Claude-CLI

🇺🇸 English | 🇨🇿 Čeština

A simple CLI application for communicating with the Anthropic Claude API.

Installation

1. Download the claude-cli file: curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MikeshCZ/claude-cli/main/claude-cli
2. Make it executable: chmod +x claude-cli
3. (Optional) Move to PATH: sudo mv claude-cli /usr/local/bin/

Alternative: On macOS you can use Homebrew and my 3rd party tap.

Setup

1. Get an API key from https://console.anthropic.com/
2. Set the API key: claude-cli -k YOUR_API_KEY
3. (Optional) Set default model: claude-cli -d MODEL_NAME

Requirements

• curl - for HTTP requests
• jq - for JSON processing
• glow - optional for better response formatting

Installing Dependencies

macOS:

brew install jq glow

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get install jq curl glow

Features

• ✅ Simple queries to Claude API
• ✅ API key configuration
• ✅ Model selection for individual queries
• ✅ Default model setting
• ✅ Display current default model
• ✅ Display available models from API
• ✅ Markdown formatting of responses
• ✅ Context window for continuing conversations
• ✅ Persistent context window toggle on/off
• ✅ Conversation history stored in ~/.claude-cli-history
• ✅ Chat restart with history clearing
• ✅ Pipe input from stdin - supports command combinations with |
• ✅ Help

Usage & Examples

# Basic query (uses default model)
claude-cli "What is the distance between Earth and Moon converted to the number of Škoda Fábias?"
claude-cli "What is artificial intelligence?"
claude-cli "Write a short poem"

# Using a specific model for one query
claude-cli -m claude-3-haiku-20240307 "Quick question"

# Show current default model
claude-cli --show-model

# Show available models from API
claude-cli --list-models

# Set default model (saved to configuration)
claude-cli -d claude-sonnet-4-0

# Enable context window permanently
claude-cli --context-toggle

# Check context window status
claude-cli --context-status

# Restart chat - clear history
claude-cli --context-restart

# Show help
claude-cli -h

# Set API key
claude-cli -k sk-ant-api03-...

# No formatting (raw markdown)
claude-cli --no-format "Show me markdown syntax"

# Pipe input from stdin
git log --oneline | head -5 | claude-cli "Translate these commit messages to Czech"
cat file.txt | claude-cli "Summarize the content of this file"
echo "Hello world" | claude-cli "Translate to Czech"

# Combination of pipe input with query
ls -la | claude-cli "Explain these files and directories to me"

Pipe Input (Stdin)

Claude CLI supports receiving data through pipe (stdin), enabling easy integration with other commands:

Usage Examples

# Pipe input only (no query)
cat document.txt | claude-cli

# Pipe input + query
git diff | claude-cli "Check these code changes"

# Project input, which is the same for these types of queries
cat project.txt | claude-cli "Question about this project"

# System commands with pipe
ps aux | claude-cli "Explain these processes to me. Is there anything suspicious?"
df -h | claude-cli "Evaluate disk status"

# Git commands
git log --oneline | head -10 | claude-cli "Summarize recent changes"
git status | claude-cli "What should I do with these changes?"

# Others
curl -s https://api.github.com/users/MikeshCZ | claude-cli "Summarize information about this user"

How It Works

• Claude-CLI automatically detects if input is coming from pipe
• Pipe input is combined with query (if provided)
• If no query is provided, only pipe input is used
• Pipe input is displayed before the query, separated by an empty line

Context Window

Claude CLI supports continuing conversations using a context window:

How It Works

• Default off: Without activation, each query is independent
• History is saved: When enabled, conversation is saved to ~/.claude-cli-history
• Persistent setting: Once enabled, remains active for all commands
• Efficient token management: Keeps only the last 20 messages for optimization
• Security: History is saved with 600 permissions (only owner can read)

Enabling/Disabling Context Window

Permanent Activation (Recommended)

# Enable context window permanently
claude-cli --context-toggle

# Check if context window is enabled
claude-cli --context-status

# After enabling, all queries work with context automatically
claude-cli "Hello Claude!"
claude-cli "What did you say in the previous message?"

# Disable context window
claude-cli --context-toggle

Temporary Use

# Force context for this one query only
claude-cli --context-window "Your query with context"
claude-cli --context-window "What did I ask about?"

# Next query will be without context (if toggle is not enabled)
claude-cli "Normal query"

History Management

# Clear conversation history
claude-cli --context-restart

# Check context window status
claude-cli --context-status

# Display conversation history file content
cat ~/.claude-cli-history

Tip

• For convenient usage: claude-cli --context-toggle enables once, then you don't need to specify any parameters
• Check current status with claude-cli --context-status (returns ENABLED/DISABLED)
• For long-term conversations, we recommend occasional restart using --context-restart to maintain context relevance
• Warning: with each query, history is also sent, increasing input token consumption!

Markdown Formatting

• Glow: If installed, it's used automatically (takes precedence over manual formatting below).

The application automatically colors and formats responses with the following elements:

Headers

• # Header → ▶ Header (purple bold)
• ## Header → ▶ Header (blue bold)
• ### Header → ▶ Header (cyan bold)
• #### Header → ▶ Header (white bold)

Text Formatting

• **bold text** → bold text
• *italic* → italic
• ~~strikethrough~~ → strikethrough (gray)
• \inline code`→code` (white text on gray background)

Blocks and Structures

• ```code block``` → green frame with language name
• > quote → yellow stripe with italic
• - list → cyan bullet •
• 1. numbered → blue numbers
• --- → horizontal line
• [link](url) → underlined blue text with URL

Control

• Default: Color formatting enabled
• --no-format: Raw markdown without formatting

🧑‍💻 Author

• More about the author

☕ If you like this repository, you can buy me a coffee. Thanks!