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The Peel CLI is the fastest way to use the hosted product from a terminal or coding agent. It covers the common public-endpoint lifecycle:
  • authenticate
  • build an API from a URL
  • inspect its published contract
  • call endpoints
  • revise or rebuild later
  • export OpenAPI or MCP
  • install the hosted MCP server into local agent clients
For target-site session_required endpoint calls, run the API’s login endpoint first, then pass the returned session_id and encryption_key with peel call --session-id ... --encryption-key ....

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Install status

The public npm release is not live yet. The package name is @peel/cli, but for now the supported install path is a source checkout.

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Run it today from source

git clone https://github.com/peel-sh/peel.git
cd peel
bun install
alias peel='bun run cli --'
peel --help
The CLI defaults to the hosted Peel API at https://api.peel.sh. Browser auth and peel open still take you to the Peel app at https://peel.sh. Override the API host with PEEL_API_BASE_URL, legacy PEEL_BASE_URL, or --base-url when you want to point at another deployment. 
export PEEL_API_BASE_URL=https://api.peel.sh

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First-time setup

peel setup is the canonical onboarding path. 
peel setup
It does three things in one pass:
  1. authenticates you
  2. installs MCP config for detected agent clients
  3. runs peel doctor
Supported MCP targets today:
  • claude-code
  • codex
  • cursor
  • claude-desktop
  • all
Useful setup flags: 
peel setup --api-key sk_... --target all --ci
peel setup --skip-mcp --skip-doctor
peel setup --install-skill --skill-target codex
Use --ci or --json for fully non-interactive setup. Passing --api-key and --target skips auth and MCP target prompts, but interactive setup may still offer coding-agent skill installation unless you opt into CI or JSON mode.

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Auth flows

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Browser device flow

peel auth login uses device-code browser auth by default. 
peel auth login
The CLI prints a short code, opens a browser, and stores the resulting API key locally after you approve the login. The approval session is held server-side until exchange completes, so the flow survives the normal handoff between the CLI poller and the signed-in browser. The public OpenAPI spec documents the CLI-facing POST /public/device/start and POST /public/device/exchange helpers; the browser approval step stays inside the signed-in Peel app.

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Direct API key

For CI or headless environments, pass a key directly: 
peel auth login --api-key sk_...
Or export it first: 
export PEEL_API_KEY=sk_...

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Signup, status, and logout

peel auth signup --email you@example.com --password 'secret123'
peel auth status
peel auth logout
signup is only available when the target server has public signup enabled. On peel.sh, signup is closed during private preview. Use peel auth login with an existing account or peel auth login --api-key ... with a key from settings.

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Build, inspect, and call

peel build https://news.ycombinator.com --instructions "Get top stories with title, score, and author"
peel apis list
peel apis get <api-id>
peel call <api-id> <endpoint_name> -p limit=10
Key behaviors from the current CLI:
  • peel build waits for completion by default
  • matched: true means Peel reused an existing compatible API
  • peel apis get is the main contract-inspection command before runtime calls
  • peel apis get shows endpoint runtime_policy and runtime_verification metadata when Peel has deterministic runtime constraints or build-time verification evidence for an endpoint
  • peel call accepts repeatable -p key=value, full JSON with --params, or request JSON from --stdin
  • On successful HTTP responses, peel call prints the same sanitized response envelope as REST :call: status, status_code, data, error, error_code, execution_time, and optional transport, session_id, encryption_key, and raw_output
  • On non-2xx responses, peel call exits with a CLI error wrapper. Use --json when scripts need the runtime envelope under the wrapper’s data field.
  • peel call --session-id ... --encryption-key ... sends target-site session credentials for session_required endpoints
Examples: 
peel build https://docs.astral.sh/uv/ --instructions "List CLI commands and flags"
peel apis get <api-id>
peel call <api-id> list_commands --params '{"section":"reference"}'
peel call <api-id> inbox --params '{"limit":10}' --session-id "$SESSION_ID" --encryption-key "$ENCRYPTION_KEY"
echo '{"query":"pricing"}' | peel call <api-id> search_docs --stdin

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Check balance and health

peel credits
peel apis health <api-id>
Use peel credits before long build batches or expensive runtime calls. Use peel apis health before deciding whether to revise or rebuild, and to distinguish pending_build from build_failed when an API has not published a binding yet. For failed builds, peel apis health prints the same structured failure diagnostics as peel apis get.

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Revise, rebuild, and respond

peel revise <api-id> --instructions "Add author bios and article dates"
peel rebuild <api-id>
peel respond <api-id> --body '{"search_term":"headphones"}'
Use them the same way you would use the corresponding REST routes:
  • revise when the site is right but the requested shape is wrong
  • rebuild when the site changed or the compiled evidence drifted
  • respond when peel apis get shows status: needs_input
Both revise and rebuild support --yes and --dry-run.

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Export and MCP

peel apis export <api-id> --format openapi > peel-api.openapi.json
peel apis export <api-id> --format mcp > peel-api.mcp.json
peel mcp add --target codex
peel mcp remove --target codex
Use export when you need a file artifact. Use peel setup or peel mcp add when you want your local agent client to talk to the hosted MCP server directly.

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Open the hosted app

peel open
peel open <api-id>
peel open launches the hosted app in a browser. Passing an api-id opens that API directly.

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Machine-readable mode

Most commands support --json. Use it for CI, agent wrappers, and shell pipelines. 
peel build https://example.com --instructions "Extract products" --json
peel credits --json
peel apis get <api-id> --json