CLI-Anything: let Claude Code control Blender, GIMP or OBS with one command

Want Claude to run Blender, GIMP or OBS for you? You don't need MCP, and you don't need screenshots and clicking. CLI-Anything is a free, open-source plugin from HKUDS, a lab at the University of Hong Kong. You point it at an app's source code and it writes a command-line tool (a CLI) for that app, then tests it. After that, Claude controls the app by running commands. This is the full version of the CLI guide from my Reel.

01What CLI-Anything is

Claude Code is very good at one thing: running commands in a terminal. Most desktop apps don't have good commands. CLI-Anything fixes that gap. It reads an app's code, builds a CLI around it, and runs tests against the real app to check that it works.

The README lists apps like GIMP, Blender, Inkscape, Audacity, LibreOffice, OBS Studio, Kdenlive, Shotcut, Draw.io, Zotero, Godot and FreeCAD. It's on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 license, so it's free to use.

02What you need first

Claude Code, installed and logged in.
Python 3.10 or newer.
The app itself, installed on your computer. The CLI drives the real app, so GIMP needs GIMP and Blender needs Blender.
To build a new CLI: the app's source code. No source? Pick an open-source alternative to the app instead.
On Windows: Git for Windows (or WSL). Claude Code runs commands through bash, and without it you can get a "cygpath: command not found" error.

03Step 1: Install the plugin in Claude Code

Open Claude Code and run these two commands, one after the other.

Add the marketplace

/plugin marketplace add HKUDS/CLI-Anything

Install the plugin

/plugin install cli-anything

04Step 2: Build a CLI from an app's source

Put the app's source code in a folder, or have the repo ready. Then point the plugin at it. Here I use a folder called gimp.

Build the CLI

/cli-anything ./gimp

It writes the CLI and its tests. If some features are missing, ask it to fill the gaps.

Add more features

/cli-anything:refine ./gimp "batch processing and filters"

There are also /cli-anything:test, /cli-anything:validate and /cli-anything:list.

05Shortcut: grab a ready-made CLI from CLI-Hub

Don't want to build one? CLI-Hub has CLIs that are already made. Install the hub with pip, then install the app you want.

Install the hub and the GIMP CLI

pip install cli-anything-hub
cli-hub list
cli-hub install gimp

cli-hub search, info, update and uninstall work too. You can browse everything at clianything.cc.

06How I use it: an example

Once the CLI is installed, I just ask Claude Code in plain English. It works out which commands to run.

Example prompt

Use the GIMP CLI to take every JPG in ./photos, resize them to 1080 px wide, add a light sharpen filter, and save them as PNG in ./out. Show me the commands before you run them.

07Good to know

A generated CLI won't cover every feature of an app. Use refine to add what you need.
Some CLIs wrap paid or licensed software, so you still need your own copy and licence for those apps.
This is third-party code. The plugin, the CLIs it writes and the CLI-Hub packages all run on your computer. Read what you install, try it on a test folder first, and only give it files you're fine with it touching.
Usage in Claude Code counts against your Claude plan as normal.