Docs

Quickstart

Use these if you just want the shortest path to something useful.

curl -fsSL https://sidekar.dev/install | sh

sidekar device login

sidekar claude
sidekar codex

sidekar repl -c claude -m claude-sonnet-4-20250514

PTY vs REPL

These are different entrypoints.

• PTY wrapper: sidekar <agent> [args]. Use this when you already use Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, or another agent CLI and want Sidekar around it.
• REPL: sidekar repl. Use this when you want Sidekar itself to be the agent.

Use PTY mode when

• You want bus registration and browser integration around an external agent process.
• You want relay/web-terminal support around that wrapped process.

Use REPL mode when

• You want a standalone Sidekar agent loop with session persistence.
• You want slash commands like /model, /sessions, /resume, and /compact.

Browser automation

Browser work is split across four CLI groups: Browser, Page, Interact, and Data.

Start or attach

sidekar launch
sidekar connect
sidekar navigate https://example.com
sidekar tabs
sidekar new-tab https://news.ycombinator.com

Choose the right read surface

• sidekar read: best for articles, docs, and search results. Reader-mode extraction.
• sidekar text: best when you need both content and interaction targets in one output.
• sidekar observe: best when you mainly want actionable elements rendered as commands.
• sidekar ax-tree -i: best when you want a flat interactive list with ref numbers.
• sidekar dom: best when you need HTML structure, not reader text.

Common interaction flow

sidekar text
sidekar click 12
sidekar type "#email" "me@example.com"
sidekar fill "#email" "me@example.com" "#password" "secret"
sidekar wait-for "button[type=submit]"
sidekar screenshot --full

Inspect state

sidekar console
sidekar network capture 10
sidekar cookies
sidekar storage get
sidekar viewport desktop

Research shortcuts

sidekar search "rust async programming"
sidekar read-urls https://example.com https://example.org

Extension

Use the extension when you need your everyday Chrome profile or when an in-page bridge works better than plain CDP.

• Use CDP first for normal browser automation.
• Use sidekar ext when the site benefits from the extension bridge or you need history/context/watchers that do not exist in the CDP path.

sidekar ext tabs
sidekar ext read
sidekar ext context
sidekar ext history "terraform vpc"
sidekar ext watch "span.notification-count"

For install and trust-model details, see the dedicated extension page.

Desktop

Desktop automation is macOS-only and uses Accessibility APIs for native UI work outside the browser.

sidekar desktop apps
sidekar desktop screenshot --app Safari
sidekar desktop click --app Finder "New Folder"
sidekar desktop press Meta+Space
sidekar desktop type "hello world"

Bus, memory, tasks, repo

This is the local coordination layer around agent work.

Bus

sidekar bus who
sidekar bus send claude-2 "Please review the PR"
sidekar bus requests --status=open
sidekar bus replies --msg-id=msg_123

Memory

sidekar memory write convention "Use Readability.js before scraping article text"
sidekar memory search readability
sidekar memory context

Tasks

sidekar tasks add "Ship task graph" --priority=2
sidekar tasks list --ready
sidekar tasks depend 12 8
sidekar tasks show 12

Repo

sidekar repo tree
sidekar repo pack

Background jobs

Use these when work should continue after the current prompt.

sidekar monitor start all
sidekar cron list
sidekar cron create "0 9 * * *" --prompt="check deployment status"
sidekar loop 10m "summarize recent errors" --once

Account and secrets

These commands support auth, relay-backed features, and local secrets storage.

sidekar device login
sidekar session list
sidekar kv set github_token abc123
sidekar kv get github_token
sidekar totp list
sidekar totp get github alice

System

Use these to manage the host runtime and inspect Sidekar itself.

sidekar daemon status
sidekar config
sidekar event list --level=error 100
sidekar skill
sidekar install
sidekar update