name

pp-mixlayer

description

Privacy-first Mixlayer CLI for OpenAI-compatible chat, local PII redaction and vaulting, reasoning-aware model ladders, live model catalog refresh, and ledger-backed cost proofs.

author

Cathryn Lavery

license

Apache-2.0

argument-hint

<command> [args] | install cli|mcp

allowed-tools

Read Bash

metadata

openclaw

requires

install

bins

mixlayer-pp-cli

kind

bins

module

mixlayer-pp-cli

github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/ai/mixlayer/cmd/mixlayer-pp-cli

Mixlayer — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the mixlayer-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows:
```
npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install mixlayer --cli-only
```
Verify: mixlayer-pp-cli --version
Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.6 or newer). This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin), so add that directory to $PATH instead:

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/ai/mixlayer/cmd/mixlayer-pp-cli@latest

If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

Use this skill for Mixlayer chat completions, privacy-safe frontier prompts, model-rung comparisons, reasoning ledger search, and local cost analysis.

Unique Capabilities

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

shield ingest — Split large CSV/text inputs into deterministic tranches, redact each tranche through one shared local vault, and reassemble a masked corpus with a manifest.
shield ask — Redact local data, run an outbound PII tripwire, send only the masked payload to a frontier model, rehydrate the answer locally, and save a privacy receipt.
shield scan — Detect high-risk PII locally with CI-friendly exit codes and no upstream model call.
shield redact — Write a masked copy of a file and populate the local token-to-value vault with stable pseudonyms.
shield restructure — Drop columns, bucket numeric values, and coarsen dates to reduce re-identification risk before prompting.
vault — List, rehydrate, rotate, or purge the local reversible pseudonym vault without sending values upstream.
shield audit — Inspect outbound payload hashes, byte counts, model IDs, masked entity counts, and residual leak counts for shielded sends.
ladder — Run one prompt across selected Mixlayer model rungs, optionally comparing reasoning_content, latency, token usage, and cost.
escalate — Start on a cheap rung and climb only when the prior answer appears insufficiently confident.
council — Fan out to member model rungs and ask a judge model to synthesize answers and flag disagreements.
ask — Ask Mixlayer, optionally request reasoning_content, and save prompt, answer, model, seed, token usage, cost, and raw response locally.
replay — Re-run a saved prompt with its original model and seed to check determinism or drift.
grep — Search saved prompts, answers, and reasoning traces through the local FTS ledger.
models query — Query a local model cache with DSL terms like ctx>=128k tools reasoning, seed it with documented and console-visible model IDs, and optionally refresh it from live /models.
sql — Run SELECT-only SQLite queries over the local ledger, vault, audit, ladder, and model cache tables.
savings — Roll up saved ledger cost against static GPT or Claude frontier baselines.
compare — Run a prompt through a cheap rung and frontier rung, report the cost delta, and attach a local-history quality note.

Command Reference

chat — OpenAI-compatible chat completions

mixlayer-pp-cli chat — Create a chat completion for the given model and messages

models — Browse the model catalog

mixlayer-pp-cli models get — Retrieve a model by ID
mixlayer-pp-cli models list — List all available models
mixlayer-pp-cli models query — Query the cached model catalog with a small DSL

privacy firewall

mixlayer-pp-cli shield scan <file> --max-risk 0 --json
mixlayer-pp-cli shield redact <file> --diff -o masked.txt
mixlayer-pp-cli shield ingest <bigfile> -o masked.txt --manifest tranches.json
mixlayer-pp-cli shield ask "<question>" --data <file> --json
mixlayer-pp-cli shield audit --json
mixlayer-pp-cli vault list --json
mixlayer-pp-cli vault rehydrate <text-or-file>

reasoning and cost

mixlayer-pp-cli ask "<question>" --show-thinking --json
mixlayer-pp-cli replay <run-id> --json
mixlayer-pp-cli grep "<pattern>" --json
mixlayer-pp-cli ladder "<question>" --reasoning --json
mixlayer-pp-cli escalate "<question>" --confidence 0.85 --json
mixlayer-pp-cli council "<question>" --json
mixlayer-pp-cli sql "select model, count(*) from runs group by model" --json
mixlayer-pp-cli savings --vs gpt-frontier --json
mixlayer-pp-cli compare "<question>" --json

Finding the right command

When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:

mixlayer-pp-cli which "<capability in your own words>"

which resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code 0 means at least one match; exit code 2 means no confident match — fall back to --help or use a narrower query.

