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HumanLayer CLI

The HumanLayer CLI provides a powerful command-line interface for interacting with HumanLayer services directly from your terminal. Whether you need to authenticate, manage configurations, or contact humans for approvals, the CLI offers a streamlined workflow for developers.

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Installation

The HumanLayer CLI is distributed as an npm package and can be used directly with npx (recommended):

npx humanlayer --help

Or install globally:

npm install -g hlyr
npx humanlayer --help

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Quick Start

  1. Login to HumanLayer:

    npx humanlayer login

  2. Show your current configuration:

    npx humanlayer config show

  3. Contact a human:

    npx humanlayer contact_human "Need approval for deployment"

  4. Launch the Terminal UI:

    npx humanlayer tui

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Available Commands

CommandDescription
loginAuthenticate with HumanLayer and save API token
config showDisplay current configuration settings
contact_humanSend a message to a human and wait for response
tuiLaunch the Terminal User Interface

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Configuration

The CLI supports multiple configuration methods, in order of precedence:

  1. Command-line flags (highest priority)
  2. Environment variables
  3. Configuration files (lowest priority)

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Configuration Files

The CLI looks for configuration files in the following locations:

  • ./humanlayer.json (local project config)
  • ~/.config/humanlayer/humanlayer.json (user config)

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Environment Variables

All configuration options can be set via environment variables with the HUMANLAYER_ prefix:

  • HUMANLAYER_API_TOKEN - Your HumanLayer API token
  • HUMANLAYER_API_BASE_URL - API base URL (default: https://api.humanlayer.dev)
  • HUMANLAYER_APP_URL - App base URL (default: https://app.humanlayer.dev)
  • HUMANLAYER_SLACK_CHANNEL - Slack channel or user ID
  • HUMANLAYER_SLACK_BOT_TOKEN - Slack bot token
  • HUMANLAYER_SLACK_CONTEXT - Context about the Slack channel/user
  • HUMANLAYER_SLACK_THREAD_TS - Slack thread timestamp
  • HUMANLAYER_SLACK_BLOCKS - Enable experimental Slack blocks (true/false)
  • HUMANLAYER_EMAIL_ADDRESS - Email address to contact
  • HUMANLAYER_EMAIL_CONTEXT - Context about the email recipient

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Getting Help

Use the --help flag with any command to get detailed usage information:

npx humanlayer --help
npx humanlayer login --help
npx humanlayer config show --help