outline-cli

Agent-friendly CLI for Outline page (document) and collection CRUD operations.

This project talks directly to Outline's RPC API (/api/documents.*, /api/collections.*) and is designed for automation and AI-agent workflows.

Features (current MVP)

• login / logout and auth status / auth whoami commands
• page get, list, create, update
• page append, prepend
• page move, archive, delete, restore
• page search, find (title search)
• collection get, list, create, update, delete
• JSON output for scripting (--json)
• .env compatibility with OUTLINE_BASE_URL / OUTLINE_API_KEY

Install (development)

bun install
bun run build

Install (Linux, Debian/Ubuntu)

Quick install (detects amd64/arm64 and installs latest release binary):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pirabyte/outline-cli/main/install.sh | bash

Install a specific version:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pirabyte/outline-cli/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --version v0.1.1

Install system-wide (may require sudo):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pirabyte/outline-cli/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --system

If you plan to use file-based credential storage (no keychain deps needed):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pirabyte/outline-cli/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --credential-store file

Notes:

• The installer targets Debian/Ubuntu Linux
• It verifies release checksums by default (SHA256SUMS.txt)
• It checks and installs missing runtime dependencies (libsecret-1-0, dbus-user-session, dbus-bin, gnome-keyring) by default
• Use --credential-store file to skip keychain dependency setup
• arm64 is detected, and install requires a published outline-linux-arm64.tar.gz asset

Run:

OUTLINE_BASE_URL="https://your-outline.example.com" \
OUTLINE_API_KEY="..." \
node dist/cli.js page list --limit 5 --json

Interactive login (stores credentials for future commands):

node dist/cli.js login
node dist/cli.js page list --limit 5 --json
node dist/cli.js auth status --verify --json
node dist/cli.js auth whoami --json
node dist/cli.js logout

If using a local .env file:

set -a; source .env; set +a
node dist/cli.js page list --limit 5 --json

CLI usage

node dist/cli.js --help

Examples:

node dist/cli.js login
node dist/cli.js login --store file
node dist/cli.js login --base-url https://your-outline.example.com --api-key "..." --skip-verify
node dist/cli.js auth status
node dist/cli.js auth whoami --json
node dist/cli.js logout --json
node dist/cli.js page get <id> --json
node dist/cli.js page create --title "Draft" --text "Hello" --json
node dist/cli.js page append <id> --stdin --json
node dist/cli.js page delete <id> --json
node dist/cli.js collection list --limit 10 --json
node dist/cli.js collection create --name "Engineering Docs" --description "Team knowledge" --json

Authentication precedence

Commands resolve credentials in this order:

1. CLI flags (--base-url, --api-key)
2. Environment variables (OUTLINE_BASE_URL / OUTLINE_API_KEY)
3. Stored credentials from outline login

Re-run outline login to rotate/update stored credentials. Run outline logout to clear stored credentials. Use outline login --store auto|keychain|file to choose where credentials are stored.

Secure storage notes

• API keys are stored in the OS keychain (via keytar)
• You can opt into local file storage (--store file) when keychain is unavailable
• Base URL metadata is stored in the user config directory
• --profile is still reserved and not implemented
• auth status inspects credential source presence and can verify with --verify
• auth whoami calls Outline auth.info using resolved credentials

Packaging and releases

This repo includes GitHub Actions workflows for:

• CI (.github/workflows/ci.yml)
• tagged releases with cross-platform binaries (.github/workflows/release.yml)
• optional Homebrew tap formula updates (same release workflow, if secrets are configured)

Release flow

1. Push a tag like v0.1.0
2. GitHub Actions builds binaries for configured OS/arch targets
3. Artifacts are attached to the GitHub Release
4. Checksums are generated
5. (Optional) Homebrew tap formula is updated and pushed

Homebrew (custom tap)

After release automation is configured:

brew tap pirabyte/outline-cli
brew install outline-cli

Required GitHub secrets for Homebrew tap update (optional)

• HOMEBREW_TAP_PAT: token with push access to the tap repo

Expected tap repo:

• pirabyte/homebrew-outline-cli

Roadmap

• dotenv auto-loading
• stronger append/prepend semantics for drafts
• profile support
• tests with mocked Outline API responses