Summary

Opencli-rs is a high-performance, memory-safe command-line interface tool built in Rust, designed to fetch information from over 55 websites and control Electron desktop applications. It targets engineers, researchers, and AI agents seeking a fast, efficient, and dependency-free way to interact with web data and local tools. The primary benefit is a significant improvement in speed and memory usage compared to its Node.js predecessor, packaged as a single, small binary.

How It Works

This project is a complete rewrite of the original OpenCLI in pure Rust, emphasizing performance and memory safety. It leverages browser session reuse via a Chrome extension for authenticated access to sites like Twitter/X and Reddit, and employs AI-native discovery capabilities powered by AutoCLI.ai to automatically generate adapters for new websites. Data scraping workflows can be defined declaratively using YAML pipelines, and the tool integrates seamlessly with AI agents by allowing them to discover and invoke its commands. It also transforms Electron desktop applications into controllable CLI tools.

Quick Start & Requirements

Installation is straightforward via a one-line script for macOS/Linux (curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nashsu/opencli-rs/main/scripts/install.sh | sh) or PowerShell for Windows. Building from source requires cargo. Browser-based commands necessitate a Chrome browser and the companion Chrome extension, which can be loaded manually. No other runtime dependencies are required for the core binary. Official documentation and AI adapter marketplace are available at https://autocli.ai.

Highlighted Details

• Performance: Achieves up to 12x speedup and 10x less memory usage compared to the Node.js version, with a single 4.7MB binary and zero runtime dependencies.
• Site Coverage: Supports 55+ websites and 333+ commands, including major platforms like Twitter/X, Reddit, YouTube, Bilibili, Zhihu, and Hacker News.
• AI Integration: Features AI-powered adapter generation and discovery, allowing AI agents to interact with a vast array of websites and local CLI tools (e.g., gh, docker, kubectl).
• Desktop App Control: Enables scripting and control of Electron desktop applications such as Cursor, ChatGPT, and Notion.
• Data Handling: Supports downloading media and articles (as Markdown with localized images), and offers multi-format output (table, JSON, YAML, CSV, Markdown).

Maintenance & Community

The project is associated with autocli.ai, an AI-powered adapter marketplace and cloud API, suggesting a platform for shared adapters and AI generation. A skill for integrating opencli-rs with AI agents is available via npx skills add https://github.com/nashsu/opencli-rs-skill. Specific details on active maintainers or community forums like Discord/Slack were not present in the provided text.

Licensing & Compatibility

The project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 license, which generally permits commercial use and integration into closed-source projects, provided the license terms are followed.

Limitations & Caveats

Browser-dependent commands require Chrome and the installation of a separate Chrome extension. While performance gains are significant, the test pass rate is noted as 84% (103/122), indicating near parity but not absolute equivalence with the original TypeScript version. AI adapter generation may require authentication with autocli.ai.