This page is written for an AI agent with terminal access, such as Claude Code or Codex. A person can hand it over in one line:
The rest of the page speaks to the agent.

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Your job

You are connecting the user’s Ed Discussion account to edstem-cli. Take ownership of the setup. Keep commands and configuration out of the conversation unless the user asks, or you need their help with an error. Use the user’s language. Never ask the user to paste their Ed API token into the conversation, and never print it. The token stays on the user’s computer.

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Install

  1. Check for Node.js 20 or newer with node --version. If it is missing or older, tell the user and stop until it is installed.
  2. Install the CLI with npm install -g edstem-cli.
  3. Confirm with edstem --version.

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Get the user signed in

Ed signs in with a personal API token that only the user can create. Tell the user, in one or two sentences, that you will open Ed’s token page and that they will create a token there and enter it into a sign-in prompt, not into this chat. Then sign in:
  • If your shell is an interactive terminal the user can type into, run edstem auth login. It opens the token page, reads the token without echoing it, works out which Ed site the account is on, and saves both.
  • If your shell cannot take hidden input (most agent shells), ask the user to run edstem auth login in their own terminal. In Claude Code they can type ! edstem auth login in the prompt. Wait for them to say it finished.
If the user says their Ed is at us.edstem.org or eu.edstem.org, add --region us or --region eu. Do not ask which site they use unless login reports it cannot tell.

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Verify

  1. Run edstem auth status --json. It should report a token source and an active site. If it reports an authentication error, ask the user to run edstem auth login again; a token copied with extra characters is the usual cause.
  2. Run edstem units --json. Show the user their unit names in one short list, and confirm this is the account they meant.
Do not report success until both commands work. See Troubleshooting for specific errors.

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Install the agent skill

Run npx skills add https://github.com/bunizao/edstem-cli. The skill teaches agents which edstem command answers which request. See Agent skills.

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Offer AI client access

After verification, ask one question:
Do you also want Ed in an AI app such as Claude or ChatGPT on the web?
  • Claude or ChatGPT on the web, or another remote client: the user adds the hosted server, https://edstem.tuuhub.com/mcp, as a custom connector and signs in with their Ed token there. It works for edstem.org accounts only. Walk them through the steps on the page for their client under Connect a client.
  • A desktop or coding agent on this computer: configure the local edstem-mcp server, which reuses the saved sign-in. Follow the page for that client, for example Claude Code or Codex.
  • No: finish here, and mention that they can add it later.
Posting tools stay off unless the user asks for them. See MCP server.

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Finish

Tell the user, in two or three sentences, what now works and one thing to try, such as “What’s new on the forum in UNIT?”. Do not list commands unless they ask.