ade-cli

Agentic Document Extraction (ADE), from your terminal. The ade command drives LandingAI's ADE v2 document APIs — parse turns visually complex documents (tables, figures, charts) into grounded markdown and elements; extract pulls schema-shaped fields with page-and-box evidence — and persists everything it produces in a local store (~/.ade), serving every read from it.

Documentation · Playground · Get an API key

Install

Each release ships self-contained binaries for macOS, Linux, and Windows (arm64 and x86_64 each) — no Python, no uv. The installers detect your platform, verify the checksum, and put ade on your machine:

macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/landing-ai/ade-cli/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/landing-ai/ade-cli/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

Windows (CMD)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/landing-ai/ade-cli/main/scripts/install.cmd -o install.cmd && install.cmd && del install.cmd

The app lands in ~/.ade/bin (%USERPROFILE%\.ade\bin on Windows) — the binary plus an _internal/ dir with its bundled libraries — inside the CLI's own home, next to the store; ADE_HOME moves both. The installer also symlinks ade into ~/.local/bin (creating it if needed — it's on PATH in most setups, so no rc-file edit is needed) and verifies the link runs; it never overwrites a real file at that name. Scripting ade? See Agents: a non-interactive shell sources no rc file, so use the absolute path ~/.ade/bin/ade. Pin a version with ADE_CLI_VERSION=0.2.1, change the destination with ADE_CLI_INSTALL_DIR. To uninstall, remove ~/.ade/bin and the ~/.local/bin/ade symlink — never rm -rf ~/.ade, since the rest of that directory is your local store of billed parse/extract results. (Developing or installing from source? See CONTRIBUTING.md.)

Auth

command	what it does
ade auth login	prompt for an API key (hidden input)
ade auth login --api-key KEY	store an API key for production directly
ade auth login --api-key -	prompt for the key (hidden input)
echo $KEY | ade auth login	headless: a piped key is the prompt, answered
ade auth login --env eu	log in to the EU region (no-op if it already holds a credential)
ade auth status	the resolved target + every other environment holding a credential
ade auth logout	log out of the resolved target
ade auth logout --env eu	log out of a specific environment
ade auth logout --all	log out of every environment
ade login	top-level alias of ade auth login — same flags, same behavior
ade logout	top-level alias of ade auth logout — same flags, same behavior

API keys come from your LandingAI account settings. login verifies the key against the target environment before storing it — a mistyped key fails right at login, not at your first parse.

There is no "current environment" — the target is resolved fresh on every command: the --env flag, else the ADE_ENV variable, else production. export ADE_ENV=eu gives one shell sticky EU while another shell works production; nothing global changes, and parse/extract/auth all follow the same rule, so a login and the verb after it can never disagree. Credentials are stored per environment, because ADE credentials don't cross environments:

--env / ADE_ENV	endpoint
production (default)	https://api.ade.landing.ai
eu	https://api.ade.eu-west-1.landing.ai

login ensures the target is authenticated: with a stored credential it says so and does nothing; otherwise it acquires one (menu on a terminal). To force a fresh login, logout --env X first. Each environment's results are separate job items too — the environment is part of the job item id, so an EU parse never masquerades as a production one.

ADE_ENDPOINT is the raw-URL escape hatch: it overrides the endpoint only, while credentials still file under the resolved environment. ADE_API_KEY overrides whatever credential is stored. Keys are stored per environment in ~/.ade/credentials.json (mode 0600). Every command supports --json for one stable JSON object on stdout.

Headless setup never needs a terminal. Where there is nothing to prompt on — CI, cron, an agent harness, a wrapped shell — set ADE_API_KEY, or pipe the key in: echo $KEY | ade auth login stores it for the resolved environment exactly as the prompt would. (--api-key KEY works too, but an inline key is visible to ps.) Nothing hangs waiting on an idle stdin: with no key available the command exits immediately, naming all three paths. ade help credentials is the same page from the CLI.

Parse

command	what it does
ade parse -d invoice.pdf	ensure parsed; artifacts land in ~/.ade
ade parse --document-url https://…/doc.pdf	server fetches the URL
ade parse -d doc.pdf --tier standard --wait 0	cheap lane, submit-and-return
ade parse -d doc.pdf --env eu	run in the EU region (or export ADE_ENV=eu)
ade parse -d doc.pdf --include markdown --json	carry the markdown in the payload
JOB=$(ade parse -d doc.pdf --id-only)	just the job item id, for piping

Every run is a job item — keyed by the invocation, verb × environment × source path × content × params — one flat folder under ~/.ade/jobs/<job-item-id>/: parse.json (raw response), parse.md (markdown with its doc_id trailer), elements.json (flat elements projection, recomputable from parse.json), meta.json (provenance + params + identity), job.json (claim ticket). parse is a guarantee: re-running the exact same invocation is served from disk with zero API calls (--force re-parses in place); changed params — or a moved/edited file — mint a sibling job item, so variants coexist and nothing is silently replaced; a pending job is resumed, never resubmitted; Ctrl-C stops the waiting, not the work — the same command resumes. Exit codes: 0 parsed, 1 failed, 2 usage, 3 still pending (re-run the same command to resume), 4 rate-limited before submit. --json carries the summary; --include markdown / --include elements add the bulk artifacts to it, so a script never has to reach into the store for them. --id-only prints just the job item id — the piping spelling:

JOB=$(ade parse -d doc.pdf --wait 0 --id-only)   # submit and return, exit 3
ade parse -d doc.pdf --id-only                    # re-run to resume; same id

