A unified CLI ecosystem for agentic development.

Forma is a protocol, ecosystem, and agent runtime that standardises CLI tools for consistent behaviour across agentic workflows. 240 tools, 44 AI models, 67 skills, one coherent system.

For users: One forma setup and you have an AI agent with 240 tools, a background daemon, and connections to Telegram/Slack/Discord. Ask it to check your invoices, monitor your services, or build you a daily news digest.

For developers: Build CLI tools that work in agentic workflows. Follow the protocol, get discovery, chaining, auth, and AI compatibility for free.

For AI assistants: Discover and invoke tools without MCP overhead. Zero context tokens until a tool is actually called.

# Install
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/forma-tools/forma/main/install.sh | bash

# Interactive setup (collections, model, personality, workspace)
forma setup

# Chat with your agent
forma daemon chat

# Or from Telegram
# (configured during setup)

User (CLI / Telegram / Slack / Discord)
    │
    ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Forma Agent Engine                                  │
│                                                      │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌────────────┐ │
│  │ 44 Models    │  │ 8 Built-in   │  │ 67 Skills  │ │
│  │ 8 Providers  │  │ Tools        │  │ On-demand  │ │
│  │ Zero deps    │  │ + CLI Tools  │  │ Procedures │ │
│  └──────┬──────┘  └──────┬───────┘  └─────┬──────┘ │
│         │                │                │         │
│         ▼                ▼                ▼         │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │  Agent Loop                                   │   │
│  │  System prompt (personality + context + memory)│   │
│  │  Tool calling → execute → feed back → loop    │   │
│  │  Approval gate (3-tier safety model)          │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
│         │                                           │
│         ▼                                           │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │  240 CLI Tools (subprocess isolation)          │   │
│  │  forma/ (105 Forma CLIs)                      │   │
│  │  vendor/ (88 vendor CLIs)                     │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Forma is a specification before it's a toolset. Every CLI in the ecosystem implements the same 27-section contract, and that contract is what lets 240+ tools behave as a single coherent system instead of 240 one-off scripts.

<tool> <resource> <action> [OPTIONS]

One command grammar. One {data, meta} output envelope. stdout for data, stderr for humans — strictly separated. Semantic exit codes (0 success · 2 auth · 3 not found · 4 validation · 5 conflict · 6 rate limit · 7 server). Deterministic auth login/status/logout/use across every tool. Self-describing at every level via --help and describe. Declared safety tier on every mutating operation. Caching with --no-cache and --refresh escape hatches. Lockfiles and 7-day dependency quarantine. SemVer discipline with an explicit stability contract.

Without a protocol, 240 tools is 240 learning curves. With one, it's a single grammar plus a directory of resources — every hour spent learning Forma amortises across every tool you'll ever use in the ecosystem.

For AI agents, the protocol is the critical substrate. Autonomous tool chaining is impossible when tools disagree about how to report errors, paginate, or authenticate. Forma's contract is what lets an agent pipe tool A → tool B → tool C with full confidence about shapes, exit codes, and failure modes — no schema inference, no error-message parsing, no per-tool adaptation layer.

Full specification: 27 sections with implementation reference, testing requirements, and compliance checklists.

The agent is model-agnostic with zero external dependencies. Direct HTTP to each provider - no LiteLLM, no middleware.

Switch models: forma model set gemini-3-flash

Plus all installed CLI tools (weather, xero, linear, etc.)

Pre-built procedures for common tasks. The agent loads them on demand:

git-ops, python-ops, debug-ops, security-ops, docker-ops, react-ops, typescript-ops, testing-ops, perf-ops, auth-ops, ci-cd-ops, postgres-ops, refactor-ops, scaffold, and 53 more.

Three-tier approval gate:

• Low risk (read, search): always allowed
• Medium risk (write, edit): session-approved
• High risk (bash, install): pattern-matched, dangerous commands blocked

Gateway users (Telegram/Slack) cannot run bash or write files.

All API keys stored in ~/.forma/keys.env (chmod 600). No keyring dependency, no env var pollution.

forma auth set openai        # Store a key
forma auth list              # Show all configured providers
forma auth test anthropic    # Verify a key works

Always-on background agent with schedules, monitors, memory, and journal.

forma daemon start --detach  # Start background agent
forma daemon chat            # Interactive session
forma daemon ask "morning briefing"
forma daemon status

Connect from Telegram, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, or Signal.

forma setup

9-step interactive wizard:

1. Choose collections (240 tools across 24 domains)
2. Download tools from GitHub
3. Install into isolated per-tool venvs
4. Choose AI model (44 options, featured picker)
5. Connect tool accounts (OAuth/API keys)
6. Set up workspace context
7. Choose agent personality (13 styles)
8. Explore use case suggestions
9. Start the background daemon

Add tools without building a CLI:

# ~/.forma/plugins/my-tool/forma-tool.yaml
name: my-tool
tools:
  - name: my_tool_search
    description: Search for things
    parameters:
      query: { type: string, required: true }
    command: "my-tool search {query} --json"

See AGENTS.md.

MIT