Jules CLI Skill

Overview

This skill enables the agent to interact with the jules CLI. It supports task assignment, session monitoring, and result integration.

Usage Guidelines (CRITICAL)

To prevent excessive and inappropriate session creation, you must follow these rules:

1. Local First: If you can solve the task locally within your current environment (e.g., editing files, running tests, small refactors), do not use Jules.
2. Complexity Threshold: Only use Jules for tasks that are:
   • Large-scale: Touching many files or requiring significant architectural changes.
   • Isolated: Benefiting from a clean, remote environment to avoid local dependency issues.
   • Exploratory: Tasks where the solution isn't immediately obvious and requires iteration in a VM.
3. No Proliferation (One at a Time):
   • Never create multiple sessions for the same task.
   • Never use a loop or parallel execution to spin up several sessions at once.
   • Wait for a session to complete and inspect the results before deciding if another session is needed.
4. No "Small" Tasks: Do not submit tasks like "Add a comment", "Change a variable name", or "Fix a typo".

Security Guidelines

To ensure safe execution of CLI commands, you must adhere to the following security practices:

1. Input Validation: Before running any command, validate that:
   • Repository names follow the owner/repo format (alphanumeric, dots, hyphens, and underscores).
   • Session IDs are alphanumeric (typically hyphens and underscores are also allowed).
2. Quoting: Always wrap shell placeholders in double quotes (e.g., "<repo>").
3. No Inline Injection: Never embed user-provided data directly into script strings (like python3 -c). Use environment variables to pass such data safely.
4. Sanitization: Ensure task descriptions do not contain malicious shell characters if passed directly to the shell.

Safety Controls

• Approval Required (MANDATORY): You must ask for explicit user approval before running any of the following commands:
  • jules remote new: Since this creates a remote session/VM.
  • jules remote pull --apply: Since this modifies the local codebase.
  • jules teleport: Since this clones and modifies the environment.
• Verification: Always run jules remote list --session before creating a new one to ensure you don't already have a pending session for the same repository.
• Credentials: If jules login is required, explain why to the user and wait for their confirmation before proceeding.

Core Workflow (Manual Control)

Prefer using the CLI directly to maintain situational awareness.

1. Pre-flight Check

Verify repository access and format.

jules remote list --repo

Note: Ensure the repo format is GITHUB_USERNAME/REPO.

2. Submit Task

Create a session and capture the Session ID.

# Capture the output to get the ID
# Replace <repo> and task description with validated inputs
jules remote new --repo "<repo>" --session "Detailed task description" < /dev/null

3. Monitor Progress

List sessions and look for your ID. Use this robust one-liner to check the status (it handles statuses with spaces like "In Progress"):

Check Status (Safe Method):

# Use an environment variable to pass the Session ID safely to Python
export JULES_SESSION_ID="<SESSION_ID>"
jules remote list --session | python3 -c "
import sys, re, os
session_id = os.environ.get('JULES_SESSION_ID', '')
if not session_id: sys.exit(0)
for line in sys.stdin:
    line = line.strip()
    if line.startswith(session_id):
        # Extract status (the last column after multiple spaces)
        print(re.split(r'\s{2,}', line)[-1])
"
unset JULES_SESSION_ID

4. Integrate Results

Once the status is Completed, pull and apply the changes.

# Replace <SESSION_ID> with the validated Session ID
jules remote pull --session "<SESSION_ID>" --apply < /dev/null

Error Handling & Troubleshooting

• Repository Not Found: Verify format with jules remote list --repo. It must match the GitHub path.
• TTY Errors: Always use < /dev/null for non-interactive automation with the raw jules command.
• Credentials: If you see login errors, ensure HOME is set correctly or run jules login.

Command Reference