humanlayer

HumanLayer CLI

HumanLayer, but on your command-line.

A unified CLI tool that provides:

• Direct human contact from terminal or scripts
• MCP (Model Context Protocol) server functionality
• Integration with Claude Code SDK for approval workflows
• Thoughts management system for developer notes and documentation

Quickstart

Run directly with npx

# Contact a human with a message
npx humanlayer contact_human -m "Need help with deployment approval"

# Or use the long form
npx humanlayer contact_human --message "Review this pull request"

Configuration

you will probably always want:

export HUMANLAYER_API_KEY=...

Using cli flags:

humanlayer contact_human --message "Review this pull request" --slack-channel "C08G5C3V552"

using environment variables:

export HUMANLAYER_SLACK_CHANNEL=C08G5C3V552
humanlayer contact_human --message "Review this pull request"

or

export HUMANLAYER_EMAIL_ADDRESS=[e-mail]
humanlayer contact_human --message "Review this pull request"

Note: If no contact channel is configured, HumanLayer will default to the web UI for human interactions.

using a config file:

echo '
{
  "channel": {
    "slack": {
      "channel_or_user_id": "C08G5C3V552"
    }
  }
}
' > .hlyr.json

humanlayer contact_human --message "Review this pull request" --config-file .hlyr.json

MCP Server Usage

Start an MCP server for integration with MCP clients like Claude Desktop:

# Contact human functionality
humanlayer mcp serve

# Claude Code SDK approval integration
humanlayer mcp claude_approvals

# Debug MCP servers with inspector
humanlayer mcp inspector serve
humanlayer mcp inspector claude_approvals

Claude Code SDK Integration

For automated approval workflows with Claude Code SDK:

mcp-config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "approvals": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "humanlayer", "mcp", "claude_approvals"],
      "env": {
        "HUMANLAYER_API_KEY": "<YOUR_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

claude --print "write hello world to a file" \
  --mcp-config mcp-config.json \
  --permission-prompt-tool mcp__approvals__request_permission

Run with claude code

claude --print "do some work" | npx humanlayer contact_human -m -

or

allowedTools='Write,Edit,Bash(grep:*)'
message="make me a file hello.txt with contents 'hello world'"

claude_answer=$(claude --print "$message" --allowedTools "$allowedTools")
while :; do
human_answer=$(echo "$claude_answer" | npx humanlayer contact_human -m -)
message="$human_answer"
claude_answer=$(claude --print "$message" --allowedTools "$allowedTools" --continue)
done

Install globally

npm install -g hlyr

# Then use directly
humanlayer contact_human -m "Production database needs review"

Commands

contact_human

Contact a human with a message and wait for a response.

humanlayer contact_human -m "Your message here"

Options:

• -m, --message <text> - The message to send (required)

Examples:

# Simple message
humanlayer contact_human -m "Please review the deployment logs"

# Multi-word message
humanlayer contact_human -m "The API is returning 500 errors, need immediate help"

# Using in scripts
#!/bin/bash
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  humanlayer contact_human -m "Build failed, manual intervention needed"
fi

mcp

Model Context Protocol server functionality.

humanlayer mcp <subcommand>

Subcommands:

• serve - Start the default MCP server for contact_human functionality
• claude_approvals - Start the Claude approvals MCP server for permission requests
• wrapper - Wrap an existing MCP server with human approval functionality (not implemented yet)
• inspector [command] - Run MCP inspector for debugging MCP servers (defaults to 'serve')

thoughts

Manage developer thoughts and notes separately from code repositories.

humanlayer thoughts <subcommand>

Subcommands:

• init - Initialize thoughts for the current repository
• sync - Manually sync thoughts and update searchable index
• status - Check the status of your thoughts setup
• config - View or edit thoughts configuration

Examples:

# Initialize thoughts for a new project
humanlayer thoughts init

# Sync thoughts after making changes
humanlayer thoughts sync -m "Updated architecture notes"

# Check status
humanlayer thoughts status

# View configuration
humanlayer thoughts config --json

The thoughts system keeps your notes separate from code while making them easily accessible to AI assistants. See the Thoughts documentation for detailed information.

Use Cases

• CI/CD Pipelines: Get human approval before deploying
• Monitoring Scripts: Alert humans when automated checks fail
• Development Workflows: Ask for code review or architectural decisions
• Operations: Escalate issues that require human judgment

Configuration

hlyr uses HumanLayer's configuration system. Set up your contact channels through environment variables or configuration files as documented in the main HumanLayer documentation.

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the CLI
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

# Watch mode during development
npm run dev

Testing Local Approvals

For testing the local MCP approvals system without HumanLayer API access, see test_local_approvals.md.

License

Apache-2.0