CLI Reference

Run AI-powered workflows from your terminal.

1. Clone the repository and install dependencies:

   git clone https://github.com/coleam00/Archon
   cd Archon
   bun install

2. Make CLI globally available (recommended):

   cd packages/cli
   bun link

   This creates an archon command available from anywhere.

3. Authenticate with Claude:

   claude /login

Note: Examples below use archon (after bun link). If you skip step 2, use bun run cli from the repo directory instead.

# List available workflows (requires a git repo, a registered folder project, or --folder on first use)
archon workflow list --cwd /path/to/repo

# Run a workflow (auto-creates isolated worktree by default)
archon workflow run assist --cwd /path/to/repo "Explain the authentication flow"

# Explicit branch name for the worktree
archon workflow run plan --cwd /path/to/repo --branch feature-auth "Add OAuth support"

# Opt out of isolation (run in live checkout)
archon workflow run assist --cwd /path/to/repo --no-worktree "Quick question"

Note: Workflow and isolation commands normally require running from within a git repository (running from subdirectories automatically resolves to the repo root). A non-git directory also works if it’s a registered folder project — or on first use by passing --folder, which registers it and runs in place. The version, help, chat, setup, serve, and doctor commands work anywhere.

Send a message to the orchestrator for a one-off AI interaction.

archon chat "What does the orchestrator do?"

Interactive setup wizard for credentials and configuration.

archon setup                      # writes ~/.archon/.env (home scope, default)
archon setup --scope project      # writes <cwd>/.archon/.env instead
archon setup --force              # overwrite instead of merging (backup still written)
archon setup --spawn              # open in a new terminal window

Flags:

Write safety: archon setup never writes to <cwd>/.env — that file belongs to you. The wizard always targets one archon-owned file chosen by --scope, merges into existing content (so user-added keys survive), and writes a timestamped backup before every rewrite (e.g. ~/.archon/.env.archon-backup-2026-04-20T09-28-11-000Z).

Default assistant + chat model: after you pick the default assistant, the wizard offers an optional default chat model for it — a short curated list (e.g. sonnet/opus/haiku for Claude) plus an “Other…” free-text entry. Press Enter to keep the SDK default. Your selection is recorded in ~/.archon/config.yaml as defaultAssistant (plus assistants.<provider>.model when you chose a model) — the same write as archon ai default <provider> [<model>] — and re-running setup shows the current model. Pi skips the model prompt because its backend/model pair is chosen earlier in the wizard.

Verify your Archon setup. Runs a checklist of common failure points: Claude binary spawn, Codex binary resolution (env → config → vendor → autodetect, reporting which source resolved), gh CLI auth, Pi auth (when Pi is configured as default), OpenCode runtime SDK presence, database reachability, workspace writability, bundled defaults, folder-project detection (contained repos, when run from one), telemetry state, AI credentials (connected provider count, best-effort), and adapter token pings (Slack/Telegram, best-effort).

archon doctor
archon doctor --full   # also probe the OpenCode runtime SDK even when it isn't the configured assistant

The Codex check skips (never fails) when Codex isn’t the configured assistant anywhere and no OpenAI credential is connected, so Claude-only users aren’t nagged about a binary they’ll never use. The OpenCode check only probes that the embedded runtime SDK module resolves — it never boots the runtime (which spawns a child process and binds a port) — and skips unless OpenCode is the configured assistant or --full is passed.

Exit code 0 if all checks pass or are skipped; 1 if any critical check fails. Adapter pings degrade to skip on network errors — a flaky connection does not flip the result red.

Also runs automatically at the end of archon setup (optional).

Connect the current CLI user’s GitHub identity via the GitHub device flow, so workflow commits, PR comments, and pushes attribute to you instead of the bot.

archon auth github

Only meaningful on multi-user installs running GitHub App mode (GITHUB_APP_ID + GITHUB_APP_CLIENT_ID) with TOKEN_ENCRYPTION_KEY set — solo GITHUB_TOKEN installs don’t need it and the command exits with an explanatory error. Your CLI identity is resolved from ARCHON_USER_ID (explicit override) or $USER / $USERNAME, mapped to a stable Archon user via the cli platform identity.

The command prints a verification_uri and a one-time user_code; visit the URL, enter the code, and authorize. On success the access/refresh tokens are stored encrypted (AES-256-GCM) in Archon’s database. Exit code 0 on success; 1 if per-user GitHub is disabled, the identity can’t be resolved, the code expires, or authorization is denied.

Manage per-user AI-provider credentials (API keys + subscriptions) and model-tier config. CLI identity is resolved from ARCHON_USER_ID (explicit override) or $USER / $USERNAME, mapped to a stable Archon user via the cli platform identity — the same as auth github.

