need

<p align="center"> </p>

<p align="center">Find the right CLI tool in plain English.</p>

AI agents hallucinate package names. Developers waste time Googling. need fixes both — semantic search across 6,000+ CLI tools, with an MCP server so AI agents can discover and install tools autonomously.

npx @agentneeds/need "compress png images"

  1. pngquant         brew install pngquant       92% success
  2. optipng          brew install optipng         87% success
  3. imagemagick      brew install imagemagick     94% success

npm install -g @agentneeds/need

Or use directly with npx @agentneeds/need.

Describe what you need. Get ranked results with install commands and success rates.

need convert pdf to png
need find duplicate files
need compress video without losing quality

Search and install interactively:

need install "compress png images"

Tell us if a tool worked. Every signal improves results for everyone.

need report pngquant --success
need report sometool --fail

One command configures need as an MCP server for your AI tools:

need setup

  ✓ Claude Code — configured
  ✓ Cursor — configured

Now your AI agent can:

1. Search for the right tool via search_tools
2. Install it via install_tool (security allowlist — only safe package manager commands)
3. Report whether it worked via report_tool_usage

The entire loop happens without leaving your editor.

1. You describe what you need in plain English
2. Your query is converted to an embedding and matched against a vector database of CLI tools
3. Results are ranked by semantic similarity + community success signals
4. Install directly, or let your AI agent handle it

Explore all 6,000+ indexed tools at [agentneed.dev](https://agentneed