Dev Terminal

An interactive AI-powered development REPL for building phone agents. Powered by Claude. Streams responses, executes tools, edits pathways, and pushes to production without leaving your terminal.

bland dev

Options

bland dev                      # Launch the dev terminal
  -m, --model <model>          #   Claude model (default: claude-opus-4-6)
  -t, --max-tokens <n>         #   Max output tokens per response
  -k, --key <key>              #   Claude API key
  --no-banner                  #   Skip ASCII banner

Slash Commands

Command	Description
`/help`	Show available commands
`/status`	Show session status
`/model`	List models or switch (`/model claude-sonnet-4-6`)
`/tokens`	View or set max output tokens (`/tokens 64000` or `/tokens max`)
`/key`	Update Claude API key
`/clear`	Clear conversation history
`/exit`	Exit

Available Models

Model	Max Output	Context
`claude-opus-4-6`	128k	1M
`claude-sonnet-4-6`	64k	1M
`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	64k	200k
`claude-opus-4-20250514`	32k	200k
`claude-sonnet-4-20250514`	64k	200k

Capabilities

The dev terminal has access to all MCP tools plus local pathway operations (read, write, diff, push, pull). Type / then Tab to autocomplete commands, or just type naturally. The terminal includes the built-in guide system, so the AI understands how to write good phone prompts, structure pathways, configure tools, and test effectively.

Built-in Guides

The CLI ships with guides designed to give LLMs the context they need to build good pathways, not just call the API, but actually understand how phone conversations work.

bland guide                  # List all guides
bland guide phone-tone       # Writing natural phone prompts
bland guide pathways         # Node/edge architecture and execution model
bland guide tools            # Webhook and custom tools on nodes
bland guide testing          # Chat, simulate, node tests
bland guide variables        # Extracting and using caller data

Guide	What it teaches
`phone-tone`	How to write prompts that sound like a real person on the phone, not a chatbot. Covers back-channeling, brevity, empathy, and topic transitions.
`pathways`	How the conversation graph works: nodes, edges, global nodes, variables, the global prompt, and the execution model.
`tools`	Attaching webhook and custom tools to nodes for real-time data. Covers `speech`, `behavior`, and `response_data`.
`testing`	The full testing workflow: `pathway chat` for interactive testing, `simulate` for end-to-end AI personas, `node-test` for stress-testing individual nodes.
`variables`	Extracting structured data from natural conversation with `extract_variables`, using `{{curly_braces}}` in prompts, and `spelling_precision` for names/emails.

Docs for agents: llms.txt

Welcome

Core Bland Features

Basic Tutorials

Advanced Features

Platform Information

SDKs & Tools

Bland Enterprise

Dev Terminal

Options

Slash Commands

Available Models

Capabilities

Built-in Guides

​Options

​Slash Commands

​Available Models

​Capabilities

​Built-in Guides

Options

Slash Commands

Available Models

Capabilities

Built-in Guides