Auth Setup

Run mixlayer-pp-cli auth setup for the URL and steps to obtain a token (add --launch to open the URL). Then store it:

mixlayer-pp-cli auth set-token YOUR_TOKEN_HERE

Or set MIXLAYER_API_KEY as an environment variable.

Run mixlayer-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.

Agent Mode

Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes.

Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr
Filterable — --select keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:
```
mixlayer-pp-cli models list --agent --select id,name,status
```
Previewable — --dry-run shows the request without sending
Offline-friendly — sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available
Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag
Explicit retries — use --idempotent only when an already-existing create should count as success

Response envelope

Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:

{
  "meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
  "results": <data>
}

Parse .results for data and .meta.source to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable N results (live) summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal AND no machine-format flag (--json, --csv, --compact, --quiet, --plain, --select) is set — piped/agent consumers and explicit-format runs get pure JSON on stdout.

Paths and state

Agents should treat the CLI's path resolver as part of the runtime contract:

Use --home <dir> for one invocation, or set MIXLAYER_HOME=<dir> to relocate all four path kinds under one root.
Use per-kind env vars only when a specific kind must diverge: MIXLAYER_CONFIG_DIR, MIXLAYER_DATA_DIR, MIXLAYER_STATE_DIR, MIXLAYER_CACHE_DIR.
Resolution order is per-kind env var, --home, MIXLAYER_HOME, XDG (XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME), then platform defaults.
config contains settings like config.toml and profiles. data contains credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, and auth sidecars. state contains persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log. cache contains regenerable HTTP/cache files.
Stored secrets live in credentials.toml under the data dir. Existing legacy config.toml secrets are read for compatibility and leave config.toml on the first auth write.
Run mixlayer-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to surface path and credential-location warnings. agent-context exposes a schema v4 paths block for agents that need the resolved dirs.

For MCP, pass relocation through the MCP host config. The MCP binary does not inherit CLI flags:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mixlayer": {
      "command": "mixlayer-pp-mcp",
      "env": {
        "MIXLAYER_HOME": "/srv/mixlayer"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fleet precedence: an inherited per-kind env var overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use MIXLAYER_HOME or per-kind vars as durable fleet levers, and use --home only for a single invocation. Relocation is not reversible by unsetting env vars; move files manually before clearing MIXLAYER_HOME, or doctor will not find credentials left under the former root.

Agent Feedback

When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:

mixlayer-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
mixlayer-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
mixlayer-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10

Entries are stored locally as feedback.jsonl under the resolved data dir. They are never POSTed unless MIXLAYER_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or MIXLAYER_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true. Default behavior is local-only.

Write what surprised you, not a bug report. Short, specific, one line: that is the part that compounds.

Output Delivery

Every command accepts --deliver <sink>. The output goes to the named sink in addition to (or instead of) stdout, so agents can route command results without hand-piping. Three sinks are supported:

Sink	Effect
`stdout`	Default; write to stdout only
`file:<path>`	Atomically write output to `<path>` (tmp + rename)
`webhook:<url>`	POST the output body to the URL (`application/json` or `application/x-ndjson` when `--compact`)

Unknown schemes are refused with a structured error naming the supported set. Webhook failures return non-zero and log the URL + HTTP status on stderr.

Named Profiles

A profile is a saved set of flag values, reused across invocations. Use it when a scheduled agent calls the same command every run with the same configuration - HeyGen's "Beacon" pattern.

mixlayer-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
mixlayer-pp-cli --profile briefing models list
mixlayer-pp-cli profile list --json
mixlayer-pp-cli profile show briefing
mixlayer-pp-cli profile delete briefing --yes

Explicit flags always win over profile values; profile values win over defaults. agent-context lists all available profiles under available_profiles so introspecting agents discover them at runtime.

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
2	Usage error (wrong arguments)
3	Resource not found
4	Authentication required
5	API error (upstream issue)
7	Rate limited (wait and retry)
10	Config error

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

Empty, help, or --help → show mixlayer-pp-cli --help output
Starts with install → ends with mcp → MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above
Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with --agent)

MCP Server Installation

Install the MCP server:

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/ai/mixlayer/cmd/mixlayer-pp-mcp@latest

claude mcp add mixlayer-pp-mcp -- mixlayer-pp-mcp

Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

Check if installed: which mixlayer-pp-cli If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.

Execute with the --agent flag:

mixlayer-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent

If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: mixlayer-pp-cli <command> --help.

FilesExpand file tree

SKILL.md

Latest commit

History