perplexity_cli

CLI for searching the web and running deep research queries using Perplexity AI.

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• A Perplexity API key

Install

Published on npm as @jetienne/perplexity_cli. Run it on demand:

export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=pplx-your-key-here
npx @jetienne/perplexity_cli search -q "TypeScript generics"

Develop from source

git clone https://github.com/jeromeetienne/perplexity_cli
cd perplexity_cli
npm install
export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=pplx-your-key-here

Commands

search

Search the web and return a list of results (title, URL, snippet).

# Basic search
npx tsx src/cli.ts search -q "TypeScript generics"

# Multi-query batch (up to 5 queries in one request)
npx tsx src/cli.ts search -q "TypeScript generics" -q "TypeScript decorators"

# Regional results
npx tsx src/cli.ts search -q "weather forecast" --country FR

# Domain allowlist
npx tsx src/cli.ts search -q "machine learning" --domain arxiv.org

# Domain blocklist (prefix with -)
npx tsx src/cli.ts search -q "machine learning" --domain -example.com

# Language filter
npx tsx src/cli.ts search -q "intelligence artificielle" --language fr

# Limit number of results
npx tsx src/cli.ts search -q "rust programming" --max-results 5

Options:

| Flag | Description | Default | |-----------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|----------| | -q, --query <query> | Search query — repeatable up to 5 times | required | | --domain <domain> | Domain filter — repeatable, prefix - to block | — | | --country <code> | ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (e.g. US, FR, JP) | — | | --language <code> | ISO 639-1 language code — repeatable up to 10 | — | | --max-results <n> | Number of results (1–20) | 10 |

deep-search

Run a comprehensive research query and get a full text answer.

# Deep research, plain text output (default preset)
npx tsx src/cli.ts deep-search -q "explain transformer neural networks"

# Deep research with markdown output
npx tsx src/cli.ts deep-search -q "explain transformer neural networks" -m

# Quick factual lookup
npx tsx src/cli.ts deep-search -q "capital of France" -p fast-search

# Maximum depth research
npx tsx src/cli.ts deep-search -q "impact of quantum computing on cryptography" -p advanced-deep-research -m

Options:

| Flag | Description | Default | |-------------------------|------------------------------------------------------|-----------------| | -q, --query <query> | Search query | required | | -m, --markdown | Output as raw markdown (default: plain text) | false | | -p, --preset <preset> | Research preset (see below) | deep-research |

Presets:

| Preset | Model | Use case | |--------------------------|-----------------------|------------------------------------------------| | fast-search | sonar | Quick factual lookups | | pro-search | sonar-pro | Reliably researched standard queries | | deep-research | sonar-deep-research | In-depth analysis requiring extensive research | | advanced-deep-research | sonar-reasoning-pro | Maximum depth research with extensive sources |

install

Copy the perplexity skill into an agent folder.

npx tsx src/cli.ts install --skill

This copies skills/perplexity/ into <cwd>/skills/perplexity/, making it available to skillmd_runner agent folders.

Development

npm run build      # compile TypeScript → dist/
npm run typecheck  # type-check without emitting
npm test           # run tests

Output

• search and deep-search write results to stdout.
• Errors are written to stderr and the process exits with code 1.