Devices

GL.iNet

gl-inet-pp-cli

The first maintained CLI for GL.iNet travel routers — named config profiles, travel macros, and version-aware diagnostics no other GL.iNet tool ships.

Printed by @paulbockewitz (Paul Bockewitz)

Install

npx — recommended

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install gl-inet

Installs the CLI binary and the agent skill (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Copilot, and more). Add --cli-only or --skill-only for one half. Requires Node.

Hermes

hermes skills install mvanhorn/printing-press-library/cli-skills/pp-gl-inet --force

From the Hermes CLI. Inside a chat session use /skills install with the same path.

OpenClaw

Install the pp-gl-inet skill from https://github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/tree/main/cli-skills/pp-gl-inet. The skill defines how its required CLI can be installed.

Paste this to your OpenClaw agent — the skill describes how to install its CLI.

Claude Desktop

This CLI ships an MCPB bundle. Download the latest release .mcpb and double-click it — Claude Desktop walks you through the install.

View source on GitHub →

The first maintained CLI for GL.iNet travel routers — named config profiles, travel macros, and version-aware diagnostics no other GL.iNet tool ships.

Save a known-good 'home' config, adjust it at a hotel or abroad, then revert in one command with snapshot save/apply/diff. Get online at a new venue and fix the 'my foreign network is invisible' regulatory-domain problem instantly. Every command probes your exact model and firmware first, so it adapts instead of assuming — and it all runs locally over the router's own API, no GoodCloud.

Authentication

Authenticates against the router's local admin password via GL's challenge/crypt/sha256 handshake (read from the live challenge, so it works across firmware versions). Config snapshots and UCI access use SSH to the router. No cloud account needed.

Quick Start

# confirm reachability, model, firmware, and what this device supports
gl-inet-pp-cli doctor

# bank your current known-good config as a named profile
gl-inet-pp-cli snapshot save home

# see the current configuration at a glance
gl-inet-pp-cli config summary

# diagnose 'router up but no internet' and get the fix
gl-inet-pp-cli troubleshoot

# after a venue changes things, see exactly what differs from home
gl-inet-pp-cli snapshot diff home

# revert cleanly back to your standard config
gl-inet-pp-cli snapshot apply home

Unique Features

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

Travel config profiles

snapshot save — Capture your whole router config as a named, reusable profile.

Reach for this when the user wants to bank a known-good config before changing anything on the road.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli snapshot save home --agent
```
snapshot apply — Restore a saved profile, with a safety check that it matches this device.

Use to revert cleanly to a standard config without risking a mismatched-device restore.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli snapshot apply home --agent
```
snapshot diff — See exactly which settings a venue changed vs your standard config.

Use to answer 'what did this hotel network change?' before reverting.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli snapshot diff home --agent
```

Travel macros

wifi region diagnose — Find out why a foreign network is invisible and fix the regulatory domain in one command.

Use when repeater mode can't see a network abroad (e.g. EU 2.4GHz ch12/13 under a US regdomain).
```
gl-inet-pp-cli wifi region diagnose --agent
```
venue connect — One command to get online at a new venue: scan, region-check, join, and prep for captive portals.

Use on arrival at a hotel/cafe to skip the multi-step LuCI dance.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli venue connect "Hotel WiFi" --agent
```
vpn toggle — Start a VPN tunnel, arm the kill-switch, and confirm your public IP actually changed.

Use to trust that the VPN is really protecting traffic, not just 'connected'.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli vpn toggle mullvad --agent
```
vpn verify — Verify the VPN is up and your connection isn't leaking: egress country, DNS leaks, and STUN/UDP (WebRTC-style) leaks.

Use to confirm a VPN is actually protecting all traffic (no IP/DNS/WebRTC leak) before trusting it on an untrusted network.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli vpn verify --expect-country US --agent
```
wan mode — Switch the router's WAN source and verify it reconnected.

Use when changing how the router gets upstream internet at a new venue.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli wan mode repeater --agent
```

Diagnostics

troubleshoot — Diagnose why the router has no internet and get the exact fix command.

Use first whenever the router is up but there's no internet — most often it's not connected in repeater mode.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli troubleshoot --agent
```
uplink — Diagnose a weak/slow venue WiFi uplink and get ranked ways to improve it.

Use when you have internet but it's bad and you want to know whether to move, switch bands, or tether.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli uplink --agent
```
doctor — Report this router's model, firmware, OpenWrt/LuCI versions, reachable surfaces, and per-feature availability.

Use to confirm what a given firmware supports before relying on a feature.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli doctor --agent
```

Power-user + config

config summary — A structured, per-subsystem report of the router's current configuration.

