CLI Reference

This document provides a comprehensive reference for all commands available in the ctxsift CLI.

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ctxsift configure

Run the guided setup to configure CtxSift’s behavior globally or for the current workspace.

ctxsift configure [OPTIONS]

This command runs interactively, guiding you through:

• Selecting model execution paths (CPU, GPU, or Remote).
• Selecting specific models (e.g., GGUF files for CPU or HF repos for GPU).
• Configuring local daemon behavior.
• Resolving where to write the config file.
• Creating workspace database files and configuring gitignore settings.
• Installing the CtxSift skill for one or more supported agent hosts using a numbered multi-select flow, with scope and target-path prompts where needed.

Options

• --write-ignore / --no-write-ignore Override whether configure automatically appends the .ctxsift/ database directory to the workspace’s .gitignore. If not specified, CtxSift will prompt you interactively.

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ctxsift compress

Compress incoming stdin or command outputs under a natural language instruction.

# Pipe mode
<command> | ctxsift compress --intent INTENT [OPTIONS] INSTRUCTION

# Command capture mode
ctxsift compress --intent INTENT [OPTIONS] INSTRUCTION -- COMMAND [ARGS]...

Arguments

• INSTRUCTION (Required string) The natural language instruction specifying what patterns, errors, or structures the model should extract and keep in the summary.

Options

• --intent (Required CompressionIntent enum value) Specifies the target output contract for the model. Options:
  • summary: High-level plain text description for the current step.
  • recall: Plain-text evidence optimized for later ctxsift recall matches.
  • exact-lines: Pulls verbatim lines from the input only.
  • exact-format: Follows the instruction’s textual shape exactly.
  • json: Returns valid JSON for machine consumption.
  • yaml: Returns valid YAML for structured config-like output.
  • table: Formats output as a markdown table.
  • bullet-list: Formats output as a markdown bullet list.
• --shell Executes the command sequence after -- in shell mode (e.g., handles wildcards, shell pipelines, and environment variables). Only applicable in command capture mode.
• --max-output-tokens (Integer) Overrides the default model output limit (e.g., sets output limit to 1024 tokens for this run).

Usage Examples

# Return only the failing pytest node ids verbatim
pytest | ctxsift compress --intent exact-lines "return only the failing pytest node ids, one per line"

# Capture a build and return machine-readable diagnostics
ctxsift compress --intent json "extract errors as JSON" -- pnpm build

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ctxsift recall

Search the workspace’s database for previously compressed records matching a search query.

ctxsift recall [OPTIONS] QUERY

Arguments

• QUERY (Required string) The search term, error code, command name, or natural language query to recall.

Options

• --files (List of strings) Provide file paths to filter search results. Recall prioritizes records containing matches inside these specific files.
• --limit (Integer) Set the maximum number of results to display. Defaults to the configured recall.default_limit.

Usage Examples

# Recall build logs matching docker network settings
ctxsift recall "docker connection timeout"

# Focus on auth failures in a specific file
ctxsift recall "expired token" --files tests/test_auth.py

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ctxsift doctor

Inspect the local environment’s health, dependencies, and configuration setup.

ctxsift doctor

Runs diagnostic probes on core components (SQLite, Git, CUDA, PyTorch, LiteLLM, llama-cpp-python, bitsandbytes) to check if your current configuration is runnable.

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ctxsift config

Directly inspect or edit configuration settings.

ctxsift config show

Display the resolved configuration settings that CtxSift is currently using.

ctxsift config show [OPTIONS]

• Options:
  • --global: Reads only the global configuration file (config.toml), ignoring any workspace-specific configurations.

ctxsift config set

Write a configuration value for a key.

ctxsift config set [OPTIONS] KEY VALUE

• Arguments:
  • KEY: The dot-separated configuration path (e.g., local.device or remote.base_url).
  • VALUE: The value to assign.
• Options:
  • --global: Writes the key-value pair to the global config.toml file rather than the workspace config.

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ctxsift daemon

Start, stop, and inspect background model serving daemons.

ctxsift daemon start

Manually boot the daemons specified by the current active configuration.

ctxsift daemon start

ctxsift daemon status

View the health, ports, and process IDs of running daemons.

ctxsift daemon status [OPTIONS]

• Options:
  • --all: Lists statuses for all registered daemons on the machine, including those from other workspaces.

ctxsift daemon stop

Shut down running model daemons.

ctxsift daemon stop [OPTIONS]

• Options:
  • --all: Shuts down all running daemons across the entire machine.