Concepts

CLI & MCP

The Lelu CLI provides tools for local development, policy management, audit log viewing, and running the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for seamless integration with AI assistants like Cursor and Claude.

Installation

The CLI is available in all three SDK packages. You can run it directly using npx or install it globally.

# Install globally
npm install -g @lelu-auth/lelu

# Or run directly
npx @lelu-auth/lelu help
# Install via pip
pip install lelu-agent-auth-sdk

# Run CLI
lelu help
# Install Go module
go get github.com/lelu-auth/lelu/sdk/go

# Build and run CLI
cd sdk/go/cmd/lelu
go build -o lelu
./lelu help

CLI Commands

The Lelu CLI provides commands for viewing audit logs and managing authorization policies directly from your terminal.

Audit Log

View recent authorization events and audit trail data from the platform service.

terminal
# View recent audit events
lelu audit-log

# Customize number of events
LELU_AUDIT_LIMIT=50 lelu audit-log

# Use custom platform URL
LELU_PLATFORM_URL=https://your-platform.com lelu audit-log

Policy Management

Create, update, view, and delete authorization policies stored in the platform.

terminal
# List all policies
lelu policies list

# View a specific policy
lelu policies get auth

# Create or update a policy from file
lelu policies set auth ./auth.rego

# Delete a policy
lelu policies delete old-policy

# Use different tenant
LELU_TENANT_ID=prod lelu policies list

Environment Variables

VariableDefaultDescription
LELU_PLATFORM_URLhttp://localhost:9091Platform API URL
LELU_PLATFORM_API_KEYplatform-dev-keyPlatform API key
LELU_TENANT_IDdefaultTenant ID for multi-tenant setups
LELU_AUDIT_LIMIT20Number of audit events to fetch

Platform Service Required

The CLI commands require the Lelu platform service to be running. If the service is not available, the CLI will provide helpful Docker setup instructions.

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Lelu ships a standalone MCP server (@lelu/mcp) that exposes policy-aware authorization tools over both stdio (for local AI clients) and HTTP/SSE (for networked or Docker deployments). When an AI assistant calls a tool, Lelu evaluates your Rego policy and can pause execution to request human approval.

Docker (recommended)

The MCP server is included in the Lelu docker-compose.yml. Start it alongside the engine:

terminal
docker compose up -d mcp

# Health check
curl http://localhost:3003/healthz
# {"status":"ok","service":"lelu-mcp"}

# SSE endpoint for AI clients
# http://localhost:3003/sse

The container connects to the engine over the internal Docker network (http://engine:8080) and is exposed on host port 3003. Configure your API key via the LELU_API_KEY environment variable.

npx (local stdio)

For local development with Cursor or Claude Desktop, run the MCP server directly via npx in stdio mode:

terminal
npx @lelu/mcp start --transport stdio \
  --engine-url http://localhost:8083 \
  --api-key YOUR_API_KEY

Client setup

Use CLI quick-add for your client, or choose manual configuration for full control:

npx @lelu/mcp add --cursor
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lelu": {
      "url": "http://localhost:3003/sse"
    }
  }
}

Available MCP tools

ToolDescription
lelu_agent_authorizeConfidence-aware authorization for an AI agent action
lelu_authorizeAuthorize a human user action against the active policy
lelu_mint_tokenIssue a short-lived JIT token for a specific action
lelu_revoke_tokenRevoke a previously issued token
lelu_healthCheck that the Lelu engine is reachable

Policy Testing

You can test your Rego policies locally before deploying them to the Platform.

terminal
# Evaluate a policy against a mock request
lelu policy eval ./policy.rego \
  --action "delete_db" \
  --confidence 0.85

# Output:
# Result: requires_approval
# Reason: Confidence 0.85 is below threshold 0.95 for action 'delete_db'