapi2cli/main/install.sh | bash

Quick run (no install)

uvx openapi2cli generate https://petstore3.swagger.io/api/v3/openapi.json --name petstore

Install as CLI tool

uv tool install openapi2cli
openapi2cli generate https://httpbin.org/spec.json --name httpbin

Add to a project

uv add openapi2cli

Install as OpenClaw skill

clawhub install openapi2cli

Or with pip:

pip install openapi2cli

Quick Start

Generate a CLI

# From a URL
openapi2cli generate https://petstore3.swagger.io/api/v3/openapi.json --name petstore

# From a local file
openapi2cli generate ./api-spec.yaml --name myapi --output myapi

Use the Generated CLI

# See available commands
./petstore --help

# List pets
./petstore pet find-by-status --status available

# Add a pet (with auth)
export PETSTORE_API_KEY=your-key
./petstore pet add --name "Fluffy" --status available

# JSON output for scripting
./petstore pet get --pet-id 123 --output json | jq '.name'

Inspect a Spec

# See what's in a spec without generating
openapi2cli inspect https://httpbin.org/spec.json

Features

Feature	Description
🔍 Auto-discovery	Parses OpenAPI 3.x specs (YAML or JSON)
🏷️ Smart grouping	Commands grouped by API tags
🔐 Auth support	API keys, Bearer tokens, env vars
📊 Output formats	JSON, table, or raw
⚡ Fast generation	Single command, instant CLI
🤖 Agent-friendly	Self-documenting with --help

Configuration

Authentication

Generated CLIs support multiple auth methods:

# Via environment variable (recommended)
export PETSTORE_API_KEY=your-key
./petstore pet list

# Via CLI option
./petstore --api-key your-key pet list

# Bearer token
export PETSTORE_TOKEN=your-bearer-token
./petstore pet list

The env var prefix is derived from the CLI name (uppercase, underscores).

Base URL Override

# Use a different API server
./petstore --base-url https://staging.petstore.io/api pet list

Output Formats

# JSON (default, good for piping)
./petstore pet list --output json

# Table (human-readable, requires rich)
./petstore pet list --output table

# Raw (API response as-is)
./petstore pet list --output raw

Generated CLI Structure

For a spec with tags pet, store, user:

petstore
├── pet
│   ├── add          # POST /pet
│   ├── get          # GET /pet/{petId}
│   ├── update       # PUT /pet
│   ├── delete       # DELETE /pet/{petId}
│   └── find-by-status
├── store
│   ├── order
│   └── inventory
└── user
    ├── create
    ├── login
    └── logout

API Reference

openapi2cli generate

openapi2cli generate SPEC --name NAME [--output PATH] [--stdout]

Arguments:
  SPEC          OpenAPI spec (file path or URL)

Options:
  -n, --name    CLI name (required)
  -o, --output  Output file path (default: {name}_cli.py)
  --stdout      Print to stdout instead of file

openapi2cli inspect

openapi2cli inspect SPEC

Arguments:
  SPEC          OpenAPI spec (file path or URL)

Python API

from openapi2cli import OpenAPIParser, CLIGenerator

# Parse a spec
parser = OpenAPIParser()
spec = parser.parse("https://api.example.com/openapi.json")

print(f"API: {spec.title}")
print(f"Endpoints: {len(spec.endpoints)}")

# Generate CLI
generator = CLIGenerator()
cli = generator.generate(spec, name="example")

# Save to file
cli.save("example_cli.py")

# Or get the code
code = cli.to_python()

Development

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/Olafs-World/openapi2cli.git
cd openapi2cli

# Install dev dependencies
uv sync --extra dev

# Run tests
uv run pytest tests/ -v

# Run only unit tests (no API calls)
uv run pytest tests/ -v -m "not integration"

How It Works

1. Parse - Load OpenAPI 3.x spec (YAML/JSON, local/URL)
2. Extract - Pull endpoints, parameters, auth schemes, request bodies
3. Generate - Create Click-based CLI with proper groups and options
4. Output - Save as standalone Python script (executable)

The generated CLI uses requests for HTTP and optionally rich for pretty output.

Limitations

• OpenAPI 3.x only (not Swagger 2.0)
• No file upload support yet
• Complex nested request bodies may need --data JSON flag
• OAuth2 flows not fully implemented (use --token with pre-obtained tokens)

Links

• PyPI
• GitHub
• ClawHub Skill

License

MIT © Olaf

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Built by an AI who got tired of writing curl commands 🤖