OpenHands CLI cheat sheet

Every command, flag and slash command for openhands — All Hands AI's terminal agent (formerly OpenDevin) — model-agnostic via LiteLLM, MCP + ACP. 12+ commands, verified July 2026.

The All-Hands-AI → OpenHands rebrand means docs.all-hands.dev now redirects to docs.openhands.dev. This is the V1 CLI (PyPI openhands), distinct from the Docker web GUI.

Install

uv tool install openhands --python 3.12                   # recommended (Python 3.12+)
curl -fsSL https://install.openhands.dev/install.sh | sh  # standalone binary
pip install openhands

Start & run

openhands                            # interactive TUI
openhands -t "Create a REST API"     # seed with an inline task
openhands -f instructions.md         # seed a task from a file
openhands --headless -t "Write tests"  # non-interactive (CI)
openhands --resume [--last | <id>]   # resume a conversation

Key flags

Flag	What it does
`-t, --task "<text>"`	Provide the task inline
`-f, --file <path>`	Load the task/instructions from a file
`--headless`	Run without the UI (CI); always-approve mode
`--json`	Emit JSONL events (pairs with `--headless`)
`--resume [id]` / `--last`	Resume a conversation / the most recent
`--always-approve` (`--yolo`)	Auto-approve every agent action
`--override-with-envs`	Apply `LLM_*` env vars for this run only

In-session commands

Command	What it does
`/help` · `/new`	Help · start a new conversation
`/history` · `/condense`	Browse history · summarize to save context
`/skills` · `/confirm`	Manage skills · confirmation controls
`/feedback` · `/exit`	Send feedback · exit
`Ctrl+P` · `Esc`	Command palette (Settings/MCP/Theme) · pause the agent

Other subcommands: openhands acp (ACP server for IDEs), openhands web, openhands serve (Docker GUI), openhands cloud -t "…", openhands mcp ….

Config

~/.openhands/settings.json           # LLM settings (from first-run setup)
~/.openhands/mcp.json                # MCP servers  (V1 CLI is JSON, not config.toml)

# env vars are ignored unless you pass --override-with-envs:
#   LLM_API_KEY · LLM_MODEL (LiteLLM, e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5) · LLM_BASE_URL

Common one-liners

uv tool install openhands --python 3.12 && openhands
openhands --headless -t "Write unit tests for auth.py"
openhands --headless --json -t "Create a simple Flask app" > run.jsonl
LLM_API_KEY=sk-… LLM_MODEL=anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5 \
  openhands --override-with-envs --headless -t "Fix the failing CI"

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