AI agents and the CLI | Deel

Coding agents such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex do their work in a shell: they read help output, run commands, and parse the results. The Deel CLI gives them Deel operations in exactly that form. No Deel-specific plugin, software development kit (SDK), or tool definition is needed; an agent that can run deel --help can run every command.

What an agent session looks like

Given a task such as “add a 500 bonus to contract C123,” an agent lists the available commands, reads the exact contract with --help --json, generates a body skeleton, fills it in, then calls. The discovery steps run offline, needing neither a token nor network access, so the agent can plan the call completely before making it. See Discover before calling for the full sequence.

Behavior an agent depends on

These CLI properties are what let an agent use it without a special integration:

Property	Effect on agent behavior
`--help --json` contracts	The agent reads flags, request fields, types, and enumerations instead of guessing field names from prose
`--generate-input` skeletons	The agent starts from a complete, correctly typed body and only fills in values
JSON envelope on stdout	Results are parsed, not scraped; `--fields` and `--jq` keep them small
JSON errors on stderr with `error.code`	The agent can tell a fixable input mistake from an authorization or policy problem
Deterministic idempotency keys	An agent that retries after an ambiguous failure cannot create a duplicate record
Non-interactive detection	With `CI=true`, or `CLAUDE_CODE`, `CURSOR`, or `CODEX` present, output is JSON even on a pseudo-terminal. Note that `deel auth login` still prompts when stdin is a TTY, so pipe the token in or use `DEEL_TOKEN`
Local request log	Every request the agent made is recorded with the token masked, so a session can be audited afterwards

Which agents

Any agent that can execute shell commands can use the CLI. The table lists the environments the CLI recognizes and where its instructions usually live.

Agent	Detected through	Where to put CLI instructions
Claude Code	`CLAUDE_CODE`	`CLAUDE.md` in the project or home directory
Cursor	`CURSOR`	A rule file under `.cursor/rules/`
OpenAI Codex	`CODEX`	`AGENTS.md` in the project
CI runners and hosted agents	`CI=true`	The job definition or the agent’s system prompt
Other agents	Not detected; output is JSON whenever stdout is not a terminal	The agent’s system prompt or tool description

This detection only changes whether output is JSON by default; it never changes what a command actually does.

CLI or MCP server

Deel provides two integration interfaces for AI clients, depending on your transport, authentication, and operational requirements.

	Deel CLI	Deel MCP server
Best for	Agents that execute work in a shell: coding agents, automation agents, CI	Conversational assistants: Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor chat, custom MCP clients
Interface	Commands and JSON	MCP tools over HTTP
Authentication	Personal access token, stored in the OS keychain or injected as a secret	OAuth2 handled by the client, or a personal access token
Discovery	`deel --help`, `--help --json`, `--generate-input`	`tools/list`
Runs in	Wherever the agent runs commands: laptop, container, CI runner	On Deel infrastructure; nothing to install

The two can be used together: a chat assistant connected through MCP and a coding agent using the CLI in the repository are governed by the same token scopes.

Trust model

An agent using the CLI acts with the permissions of the token it holds. Limit what a mistake can do with three practices:

Scope the token to the operations the agent needs and nothing more.
Keep the agent in the demo environment (DEEL_ENV=demo) until the workflow is proven, then switch to production deliberately.
Leave local logging on. The log records every request, with the token masked and bodies omitted, which makes an agent session reviewable.

Agent workflows covers these in detail.

Next steps

Set up a coding agent

Install the CLI where the agent runs and add the instruction block

Agent workflows

Discovery, request bodies, errors, retries, jobs, and guardrails

Command structure

Details of —help —json and —generate-input

MCP server

Connect conversational AI clients to Deel