nathan-cli

A pluggable CLI that turns popular services into simple, scriptable commands. 400+ integrations out of the box via n8n's node ecosystem, with a consistent interface across all of them.

nathan github repository get --owner=torvalds --repository=linux

Install

npm / bun (recommended)

# bun
bun install -g nathan-cli

# npm
npm install -g nathan-cli

Nathan works out of the box with YAML plugins. To enable all 400+ n8n integrations, install the n8n packages globally alongside nathan:

# bun
bun install -g n8n-nodes-base n8n-workflow

# npm
npm install -g n8n-nodes-base n8n-workflow

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/lifedraft/nathan.git
cd nathan
bun install
bun run build
# Output at dist/nathan

How It Works

Every service follows the same pattern: list what's available, describe it, then execute.

1. List available services

nathan plugin list              # Human-readable output (default)
nathan plugin list --json       # JSON output

2. Describe a service

Drill down from service to resource to operation:

nathan describe github                       # What resources does GitHub have?
nathan describe github repository            # What can I do with repos?
nathan describe github repository get        # What parameters does "get" need?

Each level shows progressively more detail — available resources, operations, parameters with types, required fields, and authentication info.

3. Execute

nathan github repository get --owner=torvalds --repository=linux
nathan jsonplaceholder post list --_limit=5
nathan jsonplaceholder post create --title="Hello" --body="World" --userId=1

Output is human-readable by default for plugin list and describe. Add --json for machine-readable JSON. Execution commands (nathan <service> ...) output JSON by default — add --human for formatted tables. Use --limit=N to truncate long result lists.

Authentication

Credentials are passed via environment variables and automatically injected into requests.

NATHAN_GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxx nathan github repository get --owner=torvalds --repository=linux

The lookup order is:

1. NATHAN_<SERVICE>_TOKEN
2. <SERVICE>_TOKEN
3. NATHAN_<SERVICE>_API_KEY
4. <SERVICE>_API_KEY

Run nathan describe <service> to see which environment variables a service accepts and whether credentials are configured.

Plugin Types

Nathan supports three types of plugins. All share the same CLI interface — describe, run, and direct execution work identically regardless of plugin type.

1. YAML plugins (declarative)

The simplest way to add a service. Create a .yaml file in ~/.nathan/plugins/ or the built-in plugins/ directory:

name: jsonplaceholder
displayName: JSONPlaceholder
description: Free fake API for testing
version: "1.0.0"
baseURL: https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com

resources:
  - name: post
    displayName: Post
    description: Blog posts
    operations:
      - name: list
        displayName: List Posts
        description: Get all posts
        method: GET
        path: /posts
        parameters:
          - name: _limit
            type: number
            required: false
            default: 10
            location: query    # query | path | header | body | cookie

      - name: get
        displayName: Get Post
        method: GET
        path: /posts/{id}
        parameters:
          - name: id
            type: number
            required: true
            location: path

2. n8n nodes (programmatic)

Nathan auto-discovers all 300+ nodes from n8n-nodes-base at runtime — no configuration needed. These nodes have a custom execute() method and are run via nathan's execution shim, which provides credential injection, parameter access, and HTTP helpers.

Install n8n-nodes-base and n8n-workflow globally (see Install) and run nathan plugin list to see all available services.

Examples: GitHub, Slack, Jira, Google Sheets, Airtable, HubSpot, and most other popular integrations.

nathan github issue get --owner=torvalds --repository=linux --issueNumber=1
nathan slack message post --channel=general --text="Hello from nathan"

3. n8n declarative nodes (routing metadata)

A subset of n8n nodes (~23 in the base package) use declarative routing metadata instead of a custom execute() method. Nathan interprets their routing configuration — URL templates, expression resolution, query/body parameter mapping, credential injection, and post-receive transforms — to build and execute HTTP requests directly.

This includes support for collection and fixedCollection parameter types where child options carry their own routing (e.g. additionalFields.cql in search operations).

Examples: OpenAI, AWS Cognito, Azure Cosmos DB, Google Cloud Storage, Microsoft SharePoint, Brevo, WhatsApp Business Cloud.

nathan openai assistant list
nathan awscognito userpool list

4. Community n8n nodes

Third-party n8n node packages (n8n-nodes-*) are auto-discovered from node_modules. Install any community package and it becomes available immediately — both nodes and their credential types are registered automatically.

npm install n8n-nodes-confluence-cloud

nathan confluencecloud space getSpaces --limit=5
nathan confluencecloud search searchContentByCQL --cql="type=page"
nathan confluencecloud page getPageById --id=12345

To use a community node via a YAML manifest instead:

type: n8n-compat
module: n8n-nodes-confluence-cloud/dist/nodes/ConfluenceCloud/ConfluenceCloud.node.js

Plugin directories

Nathan searches for plugins in:

1. Built-in plugins/ directory (ships with nathan)
2. ~/.nathan/plugins/ (user plugins)

Set NATHAN_PLUGIN_DIRS (colon-separated paths) to load plugins from additional directories.

Configuration

Variable	Purpose
NATHAN_<SERVICE>_TOKEN	Credentials for a service
NATHAN_PLUGIN_DIRS	Additional plugin directories (colon-separated)
NATHAN_DEBUG	Enable verbose logging
NATHAN_ALLOW_HTTP	Allow HTTP URLs when credentials are present (default: HTTPS only)

Why "nathan"?

The name is a phonetic play on n8n — say "n-eight-n" fast and you get "nathan". Since this CLI gives n8n's 400+ service nodes a proper command-line interface, the name felt right.

License

MIT