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minicli is the Minimus command-line tool for managing private images. Use it to define, build, and manage private images as code directly from your terminal or CI/CD pipeline. minicli is also natively AI-agent ready. With the generate-skills command, you can equip AI coding assistants such as Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, or GitHub Copilot to create, configure, and inspect your Minimus private images using natural language prompts.

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Installation & authentication

Download the latest binary and authenticate to minicli. See minicli installation

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Commands

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1. version

Display the current version of the minicli binary. Does not require authentication. 
minicli version

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2. generate-skills

minicli is designed to be natively AI-agent ready. You can empower your favorite AI coding assistants (such as Cursor, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot, or other local LLM tools) to natively understand and interact with minicli. Because different AI tools look for project instructions in different directories, use the --output flag to add the skills in the appropriate folder for your specific assistant. 
minicli generate-skills --output {path-to-your-ai-context-folder}
FlagShorthandDescription
--output-oPath to the AI assistant’s context folder where skills should be written.
--help-hPrints the help menu and available flags

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Example: Equipping Cursor

Cursor looks for custom skills in the .cursor/skills directory of your project. 
minicli generate-skills --output <path-to-your-project>/.cursor/skills
# example minicli generate-skills --output ~/GolandProjects/awesomeProject/.cursor/skills
Once generated in the correct folder, your AI agent will automatically pick up these skills, allowing it to act as an expert Minimus assistant within your project.

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Example AI workflows with minicli

Once the skills have been generated, you can open your AI chat interface and start prompting. Here are a few ways to interact with your agent:
Ask the agent to scaffold a completely new image using a specific starter image and inject environment variables and packages.
“Using minicli skills, create a new private image called my-test-image-skills based on the go starter image, with packages curl and git, and environment variable ENV=production. Walk me through the steps.”
The agent can read your existing image recipes, update them, and re-apply the changes without you needing to manually edit the YAML or run the CLI commands yourself.
“I have an existing private image called demo-image. Export its config, add the agetty and agetty-openrc packages to it, as well as the env var SOMETHING=INBAR and the file bundle bb-2, and re-apply.”
Let the agent do the querying for you when you need to check what’s currently running or inspect the exact configuration of a specific image.
“Ok, now list the images, then get all details on the demo-image image and print them to me.”

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3. image init

Create a local YAML template with all supported image fields, pre-populated with empty values for you to fill in. 
minicli image init
FlagShorthandDescription
--output-oFile path to save the template. Default: image.yaml
--help-hPrints the help menu and available flags
The generated file will include notes to help clarify its use. Below is the default output and the bare structure stripped of the notes: 
schemaVersion: v1

# Required. The private image Unique name is used as the remote identifier.
name: ""

# Required. The private image builds on a starter image from your organization's subscribed images.
starterImage: ""

# Optional. List of additional packages to install in the private image alongside the starter image packages. For example:
# additionalPackages:
#   - pkg1
#   - pkg2
additionalPackages:

# Optional. Environment variables to set in the private image (map of KEY: VALUE). String values only. For example:
# envVars:
#   Key1: "value1"
#   key2: "value2"
envVars:

# Optional. File bundles to include in the private image (list of file bundle IDs). For example:
# fileBundles:
#   - bundle-id1
#   - bundle-id2
fileBundles:

# Optional. Free-text description of the private image to be shown in the gallery UI.
description: ""
Once you fill in an image recipe, it might look like this:
image recipe example
schemaVersion: v1
name: trino-plugins
starterImage: trino
additionalPackages:
    - trino-plugin-mysql
    - trino-plugin-cassandra
    - trino-plugin-ai-functions
envVars: {}
fileBundles: []
description: added trino-plugin-ai-functions trino-plugin-cassandra trino-plugin-mysql

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4. image apply

Create or update a private image recipe from a local YAML file. Follow up with the command image build submit to trigger a build of your updated image. 
minicli image apply --file images/custom.yaml
FlagShorthandDescription
--file-fRequired. Path to the YAML file
--help-hPrints the help menu and available flags
If the YAML is invalid, minicli returns a detailed list of errors, for example: 
✗ YAML file validation failed:
  - envVars: "INVALID_KEY" is not a valid key=value format.
  - other: invalid field (doesn't exist).

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5. image build submit

Trigger an asynchronous build for a private image. Returns immediately without waiting for the build to complete. 
minicli image build submit --name my-image
  • You can run minicli image build status --name {private-image-name}to track progress.
  • Once the build is complete, you can view the image’s detailed build report in the Creator UI. This is particularly helpful if the build did not succeed. The image build report will show you which packages were incompatible. Learn more
FlagShorthandDescription
--name-nName of the private image to build
--help-hPrints the help menu and available flags

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6. image build status

Look up the current status of a private image build. 
minicli image build status --name my-image
FlagShorthandDescription
--name-nName of the private image
--help-hPrints the help menu and available flags

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7. image export

Retrieve the configuration of a remote private image and output it in YAML file. You can export private image recipes to track changes in git. 
minicli image export --name my-image
minicli image export --name my-image --output export.yaml
FlagShorthandDescription
--name-nName of the private image to export
--output-oFile path to write to. If omitted, prints to terminal
--help-hPrints the help menu and available flags
YAML output example: 
schemaVersion: v1
name: test
starterImage: go
additionalPackages:
    - 7zip
envVars: {}
fileBundles: []
description: "Test private image"

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8. image list

List your Minimus private images: 
minicli image list
FlagShorthandDescription
--private-pList private images. Default: true
--starter-sList starter images available in your license
--output-otable (default) or json. Prints to the terminal.
--help-hPrints the help menu and available flags
You can also list the starter images available in your license for building private images: 
minicli image list -s

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9. image get

Get the full details of a private image. 
minicli image get --name my-image
FlagShorthandDescription
--name-nName of the private image
--output-otable (default) or json. Prints to the terminal
--help-hPrints the help menu and available flags

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10. bundle list

List all file bundles in your account. File bundles are used to include public keys for internal PKIs (Public Key Infrastructure certificates) and override configuration files and more. Learn more 
minicli bundle list
FlagShorthandDescription
--output-otable (default) or json. Prints to the terminal.
--help-hPrints the help menu and available flags

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11. image delete

Delete a private image from your account. Prompts for confirmation unless --force is passed. The image will also be removed from Creator and will no longer be available for use. 
minicli image delete --name my-image
FlagShorthandDescription
--name-nName of the private image to delete
--force-fSkip the confirmation prompt
--help-hPrints the help menu and available flags
Last modified on June 16, 2026