Yaak CLI Skill

The yaak CLI (@yaakapp/cli) controls the Yaak desktop API client from the terminal. It reads/writes the same local SQLite database as the desktop app — changes are reflected instantly in both directions.

Prerequisites

yaak CLI installed: npm install -g @yaakapp/cli
Yaak desktop app (optional but recommended for visual verification)

Global flags

Flag	Purpose
`--data-dir <DIR>`	Custom data directory
`-e, --environment <ID>`	Environment ID for variable substitution
`--cookie-jar <ID>`	Cookie jar ID for request execution
`-v, --verbose`	Verbose output (events, streamed body)
`--log [LEVEL]`	CLI logging (error\|warn\|info\|debug\|trace)

Command tree

yaak
├── workspace   list | show <id> | create | update <id> | delete <id> [--yes]
├── request     list [<ws-id>] | show <id> | create [<ws-id>] | update <id> | delete <id> [--yes] | send <id> | schema <type>
├── folder      list [<ws-id>] | show <id> | create -n <name> [<ws-id>] | update <id> | delete <id> [--yes]
├── environment list [<ws-id>] | show <id> | create | update <id> | delete <id> [--yes]
├── cookie-jar  list [<ws-id>]
├── send        <ID>                               # request, folder, or workspace
├── auth        login | logout | whoami
└── plugin      build | dev | generate | install | publish

Multi-workspace rule: When only one workspace exists, [<ws-id>] is optional. With multiple workspaces, you MUST pass the workspace ID as the first positional argument.

Workspaces

yaak workspace list                                    # list all workspaces
yaak workspace show <ws-id>                            # full JSON
yaak workspace create -n "My API"                      # create by name
yaak workspace create --json '{"name":"My API","headers":[...]}'  # create with config
yaak workspace update <ws-id> --json '{"name":"Renamed"}'
yaak workspace delete <ws-id> --yes                    # non-interactive delete

Folders

yaak folder list [<ws-id>]                             # list folders in workspace
yaak folder show <folder-id>                           # full JSON
yaak folder create -n "Auth" [<ws-id>]                 # create in workspace
yaak folder create --json '{"name":"Auth","workspaceId":"wk_..."}' [<ws-id>]
yaak folder update <folder-id> --json '{"name":"Renamed"}'
yaak folder delete <folder-id> --yes

Requests

List & inspect

yaak request list [<ws-id>]                            # list all requests
yaak request show <req-id>                             # full JSON (method, url, headers, body, etc.)

Create

Quick flags:

yaak request create [<ws-id>] -n "Get Users" -m GET -u "https://api.example.com/users"

Full JSON:

yaak request create [<ws-id>] --json '{
  "name": "Create User",
  "method": "POST",
  "url": "https://api.example.com/users",
  "folderId": "fl_...",
  "bodyType": "application/json",
  "body": {
    "text": "{\"name\":\"test\",\"email\":\"[email protected]\"}"
  },
  "headers": [
    {"name":"Authorization","value":"Bearer token","enabled":true}
  ]
}'

Key fields for --json:

Field	Type	Notes
`name`	string	Display name
`method`	string	GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE
`url`	string	Request URL
`folderId`	string	Parent folder ID
`bodyType`	string	`application/json`, `multipart/form-data`, `application/x-www-form-urlencoded`, `text/plain`, etc.
`body.text`	string	Body content (stringify JSON for application/json)
`headers`	array	`[{name, value, enabled}]`
`authenticationType`	string	`basic`, `bearer`, `oauth2`, etc.
`authentication`	object	Auth config per type

Update

yaak request update <req-id> --json '{"name":"Updated Name","url":"https://new-url.com"}'

Delete

yaak request delete <req-id> --yes

Send

yaak send <req-id>                                     # send a single request
yaak send <req-id> -v                                  # verbose (headers, events)
yaak send <folder-id>                                  # send all requests in folder
yaak send <ws-id> --parallel --fail-fast               # send entire workspace

Send flags:

--parallel — execute requests concurrently
--fail-fast — abort on first failure (works with folder/workspace sends)
-e <env-id> — use environment for variable substitution
-v — verbose output (shows request/response headers, streamed body)

Schema introspection

yaak request schema http       # JSON Schema for HTTP requests
yaak request schema grpc       # JSON Schema for gRPC requests
yaak request schema websocket  # JSON Schema for WebSocket requests

Use this to understand the exact --json payload structure for create/update.

