ADL CLI

The official command-line tool for the Agent Definition Language (ADL). Validate agent definitions against the spec, convert them to A2A Agent Cards or MCP configurations, and scaffold new documents from templates.

Quick start

npx @adl-spec/cli init                    # scaffold a new agent definition
npx @adl-spec/cli validate agent.adl.json # validate it against the schema

Or install globally:

npm install -g @adl-spec/cli
adl validate agent.adl.yaml

Note: The CLI requires Bun (>= 1.0.0) as its runtime.

Commands

adl validate <files...>

Validate one or more ADL documents against the spec schema. Returns a non-zero exit code if any document is invalid — useful for CI pipelines and pre-commit hooks.

adl validate agent.adl.yaml
adl validate agents/*.yaml

adl convert <file> --to <format>

Generate an A2A Agent Card or MCP configuration from an ADL document. One source of truth, multiple output formats.

adl convert agent.adl.yaml --to a2a
adl convert agent.adl.yaml --to mcp --output mcp-config.json

adl init

Scaffold a new ADL document from a built-in template. Choose minimal for the basics, full for every field, or governance for compliance-ready definitions.

adl init
adl init --template governance --output my-agent.adl.json

Learn more

• ADL Specification
• Governance Profile
• GitHub

License

Apache-2.0