The credential subcommands (key set, login, list, logout) work on any install — the vault is auto-provisioned. CLI identity is resolved from ARCHON_USER_ID or $USER/$USERNAME. The config subcommands (tier, alias, default) are ungated — they write ~/.archon/config.yaml and need no identity.

# --- Provider credentials (any install — vault auto-provisioned) ---
archon ai key set <vendor>       # connect an API key (masked prompt or piped stdin — never argv)
archon ai login <vendor>         # connect a subscription via OAuth (anthropic, openai, or github-copilot)
archon ai list                   # list connected credentials (metadata only, no secrets)
archon ai logout <vendor>        # disconnect a credential

# --- Model tiers + aliases + default assistant (ungated config) ---
archon ai tier set <small|medium|large> <provider> <model> [--effort <effort>] [--scope user|install]
archon ai tier list [--json]     # show configured tiers (install + yours) vs built-in defaults
archon ai tier unset <small|medium|large> [--scope user|install]
archon ai alias set <@name> <provider> <model> [--effort <effort>] [--scope user|install]
archon ai alias list [--json]    # show @custom aliases (install + yours)
archon ai alias unset <@name> [--scope user|install]
archon ai default <provider> [<model>] [--scope user|install]   # set the default assistant (+ optional chat model)

Credential ids are vendor-keyed (anthropic, openai, github-copilot, plus the Pi backends like openrouter); legacy claude/codex/copilot are accepted and normalized with a printed notice. ai login supports subscription login for anthropic, openai (ChatGPT/Codex), and github-copilot. The openai login is an Archon-owned PKCE flow (#1924): authorize in the browser, then paste the authorization code or the full localhost:1455 redirect URL back at the prompt — nothing needs to listen on that port. The API key is never read from argv (it would leak into shell history): pipe it (echo "$KEY" | archon ai key set openrouter) or type it at the masked prompt.

ai tier, ai alias, and ai default edit the same tiers: / aliases: / defaultAssistant config you can hand-write in ~/.archon/config.yaml (see Configuration) or edit from the console AI Settings page. An unknown provider exits non-zero; tier unset removes the override so the tier falls back to its built-in preset — claude and codex only; for any other default provider the tier is left unset and must be reconfigured before use. The full per-user setup walkthrough is in Per-user credentials and AI Settings.

ai default <provider> [<model>] (default chat model). The optional <model> sets the default chat model alongside the assistant. At --scope install it writes assistants.<provider>.model in ~/.archon/config.yaml (omitting the model leaves that field untouched). At --scope user the provider and model are written atomically to your prefs row — archon ai default pi --scope user clears any previous model pin, since a pin is only meaningful for the provider it was set with. Your chat model applies to direct chat only; workflow nodes keep resolving the large tier. The model may also be an @alias or tier keyword.

--scope user (per-user overrides). On any of the config subcommands, --scope user writes your personal prefs row in Archon’s database instead of the shared config.yaml. Your tiers/aliases/default override the install config for runs and chats you start — nobody else’s. It needs a resolvable CLI identity (ARCHON_USER_ID or $USER) but no TOKEN_ENCRYPTION_KEY (model names aren’t secrets). ai tier list / ai alias list show both scopes, marking your overrides with [just you]. The same scopes are editable in the console as the “This install / Just me” toggle on AI Settings.

Show the current anonymous telemetry state: whether it is enabled, the opt-out reason if not, the install UUID, the active PostHog host, and the key source.

archon telemetry status

Useful for verifying that an opt-out env var (DO_NOT_TRACK=1, ARCHON_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1, CI=true, POSTHOG_API_KEY=off) is being picked up. Inspecting status never creates a telemetry-id file while opted out.

Rotate the persisted anonymous install UUID at ~/.archon/telemetry-id. The previous ID is overwritten and not recoverable.

archon telemetry reset

Exit code 0 on success; 1 if the ID file cannot be written.

List workflows available in target directory.

archon workflow list --cwd /path/to/repo

# Machine-readable output for scripting
archon workflow list --cwd /path/to/repo --json

Discovers flat, one-level grouped, and exact <pack>/<workflow>/ packaged layouts from .archon/workflows/ and ~/.archon/workflows/, plus bundled defaults. See Global Workflows.

Flags:

With --json, outputs { "workflows": [...], "errors": [...] }. Optional fields (provider, model, effort, webSearchMode, parseWarnings) are omitted when not set on a workflow. A workflow written with the deprecated modelReasoningEffort: reports its value as effort, which is what it is translated to at load — unless it also declares effort:, which wins. Each parseWarnings entry is a full warning message naming a key the engine dropped or deprecated, the workflow or node where it was found, and what to write instead — see Unknown keys.

