| name | cli-anything-openrefine |
| description | Use OpenRefine through an agent-native CLI for importing messy data, applying JSON operation histories, inspecting rows, exporting cleaned data, and managing session undo/redo. |
| contributor | CLI-Anything-Team |
CLI-Anything OpenRefine
Use this skill when a task needs OpenRefine data cleaning, transformation, reusable operation histories, or CSV/TSV export from an automated agent workflow.
Prerequisites
Install the harness:
cd openrefine/agent-harness
python -m pip install -e .
Start OpenRefine before backend commands:
openrefine -i 127.0.0.1 -p 3333
Set a custom server with OPENREFINE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3333 or pass --base-url.
Command Rules For Agents
- Prefer
--json on every one-shot command.
- Use
--session <path> for isolated task state.
- Import or open a project before row, apply, export, undo, or redo commands.
- Existing OpenRefine operation-history JSON can be passed directly to
data apply.
- Generated files are normal OpenRefine operation JSON and exported CSV/TSV data.
Common Commands
cli-anything-openrefine --json server ping
cli-anything-openrefine --json project list
cli-anything-openrefine --json --session run/session.json project import messy.csv --name cleanup
cli-anything-openrefine --json --session run/session.json data rows --limit 10
cli-anything-openrefine --json ops text-transform run/trim.json --column Name --expression 'value.trim()'
cli-anything-openrefine --json --session run/session.json data apply run/trim.json
cli-anything-openrefine --json --session run/session.json data export run/clean.csv --format csv
cli-anything-openrefine --json --session run/session.json session undo
cli-anything-openrefine --json --session run/session.json session redo
REPL
Run cli-anything-openrefine with no subcommand to enter the REPL.
For automated user journeys, pipe newline-separated REPL commands through
stdin. Redirected streams automatically use an ASCII-only input/output path
while interactive terminals retain the Unicode banner, prompt history, and
styling:
printf 'help\nexit\n' | cli-anything-openrefine
Unicode payloads are rendered as reversible ASCII backslash escapes when the
REPL is redirected, preventing legacy Windows output encodings from turning a
successful command into a failed journey.
Piped workflows return a nonzero exit status at exit or EOF if any command
failed, allowing CI to detect an unsuccessful user journey.
Error Handling
When --json is set, command failures write a JSON object to stderr with ok: false.
