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CLI Installation

Install and configure the Smoothdev CLI for documentation generation.

Overview

The Smoothdev CLI (smooth) generates commit messages, PR summaries, and release notes from git data.

When to Use It

  • Local development workflow for commit message generation
  • CI/CD pipelines for automated PR and release documentation
  • Repository documentation generation

How It Works

  1. Install via pip
  2. Authenticate with Smoothdev account
  3. Configure GitHub token for repository operations
  4. Run generation commands in git repositories

Configuration

System Requirements

Requirement Minimum
Python 3.9+
pip 21.0+
Git 2.0+

Installation

pip install smooth-cli

Verify:

smooth --version

Authentication

Interactive Login:

smooth auth login

Tokens stored at ~/.smoothdevio/token.json with 0600 permissions.

API Key:

smooth auth apikey-set YOUR_API_KEY

GitHub Token

Required for --push operations:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your_token_here

Or:

smooth config set github_token ghp_your_token_here

Required permissions (least privilege):

Token Type Read Operations Write Operations
Classic PAT repo (private) or public_repo repo
Fine-grained PAT Contents: Read, Pull requests: Read Contents: Write, Pull requests: Write

Output Behavior

# Commit artifact
git add .
smooth commit generate

# PR artifact
smooth pr generate --pr-number 42

# Release artifact
smooth release generate --from-tag v1.0.0 --to-tag v1.1.0

Security and Data Handling

Smoothdev encrypts customer data in transit and at rest using tenant-scoped encryption keys. Source data is processed only for the requested operation and is not retained long term. Generated artifacts are returned to the user. Operational metrics and validation logs are retained to improve system reliability and quality.

Limitations

  • Python 3.9 or later required
  • pip 21.0 or later required
  • Windows: WSL recommended
  • Network access required for generation requests
  • Virtual environments recommended

Troubleshooting

Error Cause Resolution
Authentication required No valid token Run smooth auth login
No staged changes No files staged Run git add first
GitHub token not found Missing token Set GITHUB_TOKEN
Python version error Python < 3.9 Upgrade Python
Permission denied Config dir permissions chmod 700 ~/.smoothdevio

See Also