Run a workflow with an optional user message.

# Basic usage
archon workflow run assist --cwd /path/to/repo "What does this function do?"

# With isolation
archon workflow run plan --cwd /path/to/repo --branch feature-x "Add caching"

# Supplying a workflow's declared inputs (one flag per input)
archon workflow run review-block --cwd /path/to/repo \
  --input diff="$(git diff)" --input style=terse "focus on the auth changes"

# Rebind only the large tier for this run
archon workflow run issue-to-pr --cwd /path/to/repo \
  --model large=openai/gpt-5.6 "fix #2481"

# Load a saved sparse layer, then replace only its large tier for this run
archon workflow run issue-to-pr --cwd /path/to/repo \
  --config ./config.minimax.yaml \
  --model large=openai/gpt-5.6 "fix #2482"

# Continue the exact estate left by a terminal run
archon workflow run archon-ship --cwd /path/to/repo \
  --adopt 6d5066ca-47b4-4ee8-8d1d-2f3db8039190 "finish the delivery"

Progress events (node start/complete/fail/skip, approval gates) are written to stderr during execution.

If the workflow’s YAML declares keys the engine ignores, a warning naming each one is written to stderr before the run starts. This matters to --detach --json callers: --json silences all logging, so stderr is the only channel left, and it keeps stdout to exactly the JSON payload.

Note that a real run emits a JSON payload only under --detach. Without it, --json suppresses logs but the command still prints human progress to stdout (Running workflow: …), so do not pipe a plain real run --json into a parser. The side-effect-free --dry-run --json mode below is the other exception: it emits exactly one complete trace document. See Unknown keys.

Flags:

A run config is an ordinary YAML file selected explicitly for one invocation. It is useful for reusable choices such as config.minimax.yaml, but it is not a registered profile and does not change .archon/config.yaml.

tiers:
  large: { provider: pi, model: minimax/MiniMax-M3 }
env:
  BENCH_MODE: "1"

The layer is sparse: omitted settings keep their normal lower-layer values. In --config ./config.minimax.yaml --model large=openai/gpt-5.6, only large is replaced by the flag; small, medium, aliases, and every other omitted setting still fall through. See Run-scoped configuration for the supported keys and fail-fast exclusions.

--cwd and --workflow-source answer two different questions: what the run acts on, and where the workflow itself is read from. They are the same directory unless you say otherwise.

# Author in ~/dev/archon (uncommitted), run against a clean checkout elsewhere
archon workflow run implement \
  --workflow-source ~/dev/archon \
  --cwd ~/checkouts/archon-target \
  "implement the plan"

Every run freezes its workflow source when it starts, whether or not you pass this flag. That means the source directory’s .archon/workflows, .archon/commands, and .archon/scripts, plus your home-scoped ~/.archon/ source and Archon’s own bundled defaults. Everything a static include: can reach is frozen together, so an included global or bundled workflow cannot change shape under a run either. That freeze is what makes the rest predictable:

• The target stays clean. Nothing from the source checkout is written into it, so its git status and its validators only ever see its own files.
• A run does not change shape while it is running. Edit, move, or delete the source checkout after a run starts and a resume still executes what the run began with. Start a new run to pick up the edits.
• Resume needs no source path. Every continuation — archon workflow resume <run-id>, archon workflow run <name> --resume, approve, and reject — loads the run’s own captured source, which is why --workflow-source is refused alongside --resume.

The captured source lives under that run’s artifacts (~/.archon/workspaces/<project>/artifacts/runs/<run-id>/workflow-source/) and is removed with the rest of the run’s artifacts. Its manifest records a content digest, which the run row also stores, and a resume checks both: if the capture is missing, its bytes have changed, or it has been replaced with a different capture, the run fails rather than continuing against different source. Start a fresh run to execute the current workflow.

The one exception is a run that started before Archon captured source at all. It has nothing recorded to honor, so it resumes against the current source on disk with a warning. A run whose source record exists but cannot be read is not treated that way — it fails, because a run that recorded its source must never quietly execute something else.

Compiled binaries. A binary embeds its bundled workflows, commands, and scripts as constants rather than files. Those get written into the capture alongside everything else, so they are covered by the same digest — which means upgrading Archon between pausing and resuming a run is fine: the run keeps executing the bundled content it started with, and a change to those bytes would be caught like any other.

--container runs get the same treatment: the capture is bind-mounted read-only at the same absolute path inside the container, so a named script resolves identically whether a node runs on the host or in the container, and a container recreated on resume gets the mount back. --workflow-source is refused with --container — a folder project runs in place, so its source and its target are the same directory by definition.

