Every Pixabay search filter the API has — plus a 24-hour local cache, offline search, resumable downloads with built-in attribution, live rate-limit awareness, and agent-native JSON no other Pixabay tool ships.
The only maintained Pixabay CLI is ten years dead and images-only; the only agent-native tool emits text you have to scrape. This one unifies image and video search, caches results in a local SQLite store for up to 24 hours (per Pixabay's API Terms) so you can search offline with search, credits Pixabay with a visible link on every result, and adds commands the raw API can't do: media search merges photos and video, pull does resumable downloads with attribution and 24h URL re-resolution, and quota surfaces the rate-limit headers nobody else exposes so you can pace within limits.
Authentication
Pixabay uses a single free API key passed as a query parameter. Get one from your account at pixabay.com/api/docs (when logged in), then set PIXABAY_API_KEY in your environment or run pixabay-pp-cli auth set-token <key>. The API is read-only — search only, no writes.
Pixabay API Compliance
This CLI is built to honor the Pixabay API Terms of Service. When you use it, you agree to:
- Credit Pixabay with a visible link whenever you display search results. The CLI prints a Pixabay credit line on human output and returns a
pageURL (Pixabay link) with every result — surface it wherever results appear.
- Cache, don't archive. API responses are cached locally for up to 24 hours to avoid repeated identical queries, then expire. The local SQLite store is a 24-hour cache, not a permanent dataset.
- Keep usage user-triggered. Every invocation must correspond to a real user request. Do not run this CLI from cron jobs, background daemons, or unattended automation.
- No AI/ML or scraping. Pixabay content may not be used for AI or machine-learning training, dataset generation, or automated scraping.
These obligations are why this CLI ships without a bulk-corpus "harvest" command and treats its local store as a 24-hour cache.
Quick Start
# Confirm the binary and config wiring before you need a key.
pixabay-pp-cli doctor --dry-run
# The core workflow: search photos by query with filters.
pixabay-pp-cli images search "yellow flowers" --image-type photo --per-page 5
# Search photos and videos together, structured JSON for an agent.
pixabay-pp-cli media search "drone coastline" --limit 20 --agent
# Persist results into the local SQLite store for offline search.
pixabay-pp-cli sync --resources images --param q=mountains --param image_type=photo
# Offline full-text search over what you've synced — zero API quota.
pixabay-pp-cli search "mountain" --type images
Unique Features
These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.
Search & acquisition
-
pull — Download chosen size variants for a collection with parallel workers, re-resolving 24h-expired URLs by id and writing per-file attribution sidecars; re-runs skip what's already on disk.
Use this to materialize an already-curated collection to disk safely; it survives interruptions and expired URLs that break naive downloaders.
pixabay-pp-cli pull --from-collection winter --size large --workers 8 --resume
-
media search — Fan one query across both the image and video endpoints in parallel and merge stills and footage into a single ranked, persisted result set.
Use this when a task needs both photos and video for a theme and you don't want to run two searches and merge by hand.
pixabay-pp-cli media search "drone coastline" --limit 40 --agent
Agent-native plumbing
-
quota — Surface the X-RateLimit-Limit/Remaining/Reset headers from your last call (which no other Pixabay tool exposes) and project how many requests a planned batch of requests will cost before it throttles.
Check this before a big batch so an agent can pace itself instead of dying mid-run on an HTTP 429.
pixabay-pp-cli quota --agent
Local state that compounds
-
similar — Find synced hits that share the most tags with a given id using a local tag-set overlap (Jaccard) score — no API endpoint for this exists.
Reach for this to expand a curated set with visually-related assets you already pulled, with zero extra API quota.
pixabay-pp-cli similar 195893 --limit 20 --agent
-
trends — Snapshot views/downloads/likes/comments on each sync and report the deltas per tag or id between sync runs.
Use this to see which themes are gaining downloads/likes week over week — impossible from a single API response.
pixabay-pp-cli trends --tag winter --since 7d --agent
-
contributors — Aggregate synced image and video hits by contributor and rank them by total or average downloads, likes, or views across your store.
Use this to find the strongest contributors for a theme so you can source consistently from people whose work performs.
pixabay-pp-cli contributors --by downloads --min-assets 3 --agent
-
collection — Group synced hits into named local collections that feed downstream pull, similar, and trends — persistence no Pixabay tool offers.
