kimi-cli

name	kimi-cli
description	Delegate coding tasks to Kimi CLI (Moonshot AI's coding agent). Use for building features, refactoring, PR reviews, and autonomous coding sessions. Requires the kimi CLI installed.
version	1.0.0
author	Hermes Agent
license	MIT
metadata	{"hermes":{"tags":["Coding-Agent","Kimi","Moonshot","Code-Review","Refactoring"],"related_skills":["claude-code","codex","opencode"]}}

Kimi CLI

Delegate coding tasks to Kimi CLI via the Hermes terminal. Kimi CLI is Moonshot AI's autonomous coding agent that runs in the terminal.

Prerequisites

• Kimi CLI installed via uv or pip
• Authenticated: run kimi login once to log in
• Use pty=true in terminal calls — Kimi CLI is an interactive terminal app

One-Shot Tasks

terminal(command="kimi --print -p 'Add error handling to the API calls'", workdir="/path/to/project", pty=true)

For quick scratch work:

terminal(command="cd $(mktemp -d) && git init && kimi --print -p 'Build a REST API for todos'", pty=true)

Background Mode (Long Tasks)

For tasks that take minutes, use background mode so you can monitor progress:

# Start in background with PTY
terminal(command="kimi --print -p 'Refactor the auth module to use JWT'", workdir="~/project", background=true, pty=true)
# Returns session_id

# Monitor progress
process(action="poll", session_id="<id>")
process(action="log", session_id="<id>")

# Kill if needed
process(action="kill", session_id="<id>")

Key Flags

Flag	Effect
--print	Non-interactive mode, exits when done (implicitly adds --yolo)
--quiet	Shortcut for --print --output-format text --final-message-only
-p, --prompt "text"	Pass prompt directly
-y, --yolo	Auto-approve all actions
--thinking / --no-thinking	Enable/disable thinking mode
-m, --model <model>	Specify LLM model
-w, --work-dir <dir>	Set working directory
-C, --continue	Continue previous session
-S, --session <id>	Resume specific session

Print Mode (Recommended for Automation)

Kimi's --print mode is designed for scripting:

# Basic print mode
kimi --print -p "List all Python files and their sizes"

# Quiet mode (only final output)
kimi --quiet -p "Generate a Git commit message for current changes"

# JSON output for programmatic use
kimi --print -p "Task" --output-format=stream-json

Exit codes:

• 0 - Success
• 1 - Failure (not retryable)
• 75 - Failure (retryable, e.g., rate limit)

PR Reviews

Clone to a temp directory to avoid modifying the working tree:

REVIEW=$(mktemp -d) && git clone <repo> $REVIEW && cd $REVIEW && gh pr checkout 42 && kimi --print -p 'Review this PR against main. Check for bugs, security issues, and style.'

Or use git worktrees:

git worktree add /tmp/pr-42 pr-42-branch
kimi --print -p 'Review the changes in this branch vs main' --work-dir /tmp/pr-42

Parallel Work

Spawn multiple Kimi instances for independent tasks:

terminal(command="kimi --print -p 'Fix the login bug'", workdir="/tmp/issue-1", background=true, pty=true)
terminal(command="kimi --print -p 'Add unit tests for auth'", workdir="/tmp/issue-2", background=true, pty=true)

# Monitor all
process(action="list")

Sessions

Kimi maintains sessions automatically per working directory:

# Continue last session
kimi --continue

# Resume specific session
kimi --session <session-id>

# View session info
kimi info

Additional Commands

Command	Purpose
kimi login	Authenticate with Moonshot AI
kimi logout	Clear credentials
kimi info	Show version and protocol info
kimi mcp	Manage MCP server configurations
kimi web	Launch web interface
kimi term	Run Toad TUI
kimi vis	Launch Agent Tracing Visualizer

Configuration

Config file location: ~/.kimi/config.toml

Environment variables:

• KIMI_API_KEY - API key for authentication
• KIMI_BASE_URL - Custom API endpoint

Rules

1. Always use pty=true — Kimi CLI is an interactive terminal app and may hang without a PTY
2. Use --print for one-shots — Non-interactive mode exits cleanly
3. Use --quiet for clean output — Only returns the final result
4. Background for long tasks — use background=true and monitor with process tool
5. Check exit codes — 75 means retryable (rate limit), 1 means permanent failure
6. Don't interfere — monitor with poll/log, be patient with long-running tasks