@agentneeds/need

Discover the right CLI tool for any task using plain English.

Semantic search across 6,000+ CLI tools. Works standalone or as an MCP server for AI coding agents.

Install

npm install -g @agentneeds/need

That's it. MCP servers are automatically configured for Claude Code, Cursor, and Claude Desktop on install. Your AI tools can immediately discover and install CLI tools.

Or run directly: npx @agentneeds/need "compress png images"

Commands

Search

need convert pdf to png
need compress video files
need find duplicate files

Install

Search and install interactively:

need install "compress png images"

Report

Help improve results by reporting whether a tool worked:

need report jq --success
need report sometool --fail

Project integration

Add need instructions to your project so AI tools use it automatically:

need init

Generates config files for Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and Windsurf.

MCP setup

Manually configure MCP servers (already done automatically on install):

need setup

Supports Claude Code, Cursor, and Claude Desktop.

MCP server

Run the MCP server directly (used by need setup under the hood):

need serve

Exposes three tools:

• search_tools — semantic search across CLI tools
• install_tool — install with a security allowlist (brew, apt, npm, pip, cargo only)
• report_tool_usage — report success or failure to improve rankings

How it works

Queries are converted to embeddings and matched against a vector database of CLI tools using pgvector. Results are ranked by semantic similarity combined with community success/failure signals.

No API keys required. No accounts. Just install and search.

Links

• GitHub
• Website
• npm

License

MIT