Use to quickly understand or capture the current state of a router.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli config summary --agent
```
config find — Find any config option anywhere across the whole router config tree.

Use to locate where a setting lives when config is spread across dozens of modules.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli config find country --agent
```
rpc call — Call any GL RPC module/function or any UCI option directly.

Use as the power-user fallback for anything not covered by a typed command.
```
gl-inet-pp-cli rpc call netmode get_mode --agent
```

Recipes

Bank home, travel, revert

gl-inet-pp-cli snapshot save home && gl-inet-pp-cli snapshot diff home && gl-inet-pp-cli snapshot apply home

Capture a known-good profile, see what a venue changed, then revert cleanly.

Get online abroad

gl-inet-pp-cli venue connect "Hotel WiFi"

Scan, region-check, join, and prep for the captive portal in one command.

Fix an invisible foreign network

gl-inet-pp-cli wifi region diagnose --fix

Detects a network hidden by your regulatory domain and switches the region to unhide it.

Why is there no internet?

gl-inet-pp-cli troubleshoot --fix

Walks the connectivity decision tree and applies safe remedies (most often: not joined in repeater mode).

Narrow a verbose status payload for an agent

gl-inet-pp-cli system status --agent --select clients.online,wan.proto,wan.ip,memory.free

Use --select with dotted paths to return only the fields an agent needs from a large status response.

Usage

Run gl-inet-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: GL_INET_CONFIG_DIR, GL_INET_DATA_DIR, GL_INET_STATE_DIR, or GL_INET_CACHE_DIR
--home <dir> for this invocation
GL_INET_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 GL_INET_HOME=/srv/gl-inet
gl-inet-pp-cli doctor

Under GL_INET_HOME=/srv/gl-inet, the four dirs resolve to /srv/gl-inet/config, /srv/gl-inet/data, /srv/gl-inet/state, and /srv/gl-inet/cache.

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gl-inet": {
      "command": "gl-inet-pp-mcp",
      "env": {
        "GL_INET_HOME": "/srv/gl-inet"
      }
    }
  }
}

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

Relocation is one-way. Unsetting GL_INET_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 gl-inet-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to check path warnings in automation.

Commands

clients

Connected client devices

gl-inet-pp-cli clients - List connected clients (ip, mac, name, tx/rx, online)

snapshots

Named config profiles captured from the router

gl-inet-pp-cli snapshots - Saved config snapshots (local store)

system

Router system info and live status

gl-inet-pp-cli system get - Model, firmware, OpenWrt version, hardware/software capability maps
gl-inet-pp-cli system status - Live CPU, memory, clients, services, WAN/internet state

vpn

VPN tunnels (WireGuard / OpenVPN clients)

gl-inet-pp-cli vpn - Configured VPN client tunnels and their status

wifi

WiFi radios and SSIDs

gl-inet-pp-cli wifi - Radio states, channels, bands

Output Formats

# Human-readable table (default in terminal, JSON when piped)
gl-inet-pp-cli clients

# JSON for scripting and agents
gl-inet-pp-cli clients --json

# Filter to specific fields
gl-inet-pp-cli clients --json --select id,name,status

# Dry run — show the request without sending
gl-inet-pp-cli clients --dry-run

# Agent mode — JSON + compact + no prompts in one flag
gl-inet-pp-cli clients --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, 5 API error, 7 rate limited, 10 config error.

Health Check

gl-inet-pp-cli doctor

Verifies configuration and connectivity to the API.

Configuration

Run gl-inet-pp-cli doctor to see the resolved config, data, state, and cache directories. The platform-default config path is ~/.config/gl-inet/config.toml; --home, GL_INET_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

Login fails / 'access denied' from the router — The admin password is the router's web-UI password (RPC user is 'root'). Set GL_INET_PASSWORD or pass --password.
Repeater can't see a network abroad — Run 'gl-inet-pp-cli wifi region diagnose' — the network is likely on a channel your current regulatory domain forbids; it will name the country to switch to.
snapshot apply refuses with a model mismatch — Snapshots are model+firmware stamped; restore on the same model, or pass --force to override (settings may not map cleanly).
Config/snapshot commands fail to connect — Those use SSH (port 22). Ensure SSH is enabled on the router LAN and your key or password works.

Sources & Inspiration

This CLI was built by studying these projects and resources:

python-glinet — Python (31 stars)
glinet_api-hass — Python (4 stars)
glinet — JavaScript (3 stars)
gli4py — Python (2 stars)
GL-iNet_utils — Shell (1 stars)

Generated by CLI Printing Press