CLI-Anything OpenRefine

Use this skill when a task needs OpenRefine data cleaning, transformation, reusable operation histories, or CSV/TSV export from an automated agent workflow.

Prerequisites

Install the harness:

cd openrefine/agent-harness
python -m pip install -e .

Start OpenRefine before backend commands:

openrefine -i 127.0.0.1 -p 3333

Set a custom server with OPENREFINE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3333 or pass --base-url.

Command Rules For Agents

• Prefer --json on every one-shot command.
• Use --session <path> for isolated task state.
• Import or open a project before row, apply, export, undo, or redo commands.
• Existing OpenRefine operation-history JSON can be passed directly to data apply.
• Generated files are normal OpenRefine operation JSON and exported CSV/TSV data.

Common Commands

cli-anything-openrefine --json server ping
cli-anything-openrefine --json project list
cli-anything-openrefine --json --session run/session.json project import messy.csv --name cleanup
cli-anything-openrefine --json --session run/session.json data rows --limit 10
cli-anything-openrefine --json ops text-transform run/trim.json --column Name --expression 'value.trim()'
cli-anything-openrefine --json --session run/session.json data apply run/trim.json
cli-anything-openrefine --json --session run/session.json data export run/clean.csv --format csv
cli-anything-openrefine --json --session run/session.json session undo
cli-anything-openrefine --json --session run/session.json session redo

REPL

Run cli-anything-openrefine with no subcommand to enter the REPL.

For automated user journeys, pipe newline-separated REPL commands through stdin. Redirected streams automatically use an ASCII-only input/output path while interactive terminals retain the Unicode banner, prompt history, and styling:

printf 'help\nexit\n' | cli-anything-openrefine

Unicode payloads are rendered as reversible ASCII backslash escapes when the REPL is redirected, preventing legacy Windows output encodings from turning a successful command into a failed journey.

Piped workflows return a nonzero exit status at exit or EOF if any command failed, allowing CI to detect an unsuccessful user journey.

Error Handling

When --json is set, command failures write a JSON object to stderr with ok: false.