Generated from clnku.1.md.

NAME

clnku - a minimal coding agent (plain CLI)

SYNOPSIS

clnku [-p task] [–model name] [–base-url url] [–max-steps n] [–load-messages file] [–event-log file] [–trajectory file] [-v|–verbose] [–version]

DESCRIPTION

clnku is a minimal coding agent that queries LLMs and executes bash commands using a structured JSON turn protocol. It supports both Anthropic and OpenAI-compatible APIs.

In default mode, clnku starts an interactive REPL. With -p, it runs a single task and exits.

clnku is the plain CLI variant of the clnkr project, with no external dependencies beyond the Go standard library. A TUI variant is available as clnkr(1).

The agent communicates through JSON turns: act (execute a command), clarify (ask the user), and done (signal completion).

Project-specific instructions are loaded from an AGENTS.md file in the current working directory, if present.

OPTIONS

-p, –prompt task

Run the given task and exit. Without this flag, clnku starts in conversational REPL mode.

–model name

LLM model identifier (default: claude-sonnet-4-20250514).

–base-url url

LLM API endpoint (default: https://api.anthropic.com). If the URL contains “anthropic.com”, the Anthropic adapter is used; otherwise, the OpenAI-compatible adapter is used.

–max-steps n

Maximum agent iterations. 0 uses the default of 100.

–load-messages file

Read a JSON array of messages from file and prepend them to the conversation before starting. The format matches –trajectory output, so one agent’s trajectory can seed another agent’s context.

–event-log file

Write every agent event as a JSONL line to file. Each line is a JSON object with “type” and “payload” fields. Uses O_APPEND for atomic writes, safe to tail from another process.

–trajectory file

After the task finishes, write the full message history as pretty-printed JSON to file. Written before exit, even on error. Only applies to single-task mode (-p), not the REPL.

-v, –verbose

Show internal decisions (queries, parsing, working directory).

–version

Print version and exit.

–continue

Resume the most recent session for the current project directory.

–list-sessions

List all saved sessions for the current project directory.

ENVIRONMENT

CLNKR_API_KEY

API key for the LLM provider (required).

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

Fallback API key when using the Anthropic endpoint.

FILES

AGENTS.md

If present in the current directory, its contents are appended to the system prompt as project-specific instructions.

EXIT STATUS

0

Success.

1

Error (no API key, step limit reached, etc.).

SEE ALSO

clnkr(1)

AUTHOR

Brian Cosgrove cosgroveb@gmail.com