Use dry-run to test DAG routing, joins, loops, when:, strict output fields, and variable substitution without starting a real workflow:

cat > stubs.yaml <<'YAML'
classify:
  issue_type: bug
  severity: high
investigate: "Root cause: stale cache"
YAML

archon workflow run triage --cwd /path/to/repo \
  --dry-run --stubs stubs.yaml "Issue #2100"

# One complete JSON document, safe to pipe in CI
archon workflow run triage --cwd /path/to/repo \
  --dry-run --stubs stubs.yaml --json | jq '.trace, .outcome'

Generate a starting fixture when a composed workflow has many nodes, then keep only the values that drive the path you want to test:

archon workflow run deliver --cwd /path/to/repo \
  --dry-run --stubs-init fixtures/deliver.yaml

# After editing the load-bearing values in the generated YAML:
archon workflow run deliver --cwd /path/to/repo \
  --dry-run --stubs fixtures/deliver.yaml --default-stubs

The scaffold is derived from the already-expanded workflow, so included top-level nodes use their flattened ids (for example, review__classify) — while loop_group BODY nodes keep their bare ids even inside an included block (the group node gets the <includeId>__ prefix; its body does not). Prefer --stubs-init over hand-writing keys: the scaffold is the authoritative source for both spellings. Structured output_format values are emitted as YAML objects with native booleans, numbers, arrays, and nested required properties. Loop completion fields are generated as true. If Archon cannot prove that a generated value satisfies its JSON Schema, scaffold generation fails before creating the file.

The stub file must contain one YAML mapping. Each value is either a string or an object. Object stubs are preserved as structured output, so downstream $classify.output.severity references behave like live structured producers. Strict coverage remains the default: a reachable AI, bash, or script node without a stub fails the simulation and appears in missingStubs. The one exception is a trigger_rule: all_done join — it runs whatever its upstream did, so a real run reaches it regardless of stub data. It gets a generated placeholder and is listed in both missingStubs and toleratedMissingStubs, and the absent stub alone never fails the simulation or a workflow test fixture. It is only listed in toleratedMissingStubs once that placeholder exists: a node whose output_format cannot produce one still fails, and stays out of the tolerated list. A loop: node carrying the same trigger rule is tolerated on the same terms, with one addition — the placeholder must also end the loop, which it does by satisfying the node’s own completion channel, so a tolerated loop always completes on its first iteration. The one loop shape it cannot end is an output_format whose only completion channel is a prose until:, because the generated JSON never carries the sentinel; that node still fails and stays out of the tolerated list. Add --default-stubs to fill only omitted reachable nodes with the same schema-aware placeholders used by scaffold generation; explicit values always take precedence. A reachable bash: or script: node that arrived through include: must always be stubbed: the simulation does not deliver the caller’s with: values to it, so a body that reads its inputs fails rather than running. Supplied stubs for unknown or unreachable nodes appear in unusedStubs, while generated placeholders do not. Whole-output references retain their normal lenient behavior, while invalid strict $node.output.field references fail the consuming node exactly as they do in a real run. See Node Output References.

A workflow’s declared inputs: resolve exactly as in a real run: omitted inputs take their declared default:, --input name=value binds a value (visible in the trace’s resolved text), and a missing required input or an undeclared name fails at the invocation gate with the same errors a real run gives — before any trace output. With --exec-code, bash and script nodes also receive the run-level inputs as the same INPUTS_<UPPER_SNAKE> environment variables a real run delivers (a composed block’s own inputs for named scripts are a real-run-only channel).

By default, bash and script nodes are never executed. --exec-code is an explicit opt-in for trusted local workflow code and is the only dry-run mode that can cause code-level side effects. Executed nodes receive $ARTIFACTS_DIR and $STATE_DIR under an ephemeral per-simulation directory in ~/.archon/temp/ (honoring ARCHON_HOME), created before the first executed node and removed when the simulation ends — a dry run writes nothing inside the repository, and a simulation that executes nothing creates no directory at all. Approval nodes auto-complete unless --pause-at-gates is set. Runtime workflow: sub-runs are reported as unsupported instead of being launched. Dry-run is incompatible with lifecycle and isolation flags such as --branch, --no-worktree, --folder, --container, --resume, and --detach.

The ordered trace records each node as completed, stubbed, skipped, failed, or paused, including its reason, resolved text, safe output, and final outcome.