Extract

command	what it does
ade extract JOB_ID --schema schema.json	extract a completed parse job item
ade extract -d invoice.pdf --schema '…'	by path: reuse the latest parse, else parse first
ade extract --markdown notes.md --schema '…'	bring-your-own markdown
ade extract --markdown-url https://…/notes.md --schema schema.json	bring-your-own markdown, fetched by the server

Every extraction is its own top-level job item. Given a parse job item id, the extract item references the parse (parse/ref.json) — artifacts are never copied — and inherits the parse item's environment (its server-side parse job exists nowhere else; a conflicting --env is refused). Given a document path, the latest completed parse of that path+content in the target environment is reused (logged, referenced like the id form); if none exists the CLI runs a standalone parse job first — a normal top-level parse item, exactly as if you had run parse -d — then the extract referencing it, both bills itemised in one summary. Every parse the CLI runs is reusable, so repeated extract -d on a never-parsed document bills the parse exactly once. Bring-your-own markdown is copied in as markdown.md (spans index exactly those bytes); it has no parse edge, so evidence degrades to spans-only.

The extraction itself is on stdout: --json carries the schema-shaped result under extraction, alongside the per-field evidence join — reading extract.json out of the store is a convenience, never a requirement.

ade extract $JOB --schema schema.json --json | jq .extraction

View

command	what it does
ade view	the latest viewable job item's HTML viewer (opens in your browser on a terminal)
ade view JOB_ID	a specific job item (id or unambiguous prefix)
ade view JOB_ID --element-id ELEMENT_ID	deep link straight to one element
ade crop JOB_ID --element-id ELEMENT_ID	PNG of just that element's region
ade crop JOB_ID --type figure	PNG of every figure — one command, no loop
ade crop JOB_ID --all -o ./crops	every element, into a directory you pick

On a terminal, view opens the viewer in your browser by default (--no-open suppresses it); --json runs and piped output never launch a browser — the artifact path is in the output either way. Without a JOB_ID, view targets the latest viewable job item.

Every job item gets a self-contained view.html: page images with bounding-box overlays beside the parsed markdown (or extraction JSON), selection synced across both panes, and a history sidebar for jumping between items. Deep links are the citation contract — --element-id emits view.html#element=…, which opens with that element selected on both sides. crop cuts element regions straight out of the source document (--dpi, default 300) — visual evidence for an answer, one command. Address one element with --element-id (ids from ade find), or crop in batch with the very same filters find searches by: --type figure, --page 3, --all. A batch writes one PNG per element into the job item's crops/ (or a directory you name with -o) and returns them as crops[]; a single --element-id returns the one crop flat. Everything renders from the local store: zero API calls, rebuilds fingerprint-gated. Long documents stay browsable end to end — the artifact embeds the first 40 pages and loads the rest on demand from sidecar files rendered into the store.

History

command	what it does
ade history	defaults to ade history list
ade history list	one row per job item: id, kind, state, params, source
ade history list --json	full records (params verbatim, timestamps, linkage)
ade history clear JOB_ID	delete an item; clearing a parse cascades to its extracts
ade history clear --all	delete every stored job item

The read model over the store — zero API calls; states derive from tickets and artifacts on disk. Extract items referencing a parse render as indented child rows beneath it. Every history/view run re-scans jobs/ and rewrites ~/.ade/history.js (the viewer sidebar's read model), so manually deleted folders simply vanish from listings.

Commands that read the store (view, crop, find, history clear, extract JOB_ID) take a job item id or an unambiguous prefix — paths are accepted only by the convenience verbs (parse -d, extract -d); run ade history list when you have a path and need an id.

Find

command	what it does
ade find JOB_ID "total"	case-insensitive substring
ade find --job ITEM_A --job ITEM_B --json "€42"	multi-item (--job, repeatable), tagged by job_item_id
ade find JOB_ID --type table_cell --regex '€\d+'	filters compose: type + regex
ade find JOB_ID --page 1 --limit 5	no query = every element

Pure local search over a parse job item's elements projection — zero API calls, no ranking. All filters compose (AND): QUERY (substring, or a regex with --regex), --type, --page, --element-id (repeatable), --limit. Matches are the citation currency, one record per element in document order (page, then reading order): {job_item_id, element_id, type, page, box, text}. --id-only prints the element ids alone, one per line, for piping into anything that takes them — though crop accepts these same filters directly, so cropping a selection needs no bridge.

Help topics

ade help is the whole-surface reference in one call. It also carries the conceptual pages a per-command --help has nowhere to put:

topic	what it explains
ade help workflow	how the verbs compose — the pipeline, before your first run
ade help output	--json, --id-only, and where results live
ade help credentials	environment resolution and headless setup
ade help errors	exit states and the error payload shape

ade help COMMAND scopes the reference to one command — including the published shape of its --json result.

Agents

Agents are first-class callers: every command takes --json and emits one stable JSON object whose shape is published per verb (ade help --json carries a result block for each), the full result is always on stdout — never only in a store file — ade help --json returns the entire shipped surface (commands, flags, result shapes, topics, exit states, store layout) in a single call, and SKILL.md ships the agent contract: the loop, the conventions, and the sharp edges.

Automating installs: the binary lands at ~/.ade/bin/ade, and the installer ends by naming that absolute path. Non-interactive shells (CI, cron, agent harnesses) source no rc file, so a PATH entry your login shell has may not be there — call the absolute path, or export PATH="$HOME/.ade/bin:$PATH" in the job itself.

History

This repository was agentic-doc, the original Agentic Document Extraction SDK. The SDK is preserved unchanged — and no longer developed — on the legacy branch; since 2026-07-31 this repo ships the ADE CLI.

License

Apache-2.0.