parallel-cli-setup

Sets up and maintains the Parallel CLI (parallel-cli) with minimal friction so the user can run searches, extracts, deep research, and data enrichment. It walks an agent through installing or upgrading the CLI, authenticating, checking balance, installing the Parallel skills, and suggesting a first run. It is user-invocable and scoped to a set of Bash commands including command, brew, uv, npm, pipx, curl, rm, and parallel-cli.

Installation checks for the CLI with command -v parallel-cli and, if missing, offers several methods: Homebrew (macOS only), uv tool install, npm global install, or pipx. When present, it requires version 0.4.0 or newer, and if older it identifies the install method (inspecting symlinks and paths such as those under uv tools or the standalone installer directory) before choosing the right upgrade command for standalone, uv, pipx, npm, or Homebrew. Authentication runs parallel-cli auth --json and, if the user is not authenticated or is on the legacy org, triggers device OAuth via parallel-cli login --json (with --no-browser for headless sessions); the login streams JSON events and completes only on auth_success. Balance is checked with parallel-cli balance get and topped up with parallel-cli balance add using an amount in cents, pointing users to the platform settings page to add a payment method.

After authentication, it installs the Parallel skills with parallel-cli skills install and notes the user may need to restart their agent if it does not hot reload. It then suggests a first run using the newly installed skills in the agents skills directory, such as parallel web search, parallel web extract, parallel deep research, or parallel data enrichment. The skill emphasizes streaming stdout via a Monitor-style tool during OAuth rather than blocking on completion.