The Novedu CLI and its AI skill

The Novedu CLI is a small companion tool for the app that you run from a terminal. It does two things for you. It checks the activity files you write, and it lets you do your teacher work without opening the website.

Checking comes first, because it saves the most trouble. The CLI runs the very same checks the app runs when it loads your activity, so a missing field or a typo shows up on your screen instead of in front of a class. It can also print the exact instructions your activity sends to the AI model, which is the fastest way to answer “why is the tutor behaving like that?”.

The second half is the teacher work: creating a code for an activity, uploading activity files and images to the app, seeing what students have reported, and testing how a quiz grades sample answers. Every one of those has its own chapter later in this guide.

You don’t install the CLI permanently. With Node.js (version 22 or newer) on your computer, one command fetches and runs it whenever you need it:

npx @novedu/cli --help

Working with PROD or DEV

Novedu runs in two environments: PROD at https://app.novedu.at for your classes, and DEV at https://dev.novedu.at for trying new features and experimenting with activities. Every CLI command that talks to Novedu works with one of them. Checking a file and printing its prompt work offline and don’t need either.

PROD, the default

The CLI works with PROD unless you tell it otherwise, so for your class work you don’t add anything:

npx @novedu/cli@latest login
npx @novedu/cli@latest whoami
npx @novedu/cli@latest codes list

whoami shows your name and the environment you are signed in to, so it’s a quick way to check where the next command will go. @latest makes sure npx runs the current CLI and not an old copy from your computer’s cache.

DEV, one command at a time

To send a single command to DEV, add --server https://dev.novedu.at to it:

npx @novedu/cli@latest login --server https://dev.novedu.at
npx @novedu/cli@latest whoami --server https://dev.novedu.at
npx @novedu/cli@latest codes list --server https://dev.novedu.at

The CLI remembers your sign-in per environment. Signing in to DEV doesn’t sign you out of PROD, so you can stay signed in to both and switch between them command by command.

DEV, for a whole terminal session

When you work on DEV for a while, set the variable NOVEDU_SERVER once. Every command in that terminal then goes to DEV without the extra option. On macOS or Linux:

export NOVEDU_SERVER=https://dev.novedu.at
npx @novedu/cli@latest whoami

In Windows PowerShell:

$env:NOVEDU_SERVER = "https://dev.novedu.at"
npx @novedu/cli@latest whoami

The variable lasts until you close the terminal. A --server option on a single command still wins over it, so --server https://app.novedu.at sends that one command to PROD.

Why there is an AI skill for it

You don’t have to remember any of those commands. Novedu ships a skill, a set of written instructions that teaches an AI coding assistant (such as Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor) how to use the CLI properly: which command answers which question, which options matter, and how to read the error messages.

With the skill installed you work in plain language. You ask “is my quiz valid?” or “show me the grading prompt for question 3” or “create a code for this tutor”, and the assistant picks the right command, runs it, and explains the result. That is a real difference for teachers who don’t enjoy the terminal: you describe what you want, not how to get it.

Installing the skill does not install the CLI as part of your project. The skill is instructions only. When your assistant needs the CLI, it fetches it on demand with npx, exactly as in the command above.

Install the skill

The skill is installed with skills.sh, a small tool for managing agent skills. Open a terminal in the folder where you keep your course material and run:

npx --yes skills@latest add Teaching-HTL-Leonding/novedu-chat-mvp \
  --skill novedu-tutor-cli \
  --agent claude-code \
  --yes

What the parts do:

Teaching-HTL-Leonding/novedu-chat-mvp is the public Novedu repository the skill comes from. No sign-in needed.
--skill novedu-tutor-cli picks exactly this one skill. The repository contains several, and you only want the one about the CLI.
--agent claude-code says which assistant to install it for. Replace claude-code with codex, cursor, github-copilot, or whichever assistant you use. Naming it is safer than letting the tool guess.
The first --yes tells npx to fetch the skills tool without asking. The final --yes skips the skills tool’s own questions.
skills@latest makes sure you get the current version of the skills tool and not an old copy from your computer’s cache.

The command installs into the folder you are in, which is what you want: the skill sits next to your course material, so anyone you share the folder with gets it too. Don’t add --global. A global install lives on your own machine only and your colleagues won’t have it.

Afterwards you will find the skill’s own folder (the exact place depends on your assistant) and a skills-lock.json file that records where the skill came from. If your course material is in Git, commit both, not just the lock file.

Start a fresh session with your assistant after installing, so it picks up the new skill.

Check that it worked

Ask the skills tool what it has installed for your assistant:

npx --yes skills@latest list --agent claude-code

novedu-tutor-cli should appear in the list. The real test is easier: ask your assistant something like “validate my quiz with the Novedu CLI” and see whether it reaches for the right command.

Update the skill

Novedu changes often, and the skill changes with it. From the same folder, update just this skill:

npx --yes skills@latest update novedu-tutor-cli --project --yes

Naming novedu-tutor-cli keeps the update to that one skill instead of everything you have installed. --project keeps it in your course material folder rather than updating a copy somewhere on your machine. To update all the skills in the folder on purpose, leave the name out:

npx --yes skills@latest update --project --yes

If your course material is in Git, look at what changed before you commit it, the same way you would review any other incoming change.

Leave the installed skill as it is

Treat the installed skill as delivered material, like a textbook you received rather than one you write in. Don’t edit the files by hand: the next update replaces them, and your changes disappear. If you want your assistant to follow extra rules of your own, put those in a separate skill or in your project’s own instructions file, where an update can’t overwrite them.

DEV and PROD: the two Novedu environments

Let your AI assistant read this guide

Check your activity with the CLI

See the exact prompt your activity produces

Test how your quiz grades

Creating a shared code