Skulk CLI

A modern, automation-safe CLI for The Human Pattern Lab.

Skulk is a command-line tool for syncing and managing Lab Notes — built to work just as well for humans at the keyboard as it does for automation, CI, and agent-driven workflows.

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What Skulk Connects To

Skulk is the CLI for The Human Pattern Lab API.

By default it targets a Human Pattern Lab API instance. You can override the API endpoint with --base-url to use staging or a self-hosted deployment of the same API.

Note: --base-url is intended for alternate deployments of the Human Pattern Lab API, not arbitrary third-party APIs.

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Configuration

Environment variables

• SKULK_TOKEN — API token used to authenticate requests.
• SKULK_BASE_URL — Base URL for a Human Pattern Lab API instance (overridden by --base-url).

Example:

export SKULK_TOKEN="..."
export SKULK_BASE_URL="https://thehumanpatternlab.com/api"
skulk notes sync --dir ./src/labnotes/en

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Why Skulk Exists

Command-line tools no longer live in a human-only world.

They’re run by:

• developers exploring and iterating
• scripts and CI pipelines
• automation layers and AI-assisted workflows

Skulk was designed from the start to behave predictably and honestly in all of those contexts — without sacrificing human usability.

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🤖 AI-Forward (for Humans)

Skulk follows AI-forward engineering principles — not for AIs, but for the people who build tools that increasingly interact with them.

Dual Output Modes

By default, Skulk is human-readable:

skulk notes sync

When --json is enabled:

skulk --json notes sync

Skulk switches to machine-readable output:

• stdout contains only valid JSON
• no banners, emojis, or progress chatter
• errors go to stderr
• exit codes are deterministic

This makes Skulk safe to use in:

• scripts
• CI pipelines
• automation
• AI-assisted workflows

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JSON Output Contract

Structured output is treated as a contract, not a courtesy.

The repository includes a built-in verification:

npm run json:check

This command runs Skulk in --json mode and fails immediately if any non-JSON output appears on stdout.

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Design & Philosophy

Curious why Skulk works this way?
→ DESIGN.md

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Philosophy

Automation shouldn’t require guessing what a tool meant to say.

Skulk is boring in the best way: predictable, explicit, and dependable.