"Six months ago, everyone was talking about MCPs. And I was like, screw MCPs. Every MCP would be better as a CLI."

— Peter Steinberger, Founder of OpenClaw Watch on YouTube (~2:39:00) | Lex Fridman Podcast #491

TaxJar CLI

A production-ready command-line interface for the TaxJar API, enabling sales tax calculation, rate lookups, transaction reporting, and filing automation directly from your terminal or scripts.

Unofficial CLI — This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by TaxJar. It is an open-source tool built on the public TaxJar API.

Features

• Calculate sales tax for any US or international transaction
• Look up tax rates by ZIP code or full address
• Manage nexus regions — see where you're obligated to collect tax
• Browse product tax categories with their tax codes
• Record order transactions for reporting and filing
• Record refund transactions with reference to original orders
• Validate US addresses and EU VAT numbers
• JSON output mode for scripting and automation
• Beautiful terminal UX with spinners, colors, and formatted tables
• Secure config storage — API keys stored in OS keychain, not plain text

Why CLI > MCP

• Works in any terminal, any CI/CD pipeline, any script
• No JSON-RPC overhead, no daemon process
• Pipe output to jq, grep, awk — compose with anything
• Version-controlled in your shell history
• No special tooling or AI client required
• Faster iteration: run a command, get output, move on

Installation

npm install -g @ktmcp-cli/taxjar

Or run without installing:

npx @ktmcp-cli/taxjar --help

Authentication

Get your API key from app.taxjar.com/account#api-access.

# Store API key in config
taxjar config set --api-key YOUR_API_KEY

# Or use environment variable
export TAXJAR_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY

Commands

Configuration

taxjar config set --api-key <key>   # Save your TaxJar API key
taxjar config show                   # Display current configuration

Tax Calculation

# Calculate tax for a US sale
taxjar tax calculate \
  --from-country US --from-zip 94025 --from-state CA \
  --to-country US --to-zip 10001 --to-state NY \
  --amount 100.00 --shipping 5.00

# Output as JSON
taxjar tax calculate ... --json

Tax Rates

taxjar rates get --zip 10001                          # Get rates by ZIP
taxjar rates get --zip 10001 --country US --state NY  # With location details
taxjar rates summary                                   # Summary rates for all regions

Nexus Regions

taxjar nexus list          # List all nexus regions
taxjar nexus list --json   # JSON output

Product Categories

taxjar categories list          # List all product tax categories
taxjar categories list --json   # JSON output

Orders

# List orders
taxjar orders list
taxjar orders list --from-date 2024-01-01 --to-date 2024-12-31

# Get a specific order
taxjar orders get <transaction-id>

# Create an order
taxjar orders create \
  --transaction-id ORDER-123 \
  --transaction-date 2024-06-15 \
  --to-country US --to-zip 10001 --to-state NY \
  --from-country US --from-zip 94025 --from-state CA \
  --amount 100.00 --shipping 5.00 --sales-tax 8.88

# Update an order
taxjar orders update <transaction-id> --amount 110.00 --sales-tax 9.50

# Delete an order
taxjar orders delete <transaction-id>

Refunds

# List refunds
taxjar refunds list
taxjar refunds list --from-date 2024-01-01 --to-date 2024-12-31

# Get a specific refund
taxjar refunds get <transaction-id>

# Create a refund
taxjar refunds create \
  --transaction-id REFUND-456 \
  --transaction-date 2024-06-20 \
  --transaction-reference-id ORDER-123 \
  --to-country US --to-zip 10001 --to-state NY \
  --amount -100.00 --shipping 0.00 --sales-tax -8.88

Validation

# Validate a US address
taxjar validate address --country US --state NY --zip 10001 --street "1 World Trade Center"

# Validate a VAT number
taxjar validate vat GB123456789

Examples

Calculate checkout tax

$ taxjar tax calculate \
    --from-country US --from-zip 94025 --from-state CA \
    --to-country US --to-zip 10001 --to-state NY \
    --amount 299.99 --shipping 9.99

✓ Tax calculated

Tax Calculation Result
──────────────────────
Order Amount:       $299.99
Taxable Amount:     $299.99
Shipping:           $9.99
Freight Taxable:    No
Tax Rate:           8.8750%
Tax to Collect:     $26.62
Has Nexus:          Yes

Pipe JSON to jq

$ taxjar tax calculate \
    --from-country US --from-zip 94025 --from-state CA \
    --to-country US --to-zip 10001 --to-state NY \
    --amount 100 --json | jq '.amount_to_collect'

8.88

List nexus states

$ taxjar nexus list

Country  Country Name    State/Region  Region Name
-------  -----------     ------------  -----------
US       United States   CA            California
US       United States   NY            New York
US       United States   TX            Texas

Environment Variables

| Variable | Description | |----------|-------------| | TAXJAR_API_KEY | Your TaxJar API key (overrides stored config) | | TAXJAR_BASE_URL | Override API base URL (for sandbox: https://api.sandbox.taxjar.com/v2) |

Using Sandbox

export TAXJAR_BASE_URL=https://api.sandbox.taxjar.com/v2
taxjar tax calculate ...

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. Please open an issue first to discuss proposed changes.

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

Part of the KTMCP (Kill The MCP) project — production-ready CLIs as alternatives to MCPs for every major API.