Environments

yaak environment list [<ws-id>]                        # list environments
yaak environment show <env-id>                         # full JSON with variables
yaak environment create [<ws-id>] -n "Production"
yaak environment update <env-id> --json '{
  "name": "Production",
  "variables": [
    {"name":"BASE_URL","value":"https://api.prod.com"},
    {"name":"API_KEY","value":"secret123"}
  ]
}'
yaak environment delete <env-id> --yes

Using environments

Pass -e <env-id> to any send command for variable substitution:

yaak send <req-id> -e <env-id>

Template syntax in requests:

Variables: ${[ my_var ]}
Functions: ${[ uuid() ]}, ${[ timestamp() ]}, ${[ fs.readFile('/path') ]}

Auth

yaak auth whoami                                       # check login status
yaak auth login                                        # login via browser
yaak auth logout                                       # sign out

Batch operations

Create multiple requests from a script

#!/bin/bash
WS="wk_..."
FL_AUTH="fl_..."
FL_PROD="fl_..."

# Auth endpoints
yaak request create "$WS" --json '{"name":"Login","method":"POST","url":"https://api.example.com/auth/login","folderId":"'"$FL_AUTH"'","bodyType":"application/json","body":{"text":"{\"username\":\"user\",\"password\":\"pass\"}"}}'
yaak request create "$WS" --json '{"name":"Me","method":"GET","url":"https://api.example.com/auth/me","folderId":"'"$FL_AUTH"'"}'

# CRUD endpoints
for op in "GET list /users" "POST create /users" "GET get /users/1" "PUT update /users/1" "DELETE delete /users/1"; do
  read -r method label path <<< "$op"
  yaak request create "$WS" --json '{"name":"'"${label^}"' '"${path#/}"'","method":"'"$method"'","url":"https://api.example.com'"$path"'","folderId":"'"$FL_PROD"'"}'
done

Delete all requests in a workspace

yaak request list <ws-id> | awk '{print $1}' | while read id; do
  yaak request delete "$id" --yes
done

Clone workspace structure to new workspace

# Create new workspace
NEW_WS=$(yaak workspace create -n "Copy" | awk '{print $NF}')

# Create folders
yaak folder list <old-ws> | while read id name; do
  yaak folder create -n "$name" "$NEW_WS"
done

# Then create requests with new folder IDs

JSON output

All show and list commands output JSON (or one-line-per-item for list). Pipe to jq for filtering:

yaak request show <req-id> | jq '.url'
yaak workspace list | jq -r '.[] | .id + " " + .name'

Common patterns

Organize by resource

Create a folder per API resource, then CRUD requests inside:

WS="wk_..."
FL=$(yaak folder create -n "Users" "$WS" | awk '{print $NF}')

yaak request create "$WS" --json '{"name":"List Users","method":"GET","url":"https://api.example.com/users","folderId":"'"$FL"'"}'
yaak request create "$WS" --json '{"name":"Get User","method":"GET","url":"https://api.example.com/users/1","folderId":"'"$FL"'"}'
yaak request create "$WS" --json '{"name":"Create User","method":"POST","url":"https://api.example.com/users","folderId":"'"$FL"'","bodyType":"application/json","body":{"text":"{\"name\":\"new user\"}"}}'

Environment-based URL switching

# Dev environment
yaak environment create "$WS" -n "Dev"
yaak environment update <dev-env-id> --json '{"variables":[{"name":"BASE_URL","value":"http://localhost:3000"}]}'

# Prod environment
yaak environment create "$WS" -n "Prod"
yaak environment update <prod-env-id> --json '{"variables":[{"name":"BASE_URL","value":"https://api.production.com"}]}'

# Use in request URL
yaak request create "$WS" --json '{"name":"Get Users","method":"GET","url":"${[ BASE_URL ]}/users","folderId":"..."}'

# Send with env
yaak send <req-id> -e <dev-env-id>    # hits localhost
yaak send <req-id> -e <prod-env-id>   # hits production

Workspace-level defaults

Set headers/auth at workspace level (inherited by all requests):

yaak workspace update "$WS" --json '{
  "headers": [
    {"name":"Content-Type","value":"application/json","enabled":true},
    {"name":"Accept","value":"application/json","enabled":true}
  ],
  "authenticationType": "bearer",
  "authentication": {"token":"${[ API_TOKEN ]}"}
}'

Tips

Always yaak request schema <type> before creating complex payloads — the schema shows exact field names and types.
Use --verbose on send to debug request/response details.
The CLI is idempotent for reads — safe to script and re-run.
Desktop app reflects CLI changes instantly (shared SQLite DB).
--yes skips confirmation prompts — essential for scripted deletes.

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