Use this as the backbone for curation — build a set once, then download, expand, or track it later without re-searching.
pixabay-pp-cli collection add winter 195893,1850181
Recipes
Find Editor's Choice nature photos, agent-ready
pixabay-pp-cli images search "forest" --image-type photo --category nature --editors-choice --order popular --agent --select hits.id,hits.tags,hits.largeImageURL,hits.likes
Narrows to award-winning nature photos and returns only the fields an agent needs, keeping payloads small.
Search videos and pull the smallest rendition URL
pixabay-pp-cli videos search "ocean waves" --video-type film --per-page 10 --agent --select hits.id,hits.duration,hits.videos.tiny.url,hits.videos.large.url
Video hits nest renditions deeply (videos.tiny.url, videos.large.url); --select with dotted paths extracts just the URLs you want.
Download a curated collection with attribution
pixabay-pp-cli pull --from-collection campaign --size large --workers 6
After adding IDs with 'collection add campaign ...', materialize the set to disk with parallel workers and per-file credit sidecars.
Check quota before a batch
pixabay-pp-cli quota --agent
Reads the persisted rate-limit headers so an automated job can pace itself instead of failing on a 429.
Usage
Run pixabay-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:
- Per-kind env var:
PIXABAY_CONFIG_DIR, PIXABAY_DATA_DIR, PIXABAY_STATE_DIR, or PIXABAY_CACHE_DIR
--home <dir> for this invocationPIXABAY_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 PIXABAY_HOME=/srv/pixabay
pixabay-pp-cli doctor
Under PIXABAY_HOME=/srv/pixabay, the four dirs resolve to /srv/pixabay/config, /srv/pixabay/data, /srv/pixabay/state, and /srv/pixabay/cache.
MCP servers do not receive CLI flags from the host. Put relocation in the host env block:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pixabay": {
"command": "pixabay-pp-mcp",
"env": {
"PIXABAY_HOME": "/srv/pixabay"
}
}
}
}
Precedence matters in fleets: an ambient per-kind variable such as PIXABAY_DATA_DIR overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use PIXABAY_HOME or the per-kind variables for durable fleet relocation; treat --home as the weaker per-invocation lever.
Relocation is one-way. Unsetting PIXABAY_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 pixabay-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to check path and credential-location warnings in automation.
Commands
images
Search Pixabay photos, illustrations, and vectors
pixabay-pp-cli images get - Get image(s) by IDpixabay-pp-cli images search - Search images by query and filters
videos
Search Pixabay videos (film and animation)
pixabay-pp-cli videos get - Get video(s) by IDpixabay-pp-cli videos search - Search videos by query and filters
Output Formats
# Human-readable table (default in terminal, JSON when piped)
pixabay-pp-cli images get mock-value
# JSON for scripting and agents
pixabay-pp-cli images get mock-value --json
# Filter to specific fields
pixabay-pp-cli images get mock-value --json --select id,name,status
# Dry run — show the request without sending
pixabay-pp-cli images get mock-value --dry-run
# Agent mode — JSON + compact + no prompts in one flag
pixabay-pp-cli images get 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 - 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
pixabay-pp-cli doctor
Verifies configuration, credentials, and connectivity to the API.
Configuration
Run pixabay-pp-cli doctor to see the resolved config, data, state, and cache directories. The platform-default config path is ~/.config/pixabay-pp-cli/config.toml; --home, PIXABAY_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 |
|---|
PIXABAY_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, pixabay-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
pixabay-pp-cli doctor to check credentials
- Verify the environment variable is set:
echo $PIXABAY_API_KEY
Not found errors (exit code 3)
- Check the resource ID is correct
- Run the
list command to see available items
API-specific
- HTTP 400 "Invalid or missing API key" — Set PIXABAY_API_KEY= or run
pixabay-pp-cli auth set-token <key>; get a free key at pixabay.com/api/docs.
- Search errors when paging deep / per_page high — Pixabay caps results at 500 per query (page × per_page must be ≤ 500). Narrow your query with filters (category, colors, image-type) instead of paging past the cap.
- Downloaded image URLs 404 a day later — Pixabay image URLs expire after 24h. Re-run
sync or use pull, which re-resolves expired URLs by id before downloading.
- Batch job dies on HTTP 429 — Run
pixabay-pp-cli quota to see remaining requests; pace large harvest/pull runs under the limit.
Sources & Inspiration
This CLI was built by studying these projects and resources:
Generated by CLI Printing Press