Plaud CLI

Access your Plaud recordings from the terminal — browse, search, read transcripts, download audio, and view AI summaries without opening the app.

Prerequisites

• Node.js ≥ 20 — download
• A Plaud account

---

Install

npm install -g @plaud-ai/cli

---

Quick start

plaud login          # sign in via browser
plaud files          # browse your recordings
plaud search "Q2"    # find a recording by keyword
plaud summary <id>   # read the AI summary
plaud transcript <id> # read the full transcript

---

Command reference

Authentication

plaud login    # sign in via browser — tokens saved automatically
plaud logout   # sign out and revoke authorization
plaud me       # show your current account details

Browse

plaud files                   # latest page of recordings
plaud files --page 2 --page-size 50
plaud recent                  # recordings from the last 7 days
plaud recent --days 30        # recordings from the last 30 days
plaud today                   # recordings from today only

plaud files options

Option	Description	Default
-p, --page	Page number (1–1000)	1
-s, --page-size	Items per page (10–100)	20

Search

plaud search <keyword>
plaud search "weekly" --from 2026-04-01 --to 2026-04-30
plaud search "onboarding" --max 10

Client-side keyword search (case-insensitive) against recording names. Scans up to 500 most recent recordings.

Option	Description
--from <YYYY-MM-DD>	Start of date range (inclusive)
--to <YYYY-MM-DD>	End of date range (inclusive)
--max <n>	Maximum results to display (default: 50)

Read a recording

plaud file <id>               # full metadata and availability
plaud audio <id>              # 24-hour download URL for the audio
plaud transcript <id>         # timestamped transcript
plaud transcript <id> -o transcript.txt   # save to file
plaud summary <id>            # AI summary (Markdown)
plaud summary <id> -o summary.md          # save to file

Utility

plaud version    # show installed version and build info
plaud update     # check for a newer version and print the upgrade command

---

Data reference

Fields in plaud files / plaud file

Field	Description
id	Unique recording ID — use this in other commands
name	Recording name
created_at	Creation time (ISO 8601)
duration	Length of the recording

Additional fields in plaud file <id> only:

Field	Description
start_at	Recording start time (ISO 8601)
serial_number	Device serial number
audio	Whether audio is available for download
transcript	Whether a transcript is available
summary	Whether an AI summary is available

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Invalid arguments or unknown error
2	Authentication failed — run plaud login
3	Network error — check your connection
4	Request timed out

All errors are written to stderr, keeping stdout clean for piping and scripting:

✖ [AUTH_FAILED] Token invalid or expired. Run `plaud login`.

---

Configuration

Tokens are stored at ~/.plaud/tokens.json and managed automatically — no manual edits needed.

For advanced use, create an optional config file at ~/.plaud/cli.yaml:

api_base: "https://platform.plaud.ai/developer/api"
timeout: 30000   # milliseconds

Environment variables override both the config file and built-in defaults:

Variable	Purpose
PLAUD_API_BASE	Override the API base URL
PLAUD_CLIENT_ID / PLAUD_CLI_CLIENT_ID	OAuth client ID
PLAUD_CLIENT_SECRET	OAuth client secret
PLAUD_AUTH_URL	Authorization endpoint
PLAUD_TOKEN_URL	Token exchange endpoint
PLAUD_REFRESH_URL	Token refresh endpoint

---

Upgrade

npm install -g @plaud-ai/cli@latest

Or check first:

plaud update

---

Uninstall

npm uninstall -g @plaud-ai/cli
rm -rf ~/.plaud

---

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
401 / “Not authenticated”	Run plaud login
plaud: command not found	Reopen your terminal; confirm npm install -g @plaud-ai/cli completed without errors
Token refresh errors	Delete ~/.plaud/tokens.json and run plaud login again
Browser doesn’t open during sign-in	Copy the URL printed in the terminal and open it manually
npx returns E404 for @plaud-ai/cli	Run npm cache clean --force and retry