SELAT CLI

The SELAT CLI is the terminal operator surface for SELAT agent payments: bootstrap a wallet, fund a Gateway balance, and discover, rank, and pay x402 services from a terminal or scripted workflow. This guide covers the selat command only; it does not install or configure the Router SDK for application code. It ships as the @selat-ai/selat-cli package, which installs the selat command.

selat is the high-level CLI. Under the hood it shells out to the lower-level @selat-ai/selat-pay payer and the Circle CLI — you install only @selat-ai/selat-cli, and selat init checks for the rest and tells you how to fix anything missing.

When to use it

You want to test a paid endpoint manually.
You want a shell-based flow for operators or CI.
You want an agent-friendly command layer without writing a custom client first.

For a TypeScript application integration, use the separate SELAT Router SDK documentation. Do not combine its package installation or signer setup with this terminal workflow.

Install

npm install -g @selat-ai/selat-cli

Verify the install:

selat --version
selat --help

Prerequisites

selat init checks these for you and tells you how to fix anything missing, but for reference the CLI needs:

Node.js 18 or newer
The Circle CLI (@circle-fin/cli) — wallet creation, MPC-backed signing, and Gateway deposits
The discovery skill (@selat-ai/selat-discovery) — the federated catalog and intent ranking that powers selat search and selat run. Ships as a dependency of the CLI; init verifies it.

Get started

The canonical first-run flow is init → fund → run, with selat search as the free preview of what run would pick.

Bootstrap your setup

selat init is idempotent — safe to re-run. It checks prerequisites, walks you through Circle Agent Wallet login (one email + one OTP), ensures agent wallets exist, and writes your config.

selat init

If you have no spendable USDC, init points you to selat fund.

Fund your Gateway balance

Top up the Gateway balance your payments draw from. fund previews the deposit and requires an explicit confirmation before moving anything.

selat fund --chain base --amount 2

Discover and rank — for free

Describe what you want in plain language. search runs the same discovery and ranking as run, but stops before payment — no wallet, no spend.

selat search "summarize the latest news on gold prices"

Pay for the best match

run discovers matching x402 services, ranks them, and pays for the best one in a single pipe.

selat run "summarize the latest news on gold prices"

Before depositing more than ~$20, set spending caps with selat setup-policy. If anything looks off, selat doctor diagnoses your setup in one pass.

Commands

Command	Description
`selat init`	Full bootstrap: skill, Circle auth, Agent Wallet, `selat-pay`, and config. Idempotent.
`selat search "<intent>"`	Discover + rank endpoints for a capability. Free — no wallet, no spend.
`selat run "<intent>"`	Discover + rank + pay for an x402 service in one pipe.
`selat skill <subcommand>`	List, install, run, and author agent skills (see below).
`selat fund`	Top up your Gateway balance. Dry-runs first; requires explicit confirmation.
`selat history`	Show locally recorded Gateway micropayments.
`selat spend`	Unified spend report: settled spend + Apify token utilization. Read-only.
`selat setup-policy`	Set Circle spending limits on your Agent Wallet (requires an email OTP).
`selat doctor`	Diagnose setup problems (skill, PATH, auth, wallet, config).
`selat --help`, `selat --version`	Show help (`-h`) or version (`-v`).

`selat init`

Bootstraps an agent-payment setup in one flow.

Flag	Description
`--force`	Re-create / ensure wallets non-interactively (skips the reuse-or-create prompt).
`--router-url=<url>`	Override the router URL for this run (default `https://router.selat.ai`). Must be `https://`.

`selat search "<intent>"`

Runs the free front half of selat run: discovers matching endpoints across the federated catalogs and ranks them for the intent, without touching a wallet. No payment path exists in this command.

Flag	Default	Description
`--top <n>`	`5`	Show the top N matches.
`--json`	—	Machine-readable output (for agents and interception hooks).
`--explain`	—	Show why each match is or isn’t payable right now.
`--refresh`	—	Re-fetch the catalogs before ranking.

selat search "transcribe audio to text" --top 3
selat search "people enrichment" --json

`selat run "<intent>"`

Takes a natural-language intent and runs the discovery skill’s ranking + payment plan against it, paying for the top match.

Flag	Description
`--input '<json>'`	Inline Actor input, for runs that resolve to an Apify pick.
`--input-file <path>`	Read the Actor input JSON from a file instead.
`--auto-rebuy`	Apify prepaid-token picks only: if the token drains mid-run, buy a replacement (~$1) and retry the run. Ignored for other services.

selat run "find USDC price news and summarize"
selat run "scrape this page" --input '{"url": "https://example.com"}' --auto-rebuy

`selat fund`

Tops up your Gateway balance. Shows the plan locally, then requires you to confirm before depositing.

Flag	Default	Description
`--chain <key>`	`base`	Chain to deposit from (e.g. `arc`, `base`, `optimism`, `arbitrum`).
`--amount <usd>`	`2`	USDC amount to deposit. Must be a positive number.
`--method <direct\|eco>`	`direct`	Both methods are gasless (the agent wallet’s transactions are gas-sponsored) — the choice is speed. `direct` deposits on the chain you fund from (settles on that same chain, no routing fee). `eco` uses Eco Fast Deposits from Base (current Circle CLI eco coverage; Eco natively supports Optimism and Arbitrum too) — a ~30-second credit vs the ~5–10-minute direct wait, for a small fixed routing fee — and always settles into Circle Gateway on Polygon.

selat fund --chain optimism --amount 2                # direct: settles on Optimism
selat fund --chain base --amount 2 --method eco       # eco: ~30s credit, settles on Polygon

Settlement chain depends on the method: a direct deposit lands in Gateway on the chain you deposited from, while an eco deposit always lands in Gateway on Polygon regardless of the source chain.

