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name, description, license, compatibility, metadata
name description license compatibility metadata
tmdb-cli Search and discover movies, TV shows, and trending content via The Movie Database (TMDb) API v3. Use when the user asks about movies, TV, film, cinema, genres, certifications, ratings, cast, upcoming releases, or trending media. MIT Requires TMDB_ACCESS_TOKEN or TMDB_API_KEY env var (free at themoviedb.org/settings/api), Python 3.8+, and the `requests` library.
tags sources
tmdb, movies, tv, film, cinema, entertainment, media-discovery, api-client https://developer.themoviedb.org/reference, https://www.themoviedb.org/settings/api

tmdb-cli — Movie & TV Discovery from the Terminal

Search movies and TV shows by keyword, discover by genre/certification/rating/date, check trending and upcoming releases, browse genre lists, and view US certification ratings — all from TMDb's v3 API.

Setup

  1. Get a free API key or access token at themoviedb.org/settings/api
  2. Set one of these environment variables:
export TMDB_ACCESS_TOKEN="your-tmdb-access-token"   # preferred
# OR
export TMDB_API_KEY="your-tmdb-api-key"

--help and --dry-run work without credentials (lazy auth).

Essential Commands

movie search — Search movies by keyword

tmdb-cli movie search --term "dune"                  # basic search
tmdb-cli movie search --term "inception" --limit 5   # top 5 results
tmdb-cli movie search --term "arrival" --json         # machine-readable

Shows: title, release year, vote average.

movie discover — Discover movies by genre, certification, rating, and date

tmdb-cli movie discover --genre horror                           # horror movies
tmdb-cli movie discover --genre horror --certification R         # horror, R-rated
tmdb-cli movie discover --genre comedy --rating 7 --limit 15     # highly-rated comedy
tmdb-cli movie discover --from 2024-01-01 --to 2024-12-31        # released in 2024
tmdb-cli movie discover --genre scifi --from 2026-05-01          # recent sci-fi
tmdb-cli movie discover --genre thriller --certification R \
  --rating 6 --from 2025-01-01 --limit 20                        # compound filter

movie upcoming — Upcoming movie releases

tmdb-cli movie upcoming                         # next 10 upcoming
tmdb-cli movie upcoming --limit 20              # more results
tmdb-cli movie upcoming --json                  # machine-readable

tv search — Search TV shows by keyword

tmdb-cli tv search --term "severance"           # basic TV search
tmdb-cli tv search --term "the expanse" --limit 5
tmdb-cli tv search --term "silo" --json

Shows: name, first air year, vote average.

tv discover — Discover TV shows by genre, rating, and air date

tmdb-cli tv discover --genre sci-fi                    # sci-fi shows
tmdb-cli tv discover --genre drama --rating 7          # critically-acclaimed drama
tmdb-cli tv discover --genre comedy --from 2025-01-01  # recent comedy
tmdb-cli trending                              # trending movies this week
tmdb-cli trending --type tv                    # trending TV this week
tmdb-cli trending --type all --window day      # all media trending today
tmdb-cli trending --limit 20 --json            # top 20 as JSON

genre list — Browse available genres

tmdb-cli genre list --type movie               # all movie genres
tmdb-cli genre list --type tv                  # all TV genres
tmdb-cli genre list --type movie --json

certification — View US movie certification ratings

tmdb-cli certification                          # US certification list
tmdb-cli certification --json                   # machine-readable

Global Flags

These flags work in any position before, between, or after subcommands:

tmdb-cli --json movie search --term "dune"             # JSON output
tmdb-cli movie search --term "dune" --json             # json after subcommand
tmdb-cli --dry-run movie discover --genre horror       # preview without API call
tmdb-cli --quiet trending                              # suppress diagnostic output
tmdb-cli --verbose movie search --term "alien"         # verbose logging

Known Gotchas

  • Genre name matching is case-insensitive--genre Horror, --genre horror, and --genre HORROR all work. Names are matched via substring, so --genre sci matches "Sci-Fi" and "Science Fiction".
  • Certifications are US-only — The --certification flag and the certification subcommand only return/accept US ratings (G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17). International certifications are not available.
  • API version — This CLI wraps TMDb API v3. Endpoints and response shapes follow the v3 spec.
  • Pagination defaults — Every command defaults to 10 results. Use --limit to get more. The CLI does not auto-paginate beyond the first page.
  • Now-playing is defined — The movie now-playing subcommand is registered in argparse and maps to the TMDb /movie/now_playing endpoint.

References