vehicles-dev-cli

Official command-line interface for the vehicles.dev API. Log in once, then decode VINs from your terminal — and the vehicles.dev MCP server picks up the same login automatically, so you never have to export an API key.

Install

npm install -g vehicles-dev-cli
# or: pnpm add -g vehicles-dev-cli

Requires Node.js 22 or newer.

Quickstart

vehicles login                     # paste a key from https://vehicles.dev/dashboard
vehicles decode 1FA6P8TH1J5100000  # decode a VIN

vehicles login prompts for your API key (input is hidden), verifies it, and saves it to ~/.vehicles/credentials.json. Every later command — and the MCP server — reuses it.

Commands

Command	Description
vehicles login	Store an API key. --api-key <key> sets it non-interactively; --base-url <url> targets a non-default origin.
vehicles logout	Remove the stored key.
vehicles whoami	Show the active key (masked), where it came from, and whether it still authenticates.
vehicles decode <VIN>	Decode a VIN into canonical vehicle identity fields (GET /v1/vehicles/vin/{vin}).
vehicles --help	Full usage.
vehicles --version	Print the CLI version.

Authentication

The CLI resolves credentials in this order:

1. VEHICLES_API_KEY environment variable — always wins, so CI and servers never depend on an interactive login. Pair with VEHICLES_API_BASE_URL to target a non-default origin.
2. vehicles login — the stored key in ~/.vehicles/credentials.json.

The credential file is written with 0600 permissions inside a 0700 directory, holds only your key (and a base URL if you logged in against a custom origin), and is removed by vehicles logout. The key is sent only to the API as an Authorization: Bearer header and is never printed in full.

Use with the MCP server

The vehicles.dev MCP server reads ~/.vehicles/credentials.json too, so a single vehicles login authenticates it — no "env": { "VEHICLES_API_KEY": ... } block needed in your MCP client config.

Development

pnpm install
pnpm check   # format:check + typecheck + build + test

Links

• Docs: https://vehicles.dev/docs
• Dashboard (API keys): https://vehicles.dev/dashboard
• TypeScript SDK: https://github.com/vehicles-dev/typescript-sdk
• Python SDK: https://github.com/vehicles-dev/python-sdk

License

MIT © Vehicles.dev