"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

VAT API CLI

A production-ready command-line interface for the VAT API European VAT validation service. Validate VAT numbers, look up country rates, and calculate VAT amounts directly from your terminal.

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial CLI tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by VAT API.

Features

• VAT Validation — Validate EU VAT numbers and get company details
• Country Rates — Get VAT rates for any EU country
• All Rates — Fetch VAT rates for all EU countries at once
• IP Lookup — Get VAT rates based on IP geolocation
• VAT Calculator — Calculate VAT amounts and prices
• JSON output — All commands support --json for scripting and piping
• Colorized output — Clean, readable terminal output with chalk

Why CLI > MCP

MCP servers are complex, stateful, and require a running server process. A CLI is:

• Simpler — Just a binary you call directly
• Composable — Pipe output to jq, grep, awk, and other tools
• Scriptable — Use in shell scripts, CI/CD pipelines, cron jobs
• Debuggable — See exactly what's happening with --json flag
• AI-friendly — AI agents can call CLIs just as easily as MCPs, with less overhead

Installation

npm install -g @ktmcp-cli/vatapi

Authentication Setup

VAT API uses API key authentication.

1. Get your API key

1. Sign up at vatapi.com
2. Go to your dashboard and copy your API key

2. Configure the CLI

vatapi config set --api-key YOUR_API_KEY

3. Verify

vatapi rates country GB

Commands

Configuration

# Set API key
vatapi config set --api-key <key>

# Show current config
vatapi config show

VAT Number Validation

# Validate a VAT number
vatapi vat validate GB123456789
vatapi vat validate DE123456789

# Output as JSON
vatapi vat validate GB123456789 --json

Country Rates

# Get VAT rates for a specific country
vatapi rates country GB
vatapi rates country DE
vatapi rates country FR

# Get rates for all EU countries
vatapi rates all

IP-Based Lookup

# Get VAT rates for your IP (auto-detect)
vatapi ip lookup

# Get VAT rates for a specific IP
vatapi ip lookup 1.2.3.4

VAT Calculator

# Calculate VAT for a price (country's standard rate)
vatapi calculate vat --country GB --price 100

# Calculate with a specific rate
vatapi calculate vat --country DE --price 200 --rate 19

# Output as JSON for scripting
vatapi calculate vat --country FR --price 50 --json

JSON Output

All commands support --json for machine-readable output:

# Validate and pipe to jq
vatapi vat validate GB123456789 --json | jq '{valid: .valid, company: .company_name}'

# Get all rates and filter
vatapi rates all --json | jq '.[] | select(.standard_rate > 20)'

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome at github.com/ktmcp-cli/vatapi.

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

Part of the KTMCP CLI project — replacing MCPs with simple, composable CLIs.