CLIs

Mounts make a service readable as files; CLIs make it actionable as a program. A CLI is a typed program tree (CLISpec) installed on the workspace by name and separate from the mounts: an account CLI initializes from its own config, consults no mount, and takes no operand path. git is the credential-free tier, so it takes no config at all and reads the repository -C names through the mount ops. The shell dispatches a line to a CLI when its first word matches an installed name.

import { EmailResource, HIMALAYA, Workspace } from '@struktoai/mirage-node'

const ws = new Workspace({ '/mail': new EmailResource(config) })
ws.registerCli('himalaya', HIMALAYA, config)

await ws.execute('himalaya envelope list --unseen --max 5')

In YAML the same install rides the clis: section:

mounts:
  /mail:
    resource: email
    config: { ... }
clis:
  himalaya:
    cli: himalaya
    config: { ... }

Every level of the tree answers --help, unknown verbs fail with git’s wording (exit 1), and missing required flags fail with argparse’s wording (exit 2). Two installs under different head words are two accounts.

Authoring your own CLI

A CLI is code you point at, the same way a mount points at a resource. In application code you build a CLISpec, and each leaf takes the line’s one CLIInvocation:

import { CLISpec, IOResult, type CLIInvocation } from '@struktoai/mirage-core'

function send(inv: CLIInvocation): [Uint8Array, IOResult] {
  const to = String(inv.flags.to)
  return [new TextEncoder().encode(`sent to ${to}\n`), new IOResult()]
}

const TREE = new CLISpec({
  name: 'mine',
  configModel: MyConfigSchema,
  subcommands: [new CLISpec({ name: 'send', fn: send })],
})

The record carries both views of the line: the process view (argv, stdin, env) and the parsed view (config, paths, texts, flags). In YAML, cli: references that spec by builtin or registered name, by package/module:ATTR specifier, or by ./file.mjs:ATTR path. A relative path resolves next to the config file, the same build-context rule script: follows. The referenced file is imported by Node, so it is JavaScript or TypeScript, not Python: .mjs is the spelling with no caveats, a .js file follows its nearest package.json type, and a .ts file rides Node’s own type stripping. Stripping is not compiling, so a .ts spec using enum, a parameter property, a runtime namespace or a legacy decorator is refused at load; ship those precompiled or as .mjs. Unlike Python’s loader this resolution happens in the config layer rather than in cliSpecFor, because that function lives in core, which has no filesystem and is synchronous. Installing a spec from code is still registerCliSpec or workspace.registerCli.

A CLI as a script

script: points at an ordinary program instead of a spec tree, so a CLI can be authored with no mirage import at all:

clis:
  pager:
    script: ./cli/pager.py
    config: { width: 80 }

The file’s content is embedded at load (relative paths resolve next to the config file) and the program runs on the workspace’s runtime world: .py on the first Python runtime, .js/.mjs on the first JavaScript one. What it gets is what a native binary would get. The words after the head arrive verbatim, piped input arrives on standard input, the install’s config arrives as MIRAGE_CLI_CONFIG in the environment as JSON, and the workspace mounts are visible as ordinary files through the runtime’s bridge. Its exit code becomes the line’s $? and its stderr reaches the shell. A Python program reads that variable either way the language spells it, os.getenv('MIRAGE_CLI_CONFIG') or os.environ['MIRAGE_CLI_CONFIG'], on every Python runtime and on both host languages. How arguments and input are spelled is the runtime’s own contract, the same one the python3 and node commands follow:

Runtime	Arguments	Standard input
pyodide (default)	`sys.argv`	`sys.stdin`
monty	`argv` global	`stdin` global
quickjs	`scriptArgs`	`std.in`

Slot 0 is the installed name, so pager --width 80 reads as ['pager', '--width', '80'] and a program’s own messages can say pager: like any other tool. Two installs of one program are told apart the same way. Arguments therefore start at index 1 on every runtime. The exception is local, where a real CPython runs the code as -c and defines sys.argv[0] itself; mirage cannot fill that slot, so it stays -c. A script CLI is one program rather than a verb tree, so it parses its own arguments, and mirage stays out of the way: it recognizes no flags of its own, so pager --width 80 reaches the program instead of being refused, and pager --help is the program’s to answer. A spec that declares options or positional opts back in, and then mirage parses the line, renders --help and man from the declaration, and refuses an undeclared flag; that is only reachable in code, since a YAML entry declares no grammar. runtime: pins which entry runs it, and runtime: local (from @struktoai/mirage-node) escalates a Python script to the host interpreter, where third-party packages are available. The sandboxed runtimes are files plus compute: no sockets, and no Node builtins on quickjs. Snapshots carry a script CLI by value: the embedded program travels in the snapshot and Workspace.load rebuilds the install from it, because there is no name for the loading process to resolve. Its config travels verbatim, since a script CLI declares no config model and so declares no secrets; keep credentials in the environment rather than the install config, or supply them through clis on load.

Discovering an installed CLI

An install is discoverable from inside the shell, so an agent that was never told about it can still find it. This works for your own registered CLI exactly as for a builtin one: every page is rendered from the spec, so there is nothing extra to write.

man                      # lists installs under "# clis", beside the mounts
man linear               # the tree: description, verbs, flags
man linear issue create  # one leaf, same text as `linear issue create --help`
type linear              # linear is a mirage CLI
type -t linear           # cli
which linear             # linear

type -t prints one of keyword, function, cli or builtin. which prints the bare name rather than a path, since mirage has no PATH, and reports a miss through exit 1 with no output, like GNU which. A shell function may shadow a head word, exactly as in bash. It is reversible with unset -f, bypassable with command linear ..., and type -a linear lists both layers. Installing and uninstalling a CLI is a host-side API only (ws.registerCli / ws.unregisterCli): there is no shell verb for it, so an agent cannot uninstall the tools it was given.

Builtin CLIs

Program	Acts on	Vocabulary
himalaya	IMAP/SMTP mail	pimalaya/himalaya (`envelope`, `message`)
gws	Google Workspace	official Google Workspace CLI
slack	Slack	OpenClaw Slack actions (`send-message`, …)
discord	Discord	OpenClaw Discord actions (`send`, `poll`, …)
ntn	Notion	official Notion CLI (`pages`, `datasources`)
linear	Linear	noun/verb (`issue create`, `team list`)
gh	GitHub	official GitHub CLI (`repo`, `api`)
git	git repositories	git (`status`, `log`, `add`, `commit`)

Reading stays on the mount (cat, grep, jq over the virtual files); acting goes through the CLI. The mounted tree’s <name>__<id> path segments supply the IDs the CLI flags take.

Getting Started

Agents

Resources

Watch

Runtimes

CLIs

Authoring your own CLI

A CLI as a script

Discovering an installed CLI

Builtin CLIs

​Authoring your own CLI

​A CLI as a script

​Discovering an installed CLI

​Builtin CLIs

Authoring your own CLI

A CLI as a script

Discovering an installed CLI

Builtin CLIs