Perplexity CLI

A command-line interface for interacting with Perplexity AI's Sonar models directly from your terminal.

🚀 Why Perplexity CLI?

• 🔍 AI-Powered Research: Access to Perplexity's advanced search and reasoning capabilities
• 📚 Citation Support: Get responses backed by real sources and citations
• 🌐 Real-Time Information: Leverage up-to-date web search for current information
• 💡 Advanced Reasoning: Utilize Sonar models optimized for complex analysis
• 💻 Terminal-First: Designed for developers who live in the command line
• 🔧 Tool Integration: Built-in web search, fetch, and multi-tool workflows

Features

• � Interactive Mode: Real-time streaming responses with beautiful terminal UI
• ⚡ Fast & Efficient: Optimized for developer productivity
• 🎨 Beautiful Themes: Dark blue Perplexity theme with customizable alternatives
• 📝 Command History: Navigate through previous prompts with arrow keys
• 🔌 MCP Support: Model Context Protocol support for custom integrations
• 📊 Citation Tracking: View sources and citations for AI responses
• 🔄 Checkpoint System: Save and resume conversations

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20.0.0 or higher
• A Perplexity API key (get one at https://www.perplexity.ai/settings/api)
• macOS, Linux or Windows

Installation

npm install -g @perplexity-cli/perplexity-cli

Configuration

Set your Perplexity API key as an environment variable:

export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Or start Perplexity CLI and enter your api key there.

Basic Usage

Interactive mode

Start in current directory

perplexity

Include multiple directories

perplexity --include-directories ../lib,../docs

Use specific model

perplexity -m sonar-pro

Available Models

• sonar-pro: Advanced model for complex reasoning and research
• sonar: Balanced performance for general use
• sonar-reasoning-pro: Precise reasoning offering Chain of Thought
• sonar-deep-research: Expert level research model

Non-interactive mode for scripts

Get a simple text response:

perplexity -p "Explain the architecture of this codebase"

For more advanced scripting, including how to parse JSON and handle errors, use the --output-format json flag to get structured output:

perplexity -p "Explain the architecture of this codebase" --output-format json

For real-time event streaming (useful for monitoring long-running operations), use --output-format stream-json to get newline-delimited JSON events:

perplexity -p "Run tests and deploy" --output-format stream-json

📚 Documentation

Getting Started

• Quickstart Guide - Get up and running quickly.
• Authentication Setup - Detailed auth configuration.
• Configuration Guide - Settings and customization.
• Keyboard Shortcuts - Productivity tips.

Core Features

• Commands Reference - All slash commands (/help, /chat, etc).
• Custom Commands - Create your own reusable commands.
  • Context Files (PERPLEXITY.md) - Provide persistent context to Perplexity CLI.
• Checkpointing - Save and resume conversations.
• Token Caching - Optimize token usage.

Tools & Extensions

• Built-in Tools Overview
  • File System Operations
  • Shell Commands
  • Web Fetch & Search
• MCP Server Integration - Extend with custom tools.
• Custom Extensions - Build and share your own commands.

Advanced Topics

• Headless Mode (Scripting) - Use Perplexity CLI in automated workflows.
• Architecture Overview - How Perplexity CLI works.
• IDE Integration - VS Code companion.
• Sandboxing & Security - Safe execution environments.
• Trusted Folders - Control execution policies by folder.
• Telemetry & Monitoring - Usage tracking.
• Tools API Development - Create custom tools.
• Local development - Local development tooling.

Troubleshooting & Support

• Troubleshooting Guide - Common issues and solutions.
• FAQ - Frequently asked questions.
• Use /bug command to report issues directly from the CLI.

Using MCP Servers

Configure MCP servers in ~/.perplexity/settings.json to extend Perplexity CLI with custom tools:

> @github List my open pull requests
> @slack Send a summary of today's commits to #dev channel
> @database Run a query to find inactive users

See the MCP Server Integration guide for setup instructions.

Development

Building from Source

# Download latest version of node
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.3/install.sh | bash

# in lieu of restarting the shell
\. "$HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh"

# Download and install Node.js:
nvm install 24

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/NoQuli/perplexity-cli.git
cd perplexity-cli

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Run locally
npm start

Running Tests

npm test

Security

⚠️ Never commit your API key to version control. Always use environment variables or the .env file (which should be in .gitignore).

License

Apache-2.0 License - See LICENSE for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

---

Built with ❤️ using the architecture from Gemini CLI