Pexels CLI

Every Pexels photo, video, and collection endpoint — plus a local store that adds quota forecasting, dedup-aware bulk download, and one-shot attribution exports no other Pexels tool has.

Created by @vcolombo (Vincent Colombo). Contributors: @tmchow (Trevin Chow).

A single binary for the full Pexels API: search and curated photos, video search and popular feeds, and collections including your own. It mirrors results into a local SQLite store so you can re-search offline, dedup downloads across sessions, forecast your rate budget, pick the best-fit resolution for a target, and export license-compliant attribution in one command.

Authentication

Pexels uses a free API key sent as a raw Authorization: <key> header — there is NO Bearer prefix (the single most common 401 in the ecosystem). Set PEXELS_API_KEY or run pexels-pp-cli auth login. Every request also sends a User-Agent, since Pexels' edge returns 403 to header-less clients.

Quick Start

# Confirm the CLI is wired and see whether your API key is detected
pexels-pp-cli doctor --dry-run

# Core photo search with Pexels' filters
pexels-pp-cli photos search --query "golden retriever puppy" --orientation square --per-page 5

# Dedup-aware download that writes attribution sidecars
pexels-pp-cli download "mountain lake" --type photo --limit 3 --size large --sidecar

# Emit SOURCES.md crediting everything you've downloaded
pexels-pp-cli attribution export --csv

Unique Features

These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.

Rate-limit intelligence

• quota forecast — Check before a bulk pull whether it fits your remaining hourly/monthly Pexels quota, with a reset ETA.

  Reach for this before any large download to avoid burning the 200/hour budget mid-batch.

  pexels-pp-cli quota forecast --resources photos,videos --max-pages 10 --agent
  

Resolution & download intelligence

• resolve — Pick the smallest photo size or video file that meets a target dimension without upscaling.

  Use when you know the media id and need exactly one URL sized for a target, instead of parsing eight src variants.

  pexels-pp-cli resolve 2014422 --target-width 1280 --target-height 720 --agent
  

• download — Bulk-download a query, skipping media already in your ledger and checkpointing each page so a hit quota stops you gracefully.

  Use for repeated or large harvests that must not re-download files or exceed the rate budget.

  pexels-pp-cli download "mountain lake" --type photo --limit 30 --max-pages 3 --size large --sidecar
  

License compliance

• attribution export — Emit a SOURCES.md and per-file .meta.json sidecars crediting every photographer in your local download ledger.

  Reach for this to satisfy Pexels' attribution guideline in one shot rather than hand-building credit lists.

  pexels-pp-cli attribution export --resources photos,videos --csv
  

Local store that compounds

• search — Full-text search media you already synced, with stable ordering and no API call.

  Reach for this to re-find media you pulled earlier instead of spending quota on a fresh live search.

  pexels-pp-cli search "sunset" --type photos --limit 10 --agent --select id,photographer,alt
  

• analytics — Group your synced photos by photographer to review credit balance and licensing coverage.

  Use during a licensing or credit review to see which photographers dominate your pulled set.

  pexels-pp-cli analytics --type photos --group-by photographer --limit 20
  

Recipes

Agent-native photo search, narrowed

pexels-pp-cli photos search --query "foggy forest" --orientation portrait --per-page 8 --agent --select photos.id,photos.photographer,photos.src.large2x,photos.alt

Returns only the four fields an agent needs from a deeply-nested response, instead of all eight src sizes per photo.

Forecast then harvest

pexels-pp-cli quota forecast --resources photos --max-pages 5 && pexels-pp-cli download "city skyline night" --type photo --limit 50 --max-pages 5 --size large --sidecar

Check the rate budget, then run a dedup-aware bulk pull that writes attribution sidecars.

Best-fit resolution for a known id

pexels-pp-cli resolve 2014422 --target-width 1920 --target-height 1080 --agent

Picks the smallest src/video_file that covers 1080p without upscaling.

Browse your own collections

pexels-pp-cli collections list --per-page 20 --json

Lists the authenticated user's collections — a surface only two ecosystem tools expose.

Re-find synced media offline

pexels-pp-cli sync --resources photos --max-pages 3 && pexels-pp-cli search "sunset" --type photos --limit 10

Mirror a few pages locally, then full-text search them without spending more quota.

Usage

Run pexels-pp-cli --help for the full command reference and flag list.

Paths & environment variables

This CLI separates local files into four path kinds:

Kind	Contents
config	User-editable settings such as config.toml and saved profiles
data	Durable local data: credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, browser-session proof files, and other auth sidecars
state	Runtime state such as persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log
cache	Regenerable HTTP/cache files

Each kind resolves independently. The ladder is:

1. Per-kind env var: PEXELS_CONFIG_DIR, PEXELS_DATA_DIR, PEXELS_STATE_DIR, or PEXELS_CACHE_DIR
2. --home <dir> for this invocation
3. PEXELS_HOME for a flat relocated root
4. XDG env vars: XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME
5. Platform defaults matching existing installs

For containers and agent sandboxes, prefer a single relocated root:

export PEXELS_HOME=/srv/pexels
pexels-pp-cli doctor

Under PEXELS_HOME=/srv/pexels, the four dirs resolve to /srv/pexels/config, /srv/pexels/data, /srv/pexels/state, and /srv/pexels/cache.

