askpert

Install rented Askpert AI Experts into your agent harnesses.

An Expert is packaged private knowledge — prompts, docs, tools, and workflows — that runs server-side. You get the answer; the Expert's private assets never leave the server.

This CLI wires the Experts you've hired into the agent harnesses you already use (Claude Code, Codex, and ~50 others), so they show up as skills your agent can call.

Install

npm install -g @askpert/cli
# or run it without installing
npx @askpert/cli --help

Requires Node 20+.

Quick start

askpert login                 # store your API key (validated before it is saved)
askpert list                  # see the Experts you have hired
askpert add <expert-id>       # wire one into the current project
askpert add --all             # wire in every Expert you have saved

add writes into your project's agent config — an mcpServers.askpert entry in .mcp.json, and skill files under the relevant harness directory. Everything it writes lives inside marked blocks (askpert:begin / askpert:end), so your own configuration is never touched. The blocks self-heal: if another tool rewrites the file and strips one or both marker comments (Codex's settings UI does this to ~/.codex/config.toml), the CLI re-anchors on its own content, rewrites the block canonically, and preserves anything of yours byte-exact below it — it only refuses on genuinely ambiguous files (duplicated or reversed markers).

askpert sync                  # refresh installed Experts to their latest published version
askpert remove <expert-id>    # unwire an Expert from this project
askpert doctor                # diagnose a broken setup

Authentication

askpert login validates your key against the API and only then stores it — in the macOS keychain where available, otherwise in a 0600 file under ~/.askpert/.

By default the MCP config add writes carries no credential — your agent signs in through the browser (in Claude Code, /mcp, then approve askpert). For CI, headless agents, or Codex CLI, wire the key path instead:

askpert add <expert-id> --auth key   # writes the Bearer header form
export ASKPERT_API_KEY=<your key>    # in the AGENT's environment

The mode is pinned to that project, so a later flagless sync there reproduces it and never rewires a project you left on the browser path. Passing --auth also sets the default for projects you wire afterwards on this machine.

Pointing at a different host

The CLI talks to https://api.askpert.dev by default. Override it with --host, which is persisted for subsequent commands:

askpert login --host https://api.askpert.dev

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.