Tlon Skill

A CLI tool for interacting with Tlon/Urbit APIs.

Installation

npm:

npm install @tloncorp/tlon-skill

Direct download (no Node required):

# macOS ARM64
curl -L https://registry.npmjs.org/@tloncorp/tlon-skill-darwin-arm64/-/tlon-skill-darwin-arm64-0.4.0.tgz | tar -xz
mv package/tlon /usr/local/bin/

# macOS x64
curl -L https://registry.npmjs.org/@tloncorp/tlon-skill-darwin-x64/-/tlon-skill-darwin-x64-0.4.0.tgz | tar -xz

# Linux x64
curl -L https://registry.npmjs.org/@tloncorp/tlon-skill-linux-x64/-/tlon-skill-linux-x64-0.4.0.tgz | tar -xz

# Linux ARM64
curl -L https://registry.npmjs.org/@tloncorp/tlon-skill-linux-arm64/-/tlon-skill-linux-arm64-0.4.0.tgz | tar -xz

Configuration

Option 1: CLI flags (highest priority)

# Cookie-based auth (fastest - ship parsed from cookie)
tlon --url https://your-ship.tlon.network --cookie "urbauth-~your-ship=0v..." contacts self

# Cookie-based auth with explicit ship and code fallback
tlon --url https://your-ship.tlon.network --ship ~your-ship \
  --cookie "urbauth-~your-ship=0v..." --code sampel-ticlyt-migfun-falmel contacts self

# Code-based auth (requires all three)
tlon --url https://your-ship.tlon.network --ship ~your-ship --code sampel-ticlyt-migfun-falmel contacts self

# Use skill-dir or cached credentials for one ship
tlon --ship ~your-ship contacts self

# Or use a config file
tlon --config ~/ships/my-ship.json contacts self

Valid CLI credential forms are --config <file>, --url <url> --cookie <cookie> with optional --ship and fallback --code, --url <url> --ship <ship> --code <code>, and --ship <ship> when available in TLON_SKILL_DIR or cache. Incomplete or conflicting credential flag sets fail locally instead of merging with environment variables.

Config file format:

// Cookie-based (ship derived from cookie)
{"url": "https://your-ship.tlon.network", "cookie": "urbauth-~your-ship=0v..."}

// Code-based
{"url": "https://your-ship.tlon.network", "ship": "~your-ship", "code": "sampel-ticlyt-migfun-falmel"}

Option 2: Environment variables

# Cookie-based (ship derived from cookie)
export URBIT_URL="https://your-ship.tlon.network"
export URBIT_COOKIE="urbauth-~your-ship=0v..."

# Code-based
export URBIT_URL="https://your-ship.tlon.network"
export URBIT_SHIP="~your-ship"
export URBIT_CODE="sampel-ticlyt-migfun-falmel"

URBIT_* aliases take precedence over TLON_* aliases for the same field. Partial ambient credentials fail locally except ship-only env, which is used for TLON_SHIP + TLON_SKILL_DIR or cache lookup.

Option 3: Skill directory

When TLON_SHIP and TLON_SKILL_DIR are set, the CLI loads ships/<ship>.json from that skill directory before checking cached credentials.

Option 4: OpenClaw config

If you have OpenClaw configured with a Tlon channel, credentials are loaded automatically from JSON config. The default path is ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json; OPENCLAW_CONFIG can point to an explicit JSON config path and is parsed as JSON regardless of extension.

Resolution order: CLI credential flags -> TLON_CONFIG_FILE -> URL + cookie env -> URL + ship + code env -> TLON_SHIP + TLON_SKILL_DIR -> ship-only cache lookup -> OpenClaw JSON -> single cached ship.

Cookie Caching

The skill caches fresh auth cookies from code login and code fallback to ~/.tlon/cache/<ship>.json. Provided-cookie flows validate the cookie but do not copy that cookie into cache.

# First time - auth and cache
$ tlon --url https://zod.tlon.network --ship ~zod --code abcd-efgh contacts self
Note: Credentials cached for ~zod. Next time run: tlon --ship ~zod <command>

# After that - select the cached ship
$ tlon --ship ~zod contacts self

# Multiple cached ships? Specify which one:
$ tlon --ship ~zod contacts self

Cache entries are ship- and URL-specific. Clear cache: rm ~/.tlon/cache/*.json

Cookie vs Code Authentication

• Cookie-based auth: Uses a pre-authenticated session cookie. Faster since it skips login.
• Code-based auth: Performs a login request to get a fresh session cookie.

The ship name is embedded in the cookie (urbauth-~ship=...), so you don't need to specify it separately with cookie auth unless you want to override it. You can provide both cookie and code; the cookie is used first and the code is fallback if the cookie has expired.

Multi-Ship Usage

If you have credentials for multiple ships, you can operate on behalf of any of them:

# Act as a different ship
tlon --config ~/ships/bot.json channels groups

# Or pass credentials directly
tlon --url https://bot.tlon.network --cookie "urbauth-~bot=0v..." contacts self

Usage

# List your groups
tlon channels groups

# Create a group channel
# (preferred alias; tlon groups add-channel still works)
tlon channels create ~host/group-slug "Projects" --kind chat

# Rename a channel
tlon channels rename chat/~host/project-updates "Team Updates"

# Get recent mentions
tlon activity mentions --limit 10

# Fetch DM history
tlon messages dm ~sampel-palnet --limit 20

# Update your profile
tlon contacts update-profile --nickname "My Name"

# Create a group
tlon groups create "My Group" --description "A cool group"

# Create a group for a bot owner
tlon groups create-owned "My Group" --owner ~owner-ship --description "A cool group"

# Join a public or invited group; private groups without an invite request one
tlon groups join ~host/group-slug

# Manage group invite flow explicitly
tlon groups request-invite ~host/group-slug
tlon groups accept-invite ~host/group-slug
tlon groups reject-invite ~host/group-slug

Features

• Activity: Mentions, replies, unreads (with nicknames)
• Channels: List DMs, group DMs, subscribed groups (nicknames shown), reader/writer permissions
• Contacts: List, get, update profiles
• Groups: Create, join, invite/request flows, roles, privacy (member nicknames shown)
• Hooks: Manage channel hooks (add, edit, delete, order, config, cron)
• Messages: History, search (author nicknames shown)
• DMs: Group DM send/reply, react, accept/decline
• Posts: React, edit, delete
• Notes: %notes notebooks (list, show, request, note-create, note-update, join, leave)
• Settings: Hot-reload plugin config via settings-store

Development

Use the Node version in .tool-versions and Bun 1.3.4.

npm ci
npm run typecheck
npm run test:unit
npm run test:integration
npm run build:smoke
npm run check

npm run check is the main local quality gate and is also run by CI. Coverage reporting is available with npm run test:coverage.

Documentation

See SKILL.md for full command reference.

For Hosted Deployments

If you're running this in a hosted/K8s environment with additional features (workspace files, settings-store, click commands), see @tloncorp/tlonbot.

License

MIT