CLI overview

The dogubako binary contains the whole engine, the web server and the MCP server. Every tool is a subcommand generated from the same spec as the app’s form, so every option the app has, the CLI has too.

dogubako <category> <tool> [inputs…] [--option value…] [-o OUT] [--json] [-q]

For example:

dogubako image convert photo.heic --format webp
dogubako pdf merge a.pdf b.pdf c.pdf -o merged.pdf
echo '{"b":1,"a":[1,2]}' | dogubako dev json

Finding tools

dogubako tools list                        # every tool, grouped by category; · marks unavailable ones
dogubako tools list --category pdf --available
dogubako tools search compress video       # keyword search
dogubako tools info video.compress         # options, dependencies and availability
dogubako video compress --help             # the generated help, with every option
dogubako deps                              # which engines are installed, with install commands

The command for a tool is its category, then its name with underscores turned into dashes: image.strip_metadata is dogubako image strip-metadata. The tool catalog shows the command and every option for each tool.

Inputs

• Primary inputs are positional. For file tools that means the files (dogubako image resize *.jpg --width 1600); for text tools, the main text (dogubako text case "Hello World" --case snake).
• Standard input. When a text tool’s main text is omitted and stdin is not a terminal, it is read from stdin: cat data.json | dogubako dev json.
• Many files at once. Tools that make sense in bulk (convert, resize, compress…) take several files and produce one output per input, with progress per file.

Options

• Options use --kebab-case: the parameter max_dimension is --max-dimension.
• Booleans are --flag or --flag=false.
• Negative numbers need the = form, so they aren’t mistaken for flags: --offset=-2.
• Multiple choices are comma lists: --formats srt,txt.
• JSON parameters take a JSON string: --schema '{"type":"object"}'.
• A few parameter names clash with global flags (json, quiet, verbose, out, force, help, version). Those get a param- prefix, for example --param-json.

Outputs

• Files are written to the current folder by default, named after the input: photo.png compressed becomes photo-compressed.png.
• -o FILE names a single output; -o DIR/ (with the trailing slash) puts several outputs in a folder.
• Existing files are never overwritten unless you pass --force; otherwise a (1) suffix is added.
• -o - writes a single output file to stdout, for piping.
• Text results print to stdout. Informational messages and progress go to stderr, so pipes stay clean.
• Some tools do both: pdf extract-text prints the text and saves contract.txt, and data csv-to-json saves sales.json. Don’t redirect stdout to the name the tool is about to write (> contract.txt): the shell creates that file first, so the tool’s copy lands in contract (1).txt. Use -o to choose the name instead.
• --json prints a machine-readable result instead; see Scripting.
• -q / --quiet suppresses progress and messages. Progress bars only appear on a terminal.

Press Ctrl C to cancel. The running tool and any external programs it started are stopped.

The generic form

Any tool can also be run by id with dogubako run, which is handy when you generate parameters programmatically:

dogubako run image.resize --set input=photo.png --set width=800
dogubako run text.case --params '{"text":"Hello World","case":"snake"}'

Other commands

Command	Does
dogubako server start	Run the web service. See Self-hosting
dogubako mcp serve	Run the MCP server over stdio. See Local agents
dogubako deps	Show engine status and install hints
dogubako models list|download|remove	Manage local models
dogubako users …, dogubako tokens …	Manage server accounts and API tokens offline
dogubako extensions list|trust|untrust	Manage extensions
dogubako api openapi	Print the OpenAPI document
dogubako tools matrix	Print the Markdown capability matrix

The CLI reference lists every command, flag, environment variable and exit code.