adobe-cli

Command-line harnesses for Adobe desktop applications. AI agents and shell scripts can open projects, inspect timelines, manipulate documents, and trigger exports — without touching a mouse.

Built on the CLI-Anything methodology by HKUDS: a pattern for wrapping stateful GUI applications behind a local HTTP or IPC bridge so scripts and AI agents can drive them programmatically.

Not affiliated with Adobe Inc. This project is an independent, community-built tool. Adobe, Acrobat, and Premiere Pro are trademarks of Adobe Inc. Use of those names here is purely descriptive.

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Harnesses

Package	Application	Bridge
cli-anything-premierepro	Adobe Premiere Pro 2025	CEP panel → ExtendScript
cli-anything-acrobat	Adobe Acrobat DC	Acrobat JS via osascript
cli-anything-illustrator	Adobe Illustrator 2026	osascript do javascript + #include

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cli-anything-premierepro

Drive Premiere Pro from scripts or agents: open projects, inspect sequences and timelines, manage markers, queue AME exports, and capture timeline frames for visual verification.

Requirements

• macOS (Ventura / Sonoma)
• Adobe Premiere Pro 2025 (version 25.x)
• Python 3.10+

Install

# 1. Enable unsigned CEP extensions (one-time)
defaults write com.adobe.CSXS.11 PlayerDebugMode 1
defaults write com.adobe.CSXS.12 PlayerDebugMode 1

# 2. Symlink the CEP extension (one-time)
ln -s "$(pwd)/premiere-pro/agent-harness/cli_anything/premierepro/cep" \
  ~/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions/com.cli-anything.premierepro

# 3. Install the Python package
pip install -e premiere-pro/agent-harness/

# 4. Relaunch Premiere Pro — the HTTP bridge starts automatically on port 7788

# 5. Verify
cli-anything-premierepro ping

Usage

# Project
cli-anything-premierepro project info
cli-anything-premierepro project open /path/to/cut.prproj

# Sequences
cli-anything-premierepro sequence list
cli-anything-premierepro sequence activate "Main Cut"

# Timeline
cli-anything-premierepro timeline clips
cli-anything-premierepro timeline clips --sequence "B-Roll"

# Markers
cli-anything-premierepro markers list
cli-anything-premierepro markers add 30.5 --name "Chapter 2"

# Export (requires Adobe Media Encoder)
cli-anything-premierepro export render output.mp4 --preset h264-1080p
cli-anything-premierepro export presets

# Agent vision — capture what Premiere is showing
cli-anything-premierepro vision screenshot -o /tmp/frame.png
cli-anything-premierepro vision frame 30.5          # scrub + capture
cli-anything-premierepro vision burst 0 60 5 -d /tmp/frames/
cli-anything-premierepro vision compare /tmp/a.png /tmp/b.png

# Offline (no Premiere required)
cli-anything-premierepro project parse /path/to/cut.prproj
cli-anything-premierepro media /path/to/clip.mp4

Use --json anywhere for machine-readable output:

cli-anything-premierepro --json sequence list
# [{"name": "Main Cut", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "fps": 23.976, ...}]

Run cli-anything-premierepro with no arguments to enter the interactive REPL.

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cli-anything-illustrator

Drive Illustrator 2026 from scripts or agents: inspect documents, enumerate layers and artboards, list page items and text frames, query swatches, and export artwork as PNG, JPEG, SVG, or PDF — no CEP extension required.

Requirements

• macOS (Ventura / Sonoma)
• Adobe Illustrator 2026 (version 30.x)
• Python 3.10+

Install

pipx install -e illustrator/agent-harness/

Usage

# Health check
cli-anything-illustrator ping

# Document
cli-anything-illustrator document info
cli-anything-illustrator document open /path/to/file.ai

# Layers
cli-anything-illustrator layer list
cli-anything-illustrator layer visible "Artwork" off

# Artboards
cli-anything-illustrator artboard list
cli-anything-illustrator artboard set-active 1

# Objects & selection
cli-anything-illustrator object list --layer "Artwork"
cli-anything-illustrator object selection

# Text frames
cli-anything-illustrator text list
cli-anything-illustrator text set 0 "New headline"

# Swatches
cli-anything-illustrator swatch list

# Export
cli-anything-illustrator export png /tmp/out.png --resolution 300
cli-anything-illustrator export jpeg /tmp/out.jpg --artboard 0 --quality 9
cli-anything-illustrator export svg /tmp/out.svg
cli-anything-illustrator export pdf /tmp/out.pdf

Use --json anywhere for machine-readable output. Run cli-anything-illustrator with no arguments for the REPL.

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cli-anything-acrobat

Perform PDF operations from scripts or agents: format conversion, page manipulation, merge, split, and metadata — using Acrobat's native engine.

Requirements

• macOS
• Adobe Acrobat DC
• Python 3.10+
• Active Acrobat Pro subscription (format conversion only; all other ops work without one)

Install

pip install -e acrobat/agent-harness/

Usage

# PDF info
cli-anything-acrobat info document.pdf

# Format conversion (requires Acrobat Pro)
cli-anything-acrobat export to report.pdf report.docx
cli-anything-acrobat export to report.pdf report.png

# Page manipulation
cli-anything-acrobat pages delete document.pdf 1,3-5 -o out.pdf
cli-anything-acrobat pages extract document.pdf 2-4 -o chapter.pdf
cli-anything-acrobat pages rotate document.pdf 90 -o rotated.pdf

# Merge / split
cli-anything-acrobat merge a.pdf b.pdf c.pdf -o combined.pdf
cli-anything-acrobat split report.pdf --pages-per-chunk 5 -d chunks/

# Text extraction (no Acrobat required)
cli-anything-acrobat text document.pdf

# Metadata
cli-anything-acrobat metadata get document.pdf
cli-anything-acrobat metadata set document.pdf --title "Annual Report" -o out.pdf

Use --json for machine-readable output. Run cli-anything-acrobat with no arguments for the REPL.

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The cli-anything Pattern

Attribution: The cli-anything pattern was created by HKUDS — see CLI-Anything: Making ALL Software Agent-Native. Browse and install community CLIs via the CLI Hub (pip install cli-anything-hub).

Each harness follows the same structure:

<app>/agent-harness/
  setup.py                          # pip-installable; namespace: cli_anything.<app>
  <APP>.md                          # Developer SOP — architecture, gotchas, API quirks
  cli_anything/<app>/
    <app>_cli.py                    # Click CLI entry point
    core/                           # Business logic (pure functions, testable without running the app)
    utils/
      cep_backend.py OR backend.py  # App-facing transport layer
    tests/
      test_core.py                  # Unit tests (no app required)
      test_full_e2e.py              # E2E tests (app must be running)
    skills/SKILL.md                 # Agent skill descriptor (packaged copy)
skills/
  cli-anything-<app>/SKILL.md       # Canonical skill descriptor

The IPC strategy differs per app:

• Premiere Pro: CEP panel running Node.js HTTP server → csInterface.evalScript() → ExtendScript
• Acrobat: Python → osascript → AppleScript do script → Acrobat JavaScript API

Core modules are always pure Python and testable without the application running. The transport layer is the only component that requires the host app.

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License

Elastic License 2.0 — free to use and modify; may not be offered as a hosted/managed service.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.