noninteractive

Run interactive CLI login flows non-interactively. Built for AI agents (like Claude Code) that need to complete setup wizards, OAuth flows, and interactive installers without a human at the keyboard.

Spawns commands in a real PTY session, so programs that check isTTY, render select menus, or use raw terminal mode all work correctly.

Install

npx noninteractive

Usage

# Start a session (runs `npx workos` in a background PTY)
npx noninteractive workos

# Send keystrokes and wait for new output
npx noninteractive send workos "" --wait

# Send text input and wait for response
npx noninteractive send workos "my-api-key" --wait

# Wait for new output without sending (e.g. OAuth callback)
npx noninteractive read workos --wait

# Read current output (non-blocking)
npx noninteractive read workos

# Stop a session
npx noninteractive stop workos

# List active sessions
npx noninteractive list

Example: WorkOS AuthKit setup

# Start the installer
npx noninteractive workos
# ◆  Run the AuthKit installer?
# │  ● Yes / ○ No
# └

# Press Enter to confirm "Yes", wait for next prompt
npx noninteractive send workos "" --wait
# ◆  You are on main. Create a feature branch?
# │  ● Create feat/add-workos-authkit
# │  ○ Continue on current branch
# │  ○ Cancel
# └

# Press Enter to confirm
npx noninteractive send workos "" --wait

# Done? Stop the session
npx noninteractive stop workos

The --wait flag

Both send and read support --wait (-w), which blocks until new output appears instead of returning immediately. This eliminates polling loops and reduces tool calls by ~7-10x. Output is returned as clean text with ANSI escape codes stripped by default, so agents get readable content without terminal formatting noise.

# Old way (polling): send + read + read + read...
npx noninteractive send workos ""
npx noninteractive read workos        # maybe not ready yet
npx noninteractive read workos        # still waiting...
npx noninteractive read workos        # finally got output

# New way (blocking): send --wait
npx noninteractive send workos "" --wait   # returns when output appears

Use --timeout <ms> to set the max wait time (default: 30000ms).

Agent Skill

Install the Agent Skill so your AI agent knows how to use noninteractive:

npx skills add https://noninteractive.org

How it works

1. npx noninteractive <tool> spawns a detached daemon that runs npx <tool> inside a real pseudo-terminal (PTY)
2. The daemon listens on a unix socket at ~/.noninteractive/sessions/<name>.sock
3. send --wait sends keystrokes and blocks until new output appears — one call instead of polling
4. read --wait blocks until output changes — perfect for OAuth flows and long operations
5. The PTY ensures the child process sees a real terminal — isTTY is true, ANSI colors work, interactive menus render correctly

Why

AI coding agents can run shell commands, but they can't interact with prompts that wait for user input. This tool bridges that gap — the agent starts the command, reads the output, decides what to send, and completes the flow autonomously.

Agent Arena

This tool powers 2027.dev/arena — a benchmark that sends Claude Code through every devtool's getting-started guide to measure how agent-friendly they are. If an agent can't navigate your product, it won't use it.

Learn more about why this matters at 2027.dev/manifesto.