Every node that takes an AI turn also reports which provider and model it will run on, and where each value came from — the same resolution the executor performs, not a second implementation of it. This is how you answer “what will this node actually run on” for a workflow that composes others, since a composed workflow runs with the configuration its own file declares:

STUBBED   review__scope (prompt)
  runs on: codex (node) / gpt-5.6-sol (node) [from review-block]
  effort: high (node)

The origin in parentheses is one of node, model ref (a tier keyword or @alias), workflow, assistant config, or default assistant. [from <name>] names the workflow file a composed node was authored in. A node whose declared provider: disagrees with the provider its model: ref resolves to also reports the warning a real run would emit. --json carries the same values under each trace entry’s resolution object.

This validates deterministic engine wiring; it does not validate model reasoning. It adds no workflow-YAML language surface: YAML coordinates, code computes, and agents judge.

Default (no flags):

• Creates worktree with auto-generated branch (archon/task-<workflow>-<timestamp>)
• Auto-registers codebase if in a git repo

With --branch:

• Creates/reuses worktree at ~/.archon/workspaces/<owner>/<repo>/worktrees/<branch>/
• Reuses existing worktree if healthy

With --no-worktree:

• Runs in target directory directly (no isolation)
• Mutually exclusive with --branch, --from, and --base

“Base branch” means two things, and by default one flag sets both: the cut-from (what git worktree add branches off) and the PR target ($BASE_BRANCH, which bash nodes pass to gh pr create --base). Four sources can supply it, highest first:

Levels 2—4 are static per repo, so a run that needs a different base than its neighbours had to edit config — global, and racy when several runs dispatch at once. --base is the per-dispatch level, which is what makes parallel multi-base dispatch (epic slices, A/B variants) config-free.

Scope: the dispatched run only. A workflow: node with isolation: worktree creates a worktree for its child run, and that worktree is cut using levels 2—4 only — --base and --from do not propagate to sub-run children. A parent dispatched with --base release/2.0 still branches its isolated children off the repo’s configured base. See Choosing the child’s checkout.

Driving cut-from and PR target separately. --from overrides only the cut-from, so pairing the two flags splits them:

# Branch off release/2.0, but open the PR against dev
archon workflow run implement --from origin/release/2.0 --base dev "Backport the fix"

--from is handed to git worktree add verbatim, so a remote ref such as origin/release/2.0 works. Note the sync-before-create step refreshes the --base branch, not the --from start point — pass a remote ref when the local copy of the start point may be stale.

Where --base is rejected (rather than half-applied): with --no-worktree, against a folder project, and against a workflow pinning worktree.enabled: false. None of these create a worktree, so the flag could only move the PR target — which would report a base no worktree was ever cut from.

When an existing worktree is adopted — --branch naming a healthy worktree, or --resume continuing a prior run — the cut-from is already fixed, so --base changes only the PR target. Archon warns in both cases.

Use structured continuation whenever a workflow must work on an existing branch or pull request. If you have the prior run id, --adopt <run-id> is the authoritative form. Archon reuses the prior worktree as-is. If the prior worktree is gone, Archon reuses a same-repository checkout already holding that branch, or creates one on the exact local branch. It does not fetch, reset, or synchronize the branch; update it first if the remote advanced.

Every node in the new run uses that selected checkout, including bash/script delivery assertions. A branch name written only in the message is model context; it does not move engine-owned nodes to another checkout.

Name Matching:

Workflow names are resolved using a 4-tier fallback hierarchy. This applies consistently across the CLI and all chat platforms (Slack, Telegram, Web, GitHub, Discord):

1. Exact match - archon-assist matches archon-assist
2. Case-insensitive - Archon-Assist matches archon-assist
3. Suffix match - assist matches archon-assist (looks for -assist suffix)
4. Substring match - smart matches archon-smart-pr-review

If multiple workflows match at the same tier, an error lists the candidates:

Ambiguous workflow 'review'. Did you mean:
  - archon-review
  - custom-review

Show active workflow runs (running and paused) across all worktrees. For full history (all statuses) scoped to the current project, use workflow runs.

archon workflow status
archon workflow status --json
archon workflow status --verbose   # add a per-node summary for each run
archon workflow status --json --verbose

List recent runs of every status (completed, failed, cancelled, running, paused) for the current project. The project is resolved from cwd the same way workflow run does. Complements workflow status (which is active-only).

archon workflow runs
archon workflow runs --json
archon workflow runs --status failed   # filter to one status
archon workflow runs --limit 50        # cap rows (default 20)
archon workflow runs --all             # list across all projects (ignore cwd scope)

If cwd is not a registered project, the command falls back to a global list and says so — --json carries this as a scopeFallback: true field so a consuming agent never mistakes a global result for a project-scoped one.

