CLI Reference

Legacy. webref now connects to your agent as a remote MCP server — see MCP integration. The CLI is no longer built or distributed, and the curl | bash installer has been retired. This reference is kept for existing CLI installations, which continue to work against the API.

Complete reference for all webref commands.

webref <query>

Research the web. Accepts questions, URLs, or both — the planner figures out what to search and what to read. In a real terminal the CLI rewrites a minimal progress view with Searching / Reading while work is active, then freezes a final Searches / Sources block and streams the answer append-only underneath. When piped, it falls back to one additive plain-text transcript with the same content, separated by --- lines. This is the root command — no subcommand needed.

bash

webref <query>

This command has no root-level output flags.

Examples:

bash

webref "how to use React hooks"
webref "summarize https://example.com/article"
webref "compare https://lib-a.dev and https://lib-b.dev for auth"

Credits: 1 credit per call

webref login

Authenticate with your webref account.

bash

webref login

Opens your browser for authentication. Choose between:

Browser login — Sign in with GitHub, Google, or email code
API key — Paste an existing key (useful for servers, CI/CD)

Credentials are stored in ~/.webref/credentials.json with 0600 permissions.

webref logout

Clear stored credentials.

bash

webref logout

Removes ~/.webref/credentials.json. Doesn't revoke the API key — it remains valid if used elsewhere. To fully deactivate a key, revoke it in your dashboard.

webref status

Check authentication and credit balance.

bash

webref status

Output:

Authenticated: Yes
User: [email protected]
API Key: wbrf_...7x2k (from ~/.webref/credentials.json)
Balance: 1234 credits

Open billing:
https://webref.ai/dashboard/billing

webref setup-skills

Install webref skills for AI agents.

bash

webref setup-skills [flags]

Flags:

Flag	Description
`--agent <name>`	Target specific agent (repeatable)
`--all`	Select all supported agents
`--global`	Install to user scope (default)
`--project`	Install to current repo/workspace
`--symlink`	For the Universal target: create `~/.agents/skills` as a symlink to `~/.config/agents/skills` (if it doesn't already exist)

Supported agents:

Agent	ID	Global path
Universal (`.agents/skills`)	`universal`	`~/.config/agents/skills`
Claude Code	`claude-code`	`~/.claude/skills`
Cursor	`cursor`	`~/.cursor/skills`
Copilot	`copilot`	`~/.copilot/skills`
Gemini CLI	`gemini-cli`	`~/.gemini/skills`
OpenCode	`opencode`	`~/.config/opencode/skill`
OpenClaw	`openclaw`	`~/.openclaw/skills`

Examples:

bash

# Interactive mode
webref setup-skills

# Specific agent
webref setup-skills --agent claude-code --global

# All agents, project scope
webref setup-skills --all --project

# Multiple agents
webref setup-skills --agent claude-code --agent cursor --global

webref update

Check for and install CLI updates.

bash

webref update [flags]

Flags:

Flag	Description
`--check`	Only check whether an update is available
`--force`	Install latest even if current version looks up to date

Examples:

bash

webref update --check
webref update

webref uninstall

Remove local webref files from your machine.

bash

webref uninstall [flags]

Flags:

Flag	Description
`--yes`	Skip confirmation prompt
`--project`	Also remove project-scoped `webref-search` skills in current repo

By default this removes:

Installed webref binary
~/.webref local credentials/state
Global webref-search skill installs

It does not revoke API keys on your webref account.

Examples:

bash

webref uninstall
webref uninstall --yes
webref uninstall --yes --project

webref version

Show version and system info.

bash

webref version

Output:

webref 0.1.0 (darwin/arm64)

Useful for bug reports and checking for updates.

Environment variables

Variable	Description
`WEBREF_API_KEY`	API key (takes precedence over stored credentials)

Error codes

Code	Meaning	Solution
401	Invalid API key	`webref logout && webref login`
402	Out of credits or no active plan	Open webref.ai/dashboard/billing
429	Rate limited	Wait and retry (rare)