The only ht-ml.app tool that remembers what you published, a local registry of every site, its once-only update_key, and full version history, plus one-command publish-with-assets.
ht-ml.app is deliberately accountless: you POST one HTML document, get a public URL, and a write key shown exactly once. That makes publishing frictionless and management impossible. This CLI is the missing memory layer. Every publish is captured to a local SQLite store, so you can list and audit everything you've shipped, update a site by id without ever touching its key, auto-upload referenced assets in one pass, roll back to any prior version, and export a passphrase-sealed vault of your keys for disaster recovery.
Authentication
ht-ml.app has no global API key. Creating and reading sites needs no credential at all. Each site mints a high-entropy update_key once at creation — the only write credential, with no recovery endpoint. This CLI captures that key into a local store at create time, so update, asset, and password commands resolve it automatically by site_id. Keep the store safe and back it up with keys export; losing an update_key with no backup orphans the site forever.
Quick Start
# health check; works with no setup or credentials
ht-ml-pp-cli doctor --dry-run
# publish a local HTML file; prints the public URL and stores the site + key
ht-ml-pp-cli publish ./deck.html
# publish and auto-upload every referenced image/video in one pass
ht-ml-pp-cli publish ./report.html --assets
# list every site you've published (the inventory ht-ml.app can't give you)
ht-ml-pp-cli list
# replace a site's HTML by id; the update_key is resolved for you
ht-ml-pp-cli update <site_id> ./deck.html
# back up your once-only write keys for disaster recovery
ht-ml-pp-cli keys export --out ht-ml-keys.vault
Unique Features
These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.
Registry & recovery
-
list — See every site you've ever published, with health flags for orphaned sites and broken assets.
Reach for this to recall or audit what you've shipped; it's the only way to enumerate sites the accountless API won't list.
ht-ml-pp-cli list --agent --select url,title,status
-
keys export — Reveal a single write key, or export/import a passphrase-sealed vault of all your update_keys for disaster recovery and a second machine.
Use after publishing or before switching machines; without a vault, a lost key orphans the site forever.
ht-ml-pp-cli keys export --out ht-ml-keys.vault
Asset reconciliation
-
assets sync — Parse a site's HTML, find every referenced-but-missing image or video, and upload them all in one pass.
Pick this whenever a published page has broken images; it fixes all of them at once instead of one upload per file.
ht-ml-pp-cli assets sync <site_id> --root ./public
-
assets audit — Across all your sites, list the ones with publicly-visible broken or missing images.
Run during a review to catch broken client-facing pages before someone else does.
ht-ml-pp-cli assets audit --missing-only --agent
Versioning & living docs
-
rollback — Revert a live site to any prior HTML version stored locally, with the update_key resolved for you.
Use when a republish shipped bad data; it restores the last-good HTML in one command.
ht-ml-pp-cli rollback <site_id>
-
republish — Publish a recurring document under a stable local alias: update in place if the alias exists, or create it once and bind it.
Pick this for scheduled or daily publishes so the public URL never churns.
ht-ml-pp-cli republish --as status-report ./status.html
Publish safety
-
scan — Mechanically scan HTML for leaked secrets and PII before it becomes a public, permanent URL.
Run before any publish on a person's behalf; it returns a typed exit code so it can gate a pipeline.
ht-ml-pp-cli scan ./page.html
Recipes
Publish a deck and get just the URL
ht-ml-pp-cli publish ./deck.html --agent --select url,site_id
Publish and return only the live URL and id, ready to hand to a downstream step.
Inspect a site's referenced assets compactly
ht-ml-pp-cli sites <site_id> --agent --select status,assets.relative_path,assets.status
Use dotted --select to narrow the verbose site-plus-assets payload to just status and each asset's path and status.
Audit every site for broken images
ht-ml-pp-cli assets audit --missing-only --agent
Cross-site join that lists publicly-visible missing assets the API cannot surface in one call.
List your published sites by title
ht-ml-pp-cli list --sort title --agent --select site_id,title,url
The local registry is the only inventory of what you have shipped (the API has no list endpoint); sort by title to find a page fast.
Recover keys on a second machine
ht-ml-pp-cli keys import ht-ml-keys.vault
Import a passphrase-sealed vault so update and rollback work from another machine.
Usage
Run ht-ml-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 such as data.db |
state | Runtime state such as persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log |
cache | Regenerable HTTP/cache files |
Each kind resolves independently. The ladder is:
- Per-kind env var:
HT_ML_CONFIG_DIR, HT_ML_DATA_DIR, HT_ML_STATE_DIR, or HT_ML_CACHE_DIR
--home <dir> for this invocation
HT_ML_HOME for a flat relocated root
- XDG env vars:
XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME
- Platform defaults matching existing installs
For containers and agent sandboxes, prefer a single relocated root:
export HT_ML_HOME=/srv/ht-ml
ht-ml-pp-cli doctor
Under HT_ML_HOME=/srv/ht-ml, the four dirs resolve to /srv/ht-ml/config, /srv/ht-ml/data, /srv/ht-ml/state, and /srv/ht-ml/cache.
MCP servers do not receive CLI flags from the host. Put relocation in the host env block:
{
"mcpServers": {
"ht-ml": {
"command": "ht-ml-pp-mcp",
"env": {
"HT_ML_HOME": "/srv/ht-ml"
}
}
}
}
Precedence matters in fleets: an ambient per-kind variable such as HT_ML_DATA_DIR overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use HT_ML_HOME or the per-kind variables for durable fleet relocation; treat --home as the weaker per-invocation lever.
Relocation is one-way. Unsetting HT_ML_HOME does not move files back to platform defaults, and doctor cannot find files 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. Run ht-ml-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to check path warnings in automation.
Commands
sites
Inspect ht-ml.app sites
ht-ml-pp-cli sites <site_id> - Get a site's status and the assets its HTML references (no auth; public read)
Output Formats
# Human-readable table (default in terminal, JSON when piped)
ht-ml-pp-cli sites mock-value
# JSON for scripting and agents
ht-ml-pp-cli sites mock-value --json
# Filter to specific fields
ht-ml-pp-cli sites mock-value --json --select id,name,status
# Dry run — show the request without sending
ht-ml-pp-cli sites mock-value --dry-run
# Agent mode — JSON + compact + no prompts in one flag
ht-ml-pp-cli sites mock-value --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 - list and audit commands 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, 5 API error, 7 rate limited, 10 config error.
Health Check
ht-ml-pp-cli doctor
Verifies configuration and connectivity to the API.
Configuration
Run ht-ml-pp-cli doctor to see the resolved config, data, state, and cache directories. The platform-default config path is ~/.config/ht-ml-pp-cli/config.toml; --home, HT_ML_HOME, and per-kind env vars can relocate it.
Static request headers can be configured under headers; per-command header overrides take precedence.
Troubleshooting
Not found errors (exit code 3)
- Check the resource ID is correct
- Run the
list command to see available items
API-specific
- 401 Unauthorized when updating a site — The site's update_key isn't in your local store. Run
ht-ml-pp-cli keys import <vault> if you have a backup, or ht-ml-pp-cli list to confirm the site_id.
- 403 Forbidden when uploading an asset — The asset path must appear in the site's HTML first. Reference it in the HTML, then run
ht-ml-pp-cli assets sync <site_id>.
- 422 Unprocessable Entity on publish — The HTML failed ht-ml.app's safety scan. Read the returned message field and revise the HTML.
- I lost a site's update_key — There is no recovery endpoint; without a backup the site is read-only forever. Run
ht-ml-pp-cli keys export after publishing so this can't happen again.