The listing shows short 8-character run ids. Every <run-id> command below (get, resume, cancel, abandon, approve, reject) accepts these short ids when run from the project directory: a unique prefix resolves to the full id, an ambiguous prefix errors, and full ids keep working from any directory. Short ids from --all rows belonging to other projects can’t be resolved — use the full id from --json for those.

Show detail for a single run by ID, regardless of status (unlike status, which is active-only). Use it to answer “did that run pass?” for a completed/failed run. Exits non-zero when the run is not found.

archon workflow get <run-id>
archon workflow get <run-id> --json
archon workflow get <run-id> --verbose   # add the per-node summary
archon workflow get <run-id> --json --verbose

For both commands, --json --verbose adds a nodes array. Nodes are ordered by the first appearance of each node in the deterministically ordered event stream. Every entry includes nodeId and state; nodes with a start event include the original ISO startedAt, and terminal nodes with both start and end events include durationMs. Completed nodes may include an outputPreview, truncated after 200 characters with ASCII ..., while failed nodes include error (or Unknown error when none was recorded).

Add --events to --json --verbose to return raw events rows instead of nodes for debugging. Raw events are not the recommended integration surface.

Block until a run reaches a state it will not leave on its own — it finished, or it parked on a gate awaiting a response — then print what it needs. This is the intended partner of --detach --json: take the runId from the launch ack and wait on it, instead of polling workflow get in a loop.

The response a gate is waiting for does not have to come from a person. An orchestrating agent can supply it with workflow respond just as a reviewer can; the engine only reports that one is owed, and who answers is the waiting host’s business.

archon workflow wait <run-id>
archon workflow wait <run-id> --json
archon workflow wait <run-id> --json --timeout 900

There is no default timeout. A run reports when it is done, and a wait that ended on its own clock would be answering a question only the run can answer. --timeout <seconds> is there for a host that needs an upper bound anyway.

Exit codes describe the command, not the run.

A failed or cancelled run is still exit 0: mapping run state onto the process exit code would make a legitimately cancelled run look like a broken command.

--json emits one document. On a wake it carries the attention value:

{ "ok": true, "action": "wait", "runId": "…", "result": "attention",
  "attention": { "kind": "terminal", "runId": "…", "status": "completed", "at": "…" } }

attention.kind is one of:

• terminal — the run finished; status is completed, failed, or cancelled.
• awaiting_response — a gate is waiting for a decision. respondTo names the run and node where that response is recorded. That run is not always the one you waited on: a parent blocked on a workflow: sub-run wakes when the chain below it reaches a gate, and respondTo.runId is the child you answer. A parent blocked on a child that is merely still running wakes nobody.
• unreadable — the run is parked but cannot describe itself (corrupt gate metadata, a gate type this build does not know, a sub-run pointer with no row). detail says which.

Two pauses deliberately do not wake a waiter, because neither is owed a response: a gate that has already been approved or rejected and is awaiting auto-resume, and a wait: node whose timer or event has not fired.

Once the wait is watching, it says so once on stderr — one plain sentence, or the same envelope with "result": "waiting" and the status it attached on under --json:

{ "ok": true, "action": "wait", "runId": "…", "result": "waiting", "observedStatus": "running" }

Until that line the command is completely silent, so a host cannot tell a watch that has begun from one still resolving the id. It is on stderr precisely so stdout keeps carrying exactly one document. A run that already has something to say answers on the first read, and never prints it.

The run id may be the short prefix printed by workflow runs. Once the wait returns, inspect the run normally with workflow get <run-id>.

Resume a failed or paused workflow run. Re-executes the workflow, automatically skipping nodes that completed in the prior run.

archon workflow resume <run-id>
archon workflow resume <run-id> --json   # validate + ack only; does NOT re-execute inline

In --json mode the command is a non-blocking control-plane ack: it validates the run is resumable and reports its state but does not re-execute inline (execution streams output to stdout, which would corrupt the JSON). To actually drive a resumable run to completion, use the blocking form or workflow resume <run-id> --detach.

When you already hold a run id, prefer that exact-id form. workflow run <name> --resume --detach selects the newest resumable run of that workflow in the current checkout, which is a different question — from another worktree it correctly finds nothing, and in a checkout with several historical runs it expresses less than the id you already have. Keep the name form for the case you actually mean: “the latest failed run of this workflow, here.”

Adding --detach inverts that: the child is re-invoked without --json, so it takes the inline path and does re-execute the run — just outside your shell. The ack carries continues: true to say so. See Detached control verbs.

