askpplx

askpplx is a minimal Unix-style CLI for querying Perplexity Sonar.

> Perplexity AI is an AI-powered search engine and answer engine that delivers concise, accurate responses to user queries by combining real-time web searches with advanced language models.

- Command name: askpplx
- Output: plain text or JSON to stdout
- No MCPs, no agents, no plugins, no TUI
- Just a thin, script-friendly wrapper around the Perplexity API

Setup

Provide your Perplexity API key via environment variable or persistent storage:

``bash


Option 1: Environment variable

export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="pplx-..."

Option 2: Store persistently

npx -y askpplx config --set-api-key "pplx-..."
`

Examples

`bash


simple question

askpplx "Explain Raft vs Paxos in simple terms"

web-enabled search with local context

askpplx "What are breaking changes in React 19 that affect this code? $(cat src/app.tsx)"

read prompt from stdin (filter style)

cat article.txt | askpplx -S "Summarize this article"

extract plain text from JSON response

askpplx "Node.js LTS version" --json | jq -r '.text'

list cited source URLs

askpplx "Latest TypeScript release notes" --json | jq -r '.sources[].url' | sort -u
`

Agent Rule

Add this rule to your CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md:

`markdown


Rule: Use askpplx for Current Facts

At the start of each session, run npx -y askpplx --help to verify the CLI is available and configured properly and check available options.
When a task depends on current or uncertain external information, query askpplx instead of relying on memory.
``