Looper CLI

looper is the Looper Agent in your terminal: the same agent as the Looper desktop app (tools, sub-agents, Auto approvals, compaction, /goal, checkpoints, MCP, skills), shipped as one native binary.

npm i -g @trylooper/cli
looper auth set anthropic      # or openai / openrouter; `looper auth login chatgpt` for a ChatGPT plan
looper                         # interactive UI in the current folder

macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Linux (x64 and arm64, glibc or musl) are supported. No Node runtime is needed by the binary itself.

Install

| How | Install | Update | |---|---|---| | npm | npm i -g @trylooper/cli | npm i -g @trylooper/cli@latest | | Homebrew (no Node) | brew install luizguil99/tap/looper | brew upgrade looper | | Try without installing | npx @trylooper/cli | |

Both give the same binary. Check the setup with looper doctor.

Usage

looper "explain this repo"               # UI with a first prompt
looper -c                                # continue the latest chat of this folder
looper -p "fix the failing test"         # one-shot: prints the answer
looper -p "…" --output-format json       # one result object
looper -p --input-format stream-json --output-format stream-json   # the SDK protocol
looper sessions ls | show <id> | rm <id>
looper models                            # models of your configured providers
looper auth status | set <provider> | rm <provider>
looper doctor                            # check database, keys, models, tools

Keys

Keys saved with looper auth set (or in Looper → Settings → Providers) come first, then ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY and OPENROUTER_API_KEY. A ChatGPT plan works through looper auth login chatgpt (or codex login).

Permission modes

--permission-mode:

• default: the Looper app's approval settings (/permissions in the UI).
• auto: a fast model allows or blocks each risky call.
• ask: edits, non-safe shell commands and MCP calls wait for your approval.
• acceptEdits: edits and safe commands run, and everything else asks.
• bypass: everything runs.

Chats shared with the Looper app

When the Looper desktop app is installed, the CLI keeps its chats in the app's database: they show in the app's sidebar, and either side can continue them. Without the app, chats live in ~/.looper/cli/chat.db.

Build on it

@trylooper/sdk drives looper from Node.js (streaming events, tool approvals, sessions).

Docs: https://trylooper.app/cli