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Introduction

The ADK CLI (@iqai/adk-cli) is a powerful command-line interface for building and managing AI agents with the Agent Development Kit. It provides project scaffolding, interactive testing interfaces, and intelligent agent discovery to streamline your development workflow.

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Installation

Install the ADK CLI globally using your preferred package manager: 
npm install -g @iqai/adk-cli
Verify the installation: 
adk --version

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Quick Start

Create your first ADK project in seconds:
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Create a new project
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adk new my-agent
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The CLI will prompt you to select a template and configure your project.
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cd my-agent
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Install dependencies
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Dependencies are installed automatically during project creation, but you can reinstall if needed:
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npm install
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Start the interactive chat
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adk run
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This starts an interactive chat session with your agent directly in the terminal.

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Core Features

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Project Scaffolding

Quickly generate new ADK projects with pre-configured templates for various use cases:
  • Simple agents for general-purpose tasks
  • Discord and Telegram bot integrations
  • Web servers with Hono or Next.js
  • MCP (Model Context Protocol) integrations
  • Specialized agents like Near Shade

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Interactive Testing

Test your agents with two powerful interfaces: Terminal Chat - Chat with agents directly in your terminal with markdown rendering: 
adk run
Web Interface - Visual web UI for testing agents in your browser: 
adk web

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Agent Discovery

The CLI automatically discovers agents in your project by scanning for agent definitions. It intelligently locates agent files and provides selection prompts when multiple agents are found.

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Development Server

Start a full-featured API server for agent management: 
adk serve
Provides RESTful endpoints for:
  • Agent discovery and listing
  • Message sending and conversation management
  • Session persistence
  • Health checks
  • OpenAPI documentation

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Hot Reload

Develop faster with automatic agent reloading: 
adk run --hot
The CLI watches your agent files and automatically reloads them when changes are detected.

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Architecture

The ADK CLI is built with:
  • NestJS - Modular framework providing dependency injection and scalable architecture
  • nest-commander - CLI framework built on Commander.js
  • TypeScript - Full type safety and modern JavaScript features
  • esbuild - Fast agent bundling and execution
  • @clack/prompts - Beautiful interactive CLI prompts

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Requirements

  • Node.js >= 22.0
  • npm / pnpm / yarn / bun
The CLI requires Node.js 22 or higher for optimal performance and compatibility with modern JavaScript features.

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Environment Variables

The CLI respects the following environment variables:
VariableDescriptionDefault
ADK_DEBUGEnable detailed framework loggingfalse
ADK_VERBOSEEnable verbose outputfalse
NODE_ENVEnvironment modedevelopment
Example usage: 
export ADK_VERBOSE=true
adk run

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Next Steps

Commands Reference

Detailed documentation for all CLI commands and options

Starter Templates

Explore available project templates and their use cases

Agent Builder

Learn how to build agents with the AgentBuilder API

Examples

View complete examples and tutorials

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