Simple discovery of the provider's default schemas is possible without any credentials (since they are built into the binary). If you want it to fetch customizations of your specific instance, give it credentials to your org.
The repo has more details. https://github.com/agent-cli-framework/aclif
Discussion (16 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews
I've had nothing but success with converting daily work into "notes" that then translate into runnable, deterministic application CLIs to completely sidestep "what do I need to say to you to make you do the thing??"
I'm interested in how this spreads across enterprise flows, because the issue is always discovery and usability.
How deep do you usually go with CLI composition and layering? Do you tend to find a flat list of commands and sub command help works most? Have you experimented with connecting CLIs Linux-pipe-style as if it was a dynamic application in the OS?
It is used internally for what we call 'compiled workflow agents' where no inference is necessary. An agent composer determines the exact command at design time. That is part of a discovery loop that can introspect the service to construct the command.
More here. https://www.promptone.ai/resources/downloads/
Huh? It shouldn't. Am I misunderstanding, or is this referencing poor practices?
"Using the same tool every time prevents this"
What does this mean? I looked at the project, im not sure what this means.
As for using the 'same tool', what I meant was that you the agent doesn't have to pick the tool at all. There is just one: the aclif CLI. Not separate tools for Salesforce, Docusign, Workday, etc that the agent needs to learn (and possibly mess up). Just the one aclif tool. Same grammar for all external services. Less agent inference the better.
Finally, alif CLIs support individual auth so a request can use SSO identities and fetch a token from a secrets value. The CLI holds the secret. If you deploy the CLI on a host or gateway, the agent never sees it.
"When you authorize OpenClaw to read your gMail, OpenClaw has the credential."
I can only assume you are implying that the execution environment accessible by the model via the harness here, had access to the credential. This is not even broadly true, as there are many single click solutions for deploying gateways that will allow operators to tls inspect and replace secrets in flight, outside of the agent execution environment.
Sure, not doing that is poor practice- but your phrasing is unfair.
"the agent doesn't have to pick the tool at all. There is just one: the aclif CLI"
Okay, so- if thats the only tool, then why are we even talking about credentials? Why are we talking about openclaw? The whole conversation regarding creds being in bad places is predicated on agents having native control over a sandbox- generally through shell. If your use case lets you bake whatever resource access is needed into a single tool- then many other security layers bubble up in value, being that you no longer need to authn/z arbitrary networked calls.
Also, yea sure- there is "one tool", all you've done is abstracted the tools into arguments.
"Less agent inference the better."
Show me the data, then. Show me how this performs better than the alternatives. This sounds like all you've done here is reinvent progressive disclosure?
"The CLI holds the secret. If you deploy the CLI on a host or gateway, the agent never sees it."
Okay, so- brokering, again. How are you solving authz then?
https://github.com/agent-cli-framework/aclif/blob/main/docs/...
https://github.com/agent-cli-framework/aclif/blob/main/.clau...
What's not clear about that?
Who are we talking about? What's their role? (What agent? What is the job to be done?)
What is the status quo? What's the problem with the status quo? What else has been tried? What's the consequence of not solving the problem? What more important problem do you need to work on that you're blocked because of this problem? What's the ideal solution? What's the current offer? Why would someone say no to any given solution? How have you addressed those problems?