Actively stop a running workflow started by the CLI with --detach. The command contacts the live process that owns that exact run, terminates its host process tree, confirms termination, and only then records the run as cancelled.

archon workflow cancel <run-id>
archon workflow cancel <run-id> --json

If the detached owner cannot be reached or its process tree cannot be stopped, the command fails and leaves the run state unchanged. This is deliberate: a database transition cannot prove that host work stopped. After separately verifying that the owner process is gone, use workflow abandon <run-id> to clean up an orphaned row.

workflow cancel applies only to a live detached CLI owner. Foreground runs remain owned by their terminal and should be interrupted there.

After termination is confirmed, cancel records cancellation through the same run-tree operation as abandon. Cancelling a parent therefore cancels every non-terminal descendant and can report the same cascade failures or blocked parent described below.

Discard a workflow run by marking it cancelled. This is a state-only operation: it does not stop a live host process or subprocess. Use it for paused runs and for orphaned rows after verifying that their owner is gone. To stop a live --detach run, use workflow cancel.

archon workflow abandon <run-id>
archon workflow abandon <run-id> --json

Sub-run trees (#2121 Phase 2): abandoning a parent that spawned workflow: sub-runs cascade-cancels every non-terminal descendant (children and grandchildren; already-terminal runs are left alone). These are database transitions, not process termination; an in-flight host command can continue until it returns. If part of the tree could not be reached, the command reports the count so you know descendants may still be alive. Conversely, abandoning a child that its parent is paused-and-blocked on strands that parent (nothing re-fires the auto-resume hook); the command surfaces the blocked parent’s run id so you can resume it (which fails the sub-run node cleanly) or abandon it too.

Approve a paused workflow run at an interactive approval gate. Optionally provide a comment that is available to the workflow via $LOOP_USER_INPUT.

Sub-run child gates (#2121 Phase 2): when a workflow: sub-run pauses at its own gate, the parent run pauses “blocked on child”. Approve (or reject) the child by its own run id — the id shown in the parent’s block message — not the parent’s; the parent auto-resumes when the child completes. A child gate is the exception: it works for a 1:1 sub-run, but a child that pauses inside a fan_out: expansion fails the node instead — a parent has one approval slot and cannot hand it to N children, so gate before or after the fan-out node rather than inside a child of it. approve/reject against the parent’s id while it’s blocked on a child are refused with a redirect to the child id.

Interactive-loop gates — finalize vs iterate: when the gate paused on an iteration where any declared completion channel fired (workflow get <run-id> --json → .metadata.approval.completionSignaled is true), approving with no comment accepts the completion — the node finalizes from the already-computed output on resume, with no re-run. Approving with a comment runs another iteration using it as $LOOP_USER_INPUT. When no completion condition met, both forms run another iteration.

archon workflow approve <run-id>
archon workflow approve <run-id> "Looks good, proceed"
archon workflow approve <run-id> --comment "Looks good, proceed"
archon workflow approve <run-id> --json   # record approval + ack; does NOT auto-resume inline

In human mode approve/reject auto-resume the run inline. In --json mode they record the decision and return an ack without resuming (the run is left resumable for a backgrounded resume/run --resume).

approve, reject, and resume accept --detach. The parent validates the run read-only with the same preconditions the operation itself enforces, so a wrong-status, missing-context, child_workflow-blocked, already-resolved, or no-working-path run is refused synchronously and nothing is spawned. The parent then hands the whole command to a detached child that owns all state mutation in its own process group. A shell that dies mid-flight can no longer wedge the run.

The parent also waits out the child’s startup window before acking, so a child that dies before it starts the run surfaces as an error carrying the tail of its log rather than as a success you only discover was false minutes later. A run that simply finishes inside that window — a short workflow, or one that fails on its first node — is acked normally; its outcome belongs to the run, and workflow get <run-id> reports it.

archon workflow approve <run-id> --detach
archon workflow approve <run-id> --detach --json

--detach --json deliberately differs from bare --json. Bare --json records the decision and withholds the inline auto-resume (you drive continuation separately). --detach --json spawns a child that takes the ordinary inline path, so the run is driven onward — approve’s auto-resume, reject’s on_reject rework, resume’s re-run — just outside your shell. The ack carries continues: true to say so:

{
  "ok": true,
  "runId": "…",
  "action": "approve",
  "detached": true,
  "continues": true,
  "workflowName": "assist",
  "logPath": "~/.archon/logs/detached-run-<id>.log"
}

Read continues to decide whether your automation still owns continuation. logPath is null when the log file could not be opened — the child still runs, but its output is discarded, so do not assume a string. Precheck failures follow each verb’s existing error contract: { ok: false } under --json, a thrown error otherwise.

