cli-agents 0.2.16

Build agentic apps over users' existing AI subscriptions (Claude, Codex, Gemini)
---
title: Discovery
description: Functions for finding installed CLI binaries
generated: true
---

# Discovery

The `cli_agents::discovery` module finds CLI binaries on the system. Results are cached process-wide for subsequent calls.

## Functions

### `discover_binary()`

```rust
pub async fn discover_binary(cli: CliName) -> Option<String>
```

Discover a specific CLI binary. Returns the absolute path if found, `None` otherwise. Results are cached.

```rust
use cli_agents::discovery::discover_binary;
use cli_agents::CliName;

if let Some(path) = discover_binary(CliName::Claude).await {
    println!("Claude found at: {path}");
}
```

### `discover_all()`

```rust
pub async fn discover_all() -> Vec<(CliName, String)>
```

Discover all available CLI binaries concurrently. Returns a list of `(name, path)` pairs.

```rust
use cli_agents::discovery::discover_all;

let all = discover_all().await;
for (name, path) in &all {
    println!("{name}: {path}");
}
// Output:
// claude: /usr/local/bin/claude
// gemini: /opt/homebrew/bin/gemini
```

### `discover_first()`

```rust
pub async fn discover_first() -> Option<(CliName, String)>
```

Discover the first available CLI binary. Priority order: Claude → Codex → Gemini. All lookups run concurrently and the highest-priority match is returned.

This is what `run()` uses internally when `opts.cli` is `None`.

```rust
use cli_agents::discovery::discover_first;

if let Some((name, path)) = discover_first().await {
    println!("Using {name} at {path}");
}
```

### `clear_cache()`

```rust
pub fn clear_cache()
```

Clear the binary discovery cache. Useful if a CLI was installed or removed after the initial discovery.

## Search locations

Discovery checks the following locations in order:

1. **`which`** — standard PATH lookup
2. **NVM paths** — `$NVM_BIN` and `~/.nvm/versions/node/*/bin/` (newest version first)
3. **Common install directories** — `/opt/homebrew/bin`, `/usr/local/bin`
4. **Home-relative paths** — `~/.local/bin`, `~/.bun/bin`, `~/.npm-global/bin`
5. **CLI-specific paths** — `~/.claude/local/claude` (Claude only)