MCP servers do not receive CLI flags from the host. Put relocation in the host env block:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pexels": {
      "command": "pexels-pp-mcp",
      "env": {
        "PEXELS_HOME": "/srv/pexels"
      }
    }
  }
}

Precedence matters in fleets: an ambient per-kind variable such as PEXELS_DATA_DIR overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use PEXELS_HOME or the per-kind variables for durable fleet relocation; treat --home as the weaker per-invocation lever.

Relocation is one-way. Unsetting PEXELS_HOME does not move files back to platform defaults, and doctor cannot find credentials left under a former root. Move the files manually before unsetting relocation variables.

Existing installs keep working because the platform-default rung matches the legacy layout. On the first auth write, stored secrets leave config.toml and are consolidated into credentials.toml under the data directory. Run pexels-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to check path and credential-location warnings in automation.

Commands

collections

Browse featured collections, your own collections, and collection media

• pexels-pp-cli collections featured - List Pexels featured collections
• pexels-pp-cli collections list - List the authenticated user's own collections (requires PEXELS_API_KEY)
• pexels-pp-cli collections media - List the media (photos and/or videos) inside a collection

photos

Search, curate, and fetch Pexels photos

• pexels-pp-cli photos curated - Browse the Pexels editor-curated photo feed (use --random for a random page)
• pexels-pp-cli photos get - Get a single photo by its numeric id
• pexels-pp-cli photos search - Search photos by keyword with orientation/size/color/locale filters

videos

Search, browse popular, and fetch Pexels videos

• pexels-pp-cli videos get - Get a single video by its numeric id
• pexels-pp-cli videos popular - Browse popular videos with optional dimension/duration filters
• pexels-pp-cli videos search - Search videos by keyword with orientation/size/locale filters

Output Formats

# Human-readable table (default in terminal, JSON when piped)
pexels-pp-cli collections list

# JSON for scripting and agents
pexels-pp-cli collections list --json

# Filter to specific fields
pexels-pp-cli collections list --json --select id,name,status

# Dry run — show the request without sending
pexels-pp-cli collections list --dry-run

# Agent mode — JSON + compact + no prompts in one flag
pexels-pp-cli collections list --agent

Agent Usage

This CLI is designed for AI agent consumption:

• Non-interactive - never prompts, every input is a flag
• Pipeable - --json output to stdout, errors to stderr
• Filterable - --select id,name returns only fields you need
• Previewable - --dry-run shows the request without sending
• Read-only by default - this CLI does not create, update, delete, publish, send, or mutate remote resources
• Offline-friendly - sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available
• Agent-safe by default - no colors or formatting unless --human-friendly is set

Exit codes: 0 success, 2 usage error, 3 not found, 4 auth error, 5 API error, 7 rate limited, 10 config error.

Health Check

pexels-pp-cli doctor

Verifies configuration, credentials, and connectivity to the API.

Configuration

Run pexels-pp-cli doctor to see the resolved config, data, state, and cache directories. The platform-default config path is ~/.config/pexels-pp-cli/config.toml; --home, PEXELS_HOME, and per-kind env vars can relocate it.

Static request headers can be configured under headers; per-command header overrides take precedence.

Environment variables:

Name	Kind	Required	Description
PEXELS_API_KEY	per_call	Yes	Set to your API credential.

agentcookie (optional)

If you use agentcookie to sync secrets across machines, this CLI auto-adopts agentcookie-managed credentials with no extra setup. When the daemon writes to this CLI's config, pexels-pp-cli doctor reports agentcookie: detected and auth-status labels the source as agentcookie. Skip this section if you don't use agentcookie - the CLI works the same as any other.

Troubleshooting

Authentication errors (exit code 4)

• Run pexels-pp-cli doctor to check credentials
• Verify the environment variable is set: echo $PEXELS_API_KEY Not found errors (exit code 3)
• Check the resource ID is correct
• Run the list command to see available items

API-specific

• 401 Unauthorized on every call — Your key is likely sent with a Bearer prefix by another tool; this CLI sends the raw key. Verify with pexels-pp-cli doctor and re-set via pexels-pp-cli auth login.
• 403 from api.pexels.com — Header-less clients get Cloudflare-403'd; this CLI sets a User-Agent automatically. If you still see it, your key may be gated — check status.pexels.com.
• Bulk download stops early — You hit the 200/hour budget. Run pexels-pp-cli quota forecast first, then resume with --max-pages once the reset passes.
• search returns nothing — Offline search reads the local store; run pexels-pp-cli sync --resources photos first, or use photos search for a live query.

Sources & Inspiration

This CLI was built by studying these projects and resources:

• pexels (official SDK) — JavaScript (171 stars)
• pypexels — Python (76 stars)
• pexels-image-downloader — Python (44 stars)
• stock-images-mcp — Python (37 stars)
• garylab pexels-mcp-server — Python (17 stars)
• CaullenOmdahl pexels-mcp-server — TypeScript (7 stars)
• afshinator mcp-server-pexels — TypeScript (1 stars)
• developer-ishan mcp-pexels — TypeScript

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