`selat history`

Shows locally recorded Gateway micropayments.

Flag	Default	Description
`--address <addr>`	`SELAT_AGENT_WALLET_ADDRESS`	Wallet to filter by.
`--chain <key>`	—	Chain key to filter by (e.g. `base`).
`--limit <n>`	`20`	Number of records to show (positive integer).
`--json`	—	Emit structured JSON.

`selat spend`

Prints a unified, read-only spend report: settled spend from the local selat-pay ledger plus Apify prepaid-token utilization from the token store.

Flag	Description
`--json`	Emit structured JSON.
`--wallet <0x...>`	Wallet to report on.
`--ledger <path>`	Override the ledger path.
`--store <path>`	Override the token-store path.

`selat setup-policy`

Interactively sets Circle spending caps (per-transaction, daily, weekly, monthly) on your Agent Wallet. Requires an email OTP — Circle gates policy writes for security. Recommended before any deposit over ~$20. Also sets the local quarantine period — how many days of recent charged 5xx failures (with nothing settled) keep an endpoint excluded from ranking picks. --quarantine-days <n> (whole days, 1–90; default 30) saves it to the selat config with no Circle write and no emailed code, so it works non-interactively too — given alone, the command saves it and exits without touching Circle. See First-Party Transactability for how the quarantine clock relates to the 90-day evidence window.

`selat doctor`

Runs a one-pass diagnosis of common setup problems (skill install, PATH, Circle auth, wallet, config). Run it whenever something looks off. Takes no flags.

Agent skills

Beyond ad-hoc selat run, the CLI can install and run agent skills — named, reusable payment recipes from the public selat-skills registry (or a local path).

selat skill list --available                 # browse the catalog (with reliability badges)
selat skill install market-snapshot          # install a skill by name (or ./path)
selat skill run market-snapshot              # run it
selat skill run token-price --symbols ETH,USDC

Subcommand	Description
`skill list [--available]`	List installed skills, or available ones (with reliability) to install.
`skill install <name\|path> [--force] [--max-amount <usd>]`	Install a skill by name (from the registry) or a local path.
`skill run <name> [--p value ...]`	Run an installed skill, passing its params as `--flags`. Payment overrides: `--chain <c>`, `--max-amount <usd>`, `--raw-key`.
`skill new <name> [--dir <dir>] [--force]`	Scaffold a new skill folder (SOP layout) to contribute.
`skill validate <path>`	Validate a skill folder against the Agent Skill SOP (structure, required fields).
`skill verify <path> [--pay] [--p value ...]`	Live-check each endpoint (real 402 price/rail); `--pay` makes a capped paid call. Also accepts `--chain` / `--max-amount`.
`skill register <path> [--index <path>]`	Add or update the skill’s entry in `index.json`.
`skill submit <path> [--dry-run]`	Open a PR to the selat-skills repo (gated on a passing verify receipt).

selat skill run web-search --query "USDC news" --chain base            # pay from an Base Gateway balance
selat skill verify ./skills/token-price --symbols ETH --pay            # capped real call

Configuration

selat init writes your config to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/selat-pay/.env. You can also set these in the environment to override defaults:

Variable	Purpose
`SELAT_AGENT_WALLET_ADDRESS`	Default wallet address (used by `history` and payments).
`SELAT_PRIVATE_KEY`	Signing key for the payer, when not using a Circle Agent Wallet.
`SELAT_ROUTER_URL`	Router URL used at runtime (must be `https://`).
`SELAT_DEFAULT_ROUTER_URL`	Default router URL used by `selat init`.
`SELAT_PAY_BIN`	Path to the `selat-pay` binary, if not auto-resolved.
`SELAT_SKILLS_DIR`, `SELAT_SKILLS_REPO`, `SELAT_SKILLS_REF`, `SELAT_SKILLS_RAW_BASE`	Override the skills registry source.
`SELAT_DEBUG=1`	Print stack traces on fatal errors.

Overview

Agentic payments

Transactability

HTTP 402

SELAT Plugins

Catalog MCP

SELAT Router SDK

Skills

Glossary

SELAT CLI

When to use it

Install

Prerequisites

Get started

Commands

`selat init`

`selat search "<intent>"`

`selat run "<intent>"`

`selat fund`

`selat history`

`selat spend`

`selat setup-policy`

`selat doctor`

Agent skills

Configuration

​When to use it

​Install

​Prerequisites

​Get started

​Commands

​selat init

​selat search "<intent>"

​selat run "<intent>"

​selat fund

​selat history

​selat spend

​selat setup-policy

​selat doctor

​Agent skills

​Configuration

​Related docs

When to use it

Install

Prerequisites

Get started

Commands

`selat init`

`selat search "<intent>"`

`selat run "<intent>"`

`selat fund`

`selat history`

`selat spend`

`selat setup-policy`

`selat doctor`

Agent skills

Configuration

Related docs