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Tutorial: Query Crypto Data from the Terminal

Written by , CEO, Hive IntelligenceLast updated

What you'll build

A terminal workflow that lists available tools, checks Bitcoin's price, and outputs a daily crypto briefing — all from the command line.

By the end of this tutorial you will be able to:

  • Install and authenticate the Hive CLI
  • Browse and search the full tool catalog from your terminal
  • Call any Hive tool via its domain subcommand
  • Pipe JSON output into jq for scripting
  • Assemble a reusable daily briefing script

Prerequisites

  • Node.js 18+ installed
  • A Hive Intelligence API key (get one from the dashboard)
  • jq installed for JSON filtering (brew install jq on macOS, apt install jq on Debian/Ubuntu)

Step 1: Install the CLI

The CLI is shipped in the hive-intelligence npm package — the same package that provides Hive's MCP stdio server and JavaScript SDK, so installing it once gives you every local surface. The CLI executable inside the package is hive. Because the package name and the bin name differ, npx needs -p to pick the package and then the binary name on its own:

npx -y -p hive-intelligence@latest hive doctor

hive doctor is the built-in health check — it verifies Node, network access, and authentication.

For frequent use, install globally so you can drop the npx … prefix:

npm install -g hive-intelligence

After a global install, everything below works with a bare hive:

hive doctor

The rest of this tutorial uses the short hive … form. If you haven't installed globally, prepend npx -y -p hive-intelligence@latest to each command.

Step 2: Authenticate

Two options — pick whichever fits your environment.

Interactive login (stores the key locally)

hive auth login

The CLI stores the credential so every subsequent command picks it up automatically.

Environment variable (one-shot or scripted)

export HIVE_API_KEY=hive_live_…

Or per command:

HIVE_API_KEY=hive_live_… hive status

Verify auth either way:

hive status

status prints your plan, recent usage, and confirms the credential.

Step 3: Explore available tools

Hive exposes hundreds of tools across market data, DeFi, DEX analytics, NFTs, on-chain data, and more. The CLI lets you browse them without leaving the terminal.

List all tools

hive tools list

Search by keyword

hive tools search price

Inspect a specific tool

hive tools info get_price

Prints the full input schema: required args, optional args, types, and return-value description. Always check info before calling a tool for the first time.

Step 4: Make your first call

Domain subcommands are auto-generated from Hive's category namespace, so you get ergonomic flags instead of a generic call with a JSON blob. For market prices:

hive market price --ids bitcoin,ethereum --vs usd

You'll see JSON output like:

{
  "bitcoin": { "usd": 84521.0 },
  "ethereum": { "usd": 3412.18 }
}

For DeFi TVL:

hive defi tvl --protocol aave

Every --flag maps directly to an argument on the underlying tool.

Step 5: Pipe output for scripting

The whole point of a CLI is composability. Pipe JSON output into jq to extract the exact value you need:

hive market price --ids bitcoin --vs usd | jq '.bitcoin.usd'

Output:

84521.0

A few more examples:

# Ethereum price only
hive market price --ids ethereum --vs usd | jq '.ethereum.usd'

# Name of the top DeFi protocol by TVL
hive defi protocols | jq '.[0].name'

# Count tools matching "defi"
hive tools search defi --format json | jq 'length'

Step 6: Build a daily briefing script

Combine several calls into a morning crypto briefing. Create briefing.sh:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

echo "=== Daily Crypto Briefing ==="
echo ""
echo "--- Prices ---"
hive market price --ids bitcoin,ethereum,solana --vs usd \
  | jq -r 'to_entries[] | "\(.key): $\(.value.usd)"'

echo ""
echo "--- Top Gainers ---"
hive market gainers-losers --vs usd --duration 24h \
  | jq '.top_gainers[:5]'

echo ""
echo "--- DeFi TVL Leaders ---"
hive defi protocols \
  | jq '.[:5] | .[] | "\(.name): $\(.tvl / 1000000 | floor)M"'

Make it executable and run it:

chmod +x briefing.sh
./briefing.sh

Sample output:

=== Daily Crypto Briefing ===

--- Prices ---
bitcoin: $84521
ethereum: $3412.18
solana: $178.92

--- Top Gainers ---
[{ "symbol": "XYZ", "price_change_percentage_24h": 42.1 }]

--- DeFi TVL Leaders ---
Lido: $32451M
AAVE: $18923M
EigenLayer: $15102M
Maker: $9823M
Uniswap: $6421M

Comparison with curl

The CLI wraps the Hive REST API. Here's the same get_price call with curl so you can see what the CLI handles for you:

curl -X POST https://mcp.hiveintelligence.xyz/api/v1/execute \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_HIVE_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "tool": "get_price",
    "args": {
      "ids": "bitcoin,ethereum",
      "vs_currencies": "usd"
    }
  }'

And listing tools:

curl -X GET "https://mcp.hiveintelligence.xyz/api/v1/tools?search=price&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_HIVE_API_KEY"

The CLI eliminates the boilerplate: no manual headers, no JSON-body construction, no per-request key management. For one-off debugging curl is fine; for anything repeated, the CLI is faster and less error-prone.

Tips

  • Use --format json on any command when you plan to pipe the output. It suppresses human-friendly formatting and returns clean JSON.

  • Pipe to jq for filtering, transformation, and pretty-printing.

  • hive watch tails a command on an interval — useful for keeping a price on screen without a custom loop:

    hive watch 'market price --ids bitcoin --vs usd' --interval 30

  • Combine with cron for scheduled briefings:

    # Run at 8:00 AM every day
0 8 * * * /path/to/briefing.sh >> /var/log/crypto-briefing.log 2>&1

  • hive tools info <tool> before calling anything new — it prints the exact arguments and types expected.

  • hive doctor first when anything breaks — it tells you whether the problem is Node, network, auth, or upstream.

Next steps

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