A CLI reference implementation of a Strands agent

The Strands CLI is a reference implementation built on top of the Strands SDK. It provides a terminal-based interface for interacting with Strands agents, demonstrating how to make a fully interactive streaming application with the Strands SDK.

The Strands CLI is Open-Source and available strands-agents/agent-builder.

Prerequisites

In addition to the prerequisites listed for examples, this example requires the following:

• Python package installer (pip)
• pipx for isolated Python package installation
• Git

Standard Installation

To install the Strands CLI:

# Install
pipx install strands-agents-builder

# Run Strands CLI
strands

Manual Installation

If you prefer to install manually:

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/strands-agents/agent-builder /path/to/custom/location

# Create virtual environment
cd /path/to/custom/location
python -m venv venv

# Activate virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -e .

# Create symlink
sudo ln -sf /path/to/custom/location/venv/bin/strands /usr/local/bin/strands

CLI Verification

To verify your CLI installation:

# Run Strands CLI with a simple query
strands "Hello, Strands!"

Command Line Arguments

Argument	Description	Example
query	Question or command for Strands	strands "What's the current time?"
--kb, --knowledge-base	KNOWLEDGE_BASE_ID	Knowledge base ID to use for retrievals
--model-provider	MODEL_PROVIDER	Model provider to use for inference
--model-config	MODEL_CONFIG	Model config as JSON string or path

Interactive Mode Commands

When running Strands in interactive mode, you can use these special commands:

Command	Description
exit	Exit Strands CLI
!command	Execute shell command directly

Shell Integration

Strands CLI integrates with your shell in several ways:

Direct Shell Commands

Execute shell commands directly by prefixing with !:

> !ls -la
> !git status
> !docker ps

Natural Language Shell Commands

Ask Strands to run shell commands using natural language:

> Show me all running processes
> Create a new directory called "project" and initialize a git repository there
> Find all Python files modified in the last week

Environment Variables

Strands CLI respects these environment variables for basic configuration:

Variable	Description	Default
STRANDS_SYSTEM_PROMPT	System instructions for the agent	You are a helpful agent.
STRANDS_KNOWLEDGE_BASE_ID	Knowledge base for memory integration	None

Example:

export STRANDS_KNOWLEDGE_BASE_ID="YOUR_KB_ID"
strands "What were our key decisions last week?"

Command Line Arguments

Command line arguments override any configuration from files or environment variables:

# Enable memory with knowledge base
strands --kb your-kb-id

Custom Model Provider

You can configure strands to use a different model provider with specific settings by passing in the following arguments:

strands --model-provider <NAME> --model-config <JSON|FILE>

As an example, if you wanted to use the packaged Ollama provider with a specific model id, you would run:

strands --model-provider ollama --model-config '{"model_id": "llama3.3"}'

Strands is packaged with bedrock and ollama as providers.