# binquery: a local CLI shortlist, now also an agent skill

> Source: <https://dev.to/harry_xu_74d04f7a971995d5/binquery-a-local-cli-shortlist-now-also-an-agent-skill-2pl1>
> Published: 2026-08-19 04:53:30+00:00

I cut from a local footage box. I wanted 8–15 candidates from one sentence, not a full-library skim and not an auto-edit.

binquery is a local Python CLI. You index your own folder with ffmpeg + OpenCLIP. query encodes only the sentence and prints a shortlist: path, score, gate, reasons. Limit is 8–15. People still watch.

It is not a browser. It is not on PyPI. Clone, then:

```
python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -e .
```

Needs ffmpeg / ffprobe on the machine.

Agents can install the instructions as a skill (this does not install the Python package):

```
npx -y skills add jennifferweslowski-design/binquery
```

Or copy `skills/binquery/`

into `.agents/skills/binquery`

or `.claude/skills/binquery`

.