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Get started with the CLI

clika-cli is the platform from a terminal. Everything you can do in the web application, from listing devices to starting a benchmark and reading its results, has a command, and the commands are generated from your deployment's own API, so they always match what the platform can do. This page takes you from nothing to your first useful commands. The reference then covers every command.

What you need​

  • An account on a CLIKA Platform deployment, and its address, the one you type into the browser.
  • A terminal on Linux, macOS or Windows.

1. Install it​

The CLI is downloaded from your own deployment, so the version you install always matches the platform you talk to.

  1. Sign in to the web application and open Settings, then Developer access.
  2. Copy the install command shown there. It carries a short-lived download token, so run it within fifteen minutes.
  3. Paste it into your terminal and run it. On Linux and macOS it installs clika-cli into /usr/local/bin when that is writable and ~/.local/bin otherwise; on Windows, download clika-cli-windows-amd64.exe from the same tab and put it on your PATH.

Check that it runs:

clika-cli version

2. Log in​

Create an API key on the same Developer access tab, then save it in a profile together with your deployment's address:

clika-cli login --base-url https://platform.example.com --api-key

The command prompts for the key without echoing it and writes the profile to ~/.config/clika-cli/default.json, readable by you alone. Every later command reads it, so you type the address and the key once. If you work with more than one deployment, give each its own profile with --profile <name> and pick it the same way on every command. On an on-premise deployment with a self-signed certificate, add --insecure-tls to the login; the CLI remembers that too.

3. Look around​

clika-cli devices list
clika-cli models list
clika-cli benchmark-groups list

Each command prints a table of what your current project holds, the same rows the web application shows. Add -o json to any command to get the raw answer for a script, and --help to any command or group to see its flags.

4. Read a benchmark from the terminal​

Start a benchmark in the web application, or pick one that already finished, then follow and read it from the shell:

clika-cli benchmarks watch "my-first-run"
clika-cli benchmarks results "my-first-run"
clika-cli benchmarks results "my-first-run" -o json

watch prints the run's progress until every leg has finished and exits non-zero if one did not, which is what makes a benchmark a step in a CI pipeline. results prints the headline metrics, and with -o json the full result for further processing.

Where next​

  • Benchmarks: start a run from the terminal, choose its models, tests and devices, and cancel or share it.
  • Devices: register, inspect and control devices, run a command on one, push a file to it.
  • apply and export: keep job and service definitions as YAML files in git.
  • MCP server: give Claude Code or another assistant the platform as tools, with Set up MCP for Claude as the walkthrough.
  • Cheat sheet: the commands people reach for most, on one page.