Perplexity released a new command-line tool called pplx, a single-binary utility that puts its search API directly into the terminal for AI coding agents, the company announced July 27.
The tool is designed to integrate with agentic coding workflows, letting AI agents search the web, retrieve real-time information and cite sources without leaving the terminal environment. Perplexity positions pplx as a way for developers and AI agents to access verified, cited web data programmatically rather than relying on static training data or unreliable web scrapers.
The release targets a growing market of developer tools built for AI agents that need live web access. Coding agents like Claude Code, OpenAI Codex and open-source alternatives increasingly rely on search tools to answer questions about APIs, documentation and current events during code generation sessions.
Perplexity, which has carved out a niche in AI-powered search, continues to expand beyond its web and mobile interfaces into developer infrastructure. The pplx CLI is available for download on the company’s website and supports major operating systems including macOS, Linux and Windows.
The company has not disclosed pricing for API access via the CLI tool, though existing Perplexity API pricing starts at $5 per 1,000 searches.
