simbad
A command line for simbad.
simbad is a single pure-Go binary. It reads public simbad data
over plain HTTPS, shapes it into clean records, and prints output that pipes
into the rest of your tools. No API key, nothing to run alongside it.
The same package is also a resource-URI driver,
so a host program like ant can address
simbad as simbad:// URIs.
Install
go install github.com/tamnd/simbad-cli/cmd/simbad@latest
Or grab a prebuilt binary from the releases, or run
the container image:
docker run --rm ghcr.io/tamnd/simbad:latest --help
Usage
simbad page <path> # fetch one page as a record
simbad page <path> -o json # as JSON, ready for jq
simbad page <path> --template '{{.Body}}' # just the readable body text
simbad links <path> # the pages it links to, one per line
simbad --help # the whole command tree
Every command shares one output contract: -o table|json|jsonl|csv|tsv|url|raw,
--fields to pick columns, --template for a custom line, and -n to limit.
The default adapts to where output goes (a table on a terminal, JSONL in a
pipe), so the same command reads well by hand and parses cleanly downstream.
This is a fresh scaffold. It ships one example resource type, page, wired end
to end. Model the real simbad records in simbad/ and declare their
operations in simbad/domain.go; each one becomes a command, an HTTP
route, and an MCP tool at once.
Serve it
The same operations are available over HTTP and as an MCP tool set for agents,
with no extra code:
simbad serve --addr :7777 # GET /v1/page/<path> returns NDJSON
simbad mcp # speak MCP over stdio
Use it as a resource-URI driver
simbad registers a simbad domain the way a program registers a
database driver with database/sql. A host enables it with one blank import:
import _ "github.com/tamnd/simbad-cli/simbad"
Then ant (or any program that links the package)
dereferences simbad:// URIs without knowing anything about simbad:
ant get simbad://page/<path> # fetch the record
ant cat simbad://page/<path> # just the body text
ant ls simbad://page/<path> # the pages it links to, each addressable
ant url simbad://page/<path> # the live https URL
Development
cmd/simbad/ thin main: hands cli.NewApp to kit.Run
cli/ assembles the kit App from the simbad domain
simbad/ the library: HTTP client, data models, and domain.go (the driver)
docs/ tago documentation site
make build # ./bin/simbad
make test # go test ./...
make vet # go vet ./...
Releasing
Push a version tag and GitHub Actions runs GoReleaser, which builds the
archives, Linux packages, the multi-arch GHCR image, checksums, SBOMs, and a
cosign signature:
git tag v0.1.0
git push --tags
The Homebrew and Scoop steps self-disable until their tokens exist, so the first
release works with no extra secrets.
License
Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.