Reject a paused workflow run at an approval gate. Optionally provide a reason that is available to the workflow via $REJECTION_REASON.

archon workflow reject <run-id>
archon workflow reject <run-id> --reason "Needs more tests"
archon workflow reject <run-id> --json

Delete old terminal workflow run records from the database.

archon workflow cleanup        # Default: 7 days
archon workflow cleanup 30     # Custom threshold

Clear persisted per-node AI sessions for a workflow — the cross-run memory stored by nodes that opt in via persist_session (or workflow-level persist_sessions: true). Use it when a workflow should forget its prior conversation and start fresh.

archon workflow reset-sessions <workflow-name> --yes             # ALL scopes (cross-scope wipe)
archon workflow reset-sessions <workflow-name> --scope <key>     # one scope only
archon workflow reset-sessions <workflow-name> --node <id> --yes # single node, still all scopes → needs --yes
archon workflow reset-sessions <workflow-name> --scope <key> --json

Flags:

Extra positional arguments are rejected rather than silently reinterpreted — use --node <id> to filter by node, since this is a destructive command.

Emit a workflow event directly to the database. Primarily used inside workflow loop prompts to record story-level lifecycle events.

archon workflow event emit --run-id <run-id> --type <event-type> [--data <json>]

<run-id> accepts either the full ID or an unambiguous prefix from workflow runs. A prefix resolves only from the originating registered project’s directory, including its worktrees; use the full ID elsewhere.

Flags:

Exit code: 0 on submission, 1 when a required argument is missing, the event type is invalid, or run-ID prefix resolution fails. Event persistence is best-effort (non-throwing) — check server logs if events appear missing.

Show all active worktree environments.

archon isolation list

Groups by codebase, shows branch, workflow type, platform, and days since activity.

Includes worktrees created for workflow: sub-run children that declared isolation: worktree (branch archon/task-<parentRunId8>-<nodeId>-<hash>-child-<n>) — they are tracked and cleaned up exactly like top-level run worktrees. Avoid cleanup/complete on one while its run tree is still resumable: a resume reuses the child’s recorded worktree and fails if it has been removed.

Remove stale environments.

# Default: 7 days
archon isolation cleanup

# Custom threshold
archon isolation cleanup 14

# Remove environments with branches merged into main (also deletes remote branches)
archon isolation cleanup --merged

# Also remove environments whose PRs were closed without merging
archon isolation cleanup --merged --include-closed

Merge detection uses three signals in order: git branch ancestry (fast-forward / merge commit), patch equivalence (squash-merge via git cherry), and GitHub PR state via the gh CLI. The gh CLI is optional — if absent, only git signals are used.

By default, branches with a CLOSED PR are skipped. Pass --include-closed to clean those up as well. Branches with an OPEN PR are always skipped.

An environment a workflow run can still claim is never removed by either mode, regardless of age or merge state — the same live-run lock the scheduled sweep applies. That covers running, pending and paused runs, and also failed runs: a failed run stays resumable, and removing its environment deletes the local branch that workflow run --resume and --adopt need. Stale environments with quiet conversations still pass the activity filter; the live-run lock is what keeps them on disk until no run can claim them.

Validate workflow YAML definitions and their referenced resources (command files, MCP configs, skill directories).

archon validate workflows                 # Validate all workflows
archon validate workflows my-workflow     # Validate a single workflow
archon validate workflows my-workflow --json  # Machine-readable JSON output

Checks: YAML syntax, DAG structure (cycles, dependency refs), command file existence, MCP config files, skill directories, provider compatibility, and tier/alias model refs. For bundled and global workflows, validation rejects @custom model aliases because they are not portable across projects; use small, medium, large, or a literal provider model string instead. Returns actionable error messages with “did you mean?” suggestions for typos.

Exit code: 0 = all valid, 1 = errors found.

Validate command files (.md) in .archon/commands/.

archon validate commands                  # Validate all commands
archon validate commands my-command       # Validate a single command

Checks: file exists, non-empty, valid name.

Exit code: 0 = all valid, 1 = errors found.

archon continue inferred a run from a branch name and injected a prose preamble of git history, pull-request text, and prior artifacts. Continuation that inherits prior work is identified by exact run id instead:

archon workflow runs --open                       # find the prior run id
archon workflow run archon-ship --adopt <run-id> "resolve the remaining review finding"

workflow run <name> --adopt <run-id> reuses a terminal run’s exact worktree or branch, records adopted_from_run_id provenance, and exposes prior artifacts through $ADOPTED_RUN_DIR. The orchestrating agent owns choosing the next workflow and writing the input; see --adopt <run-id>.

Remove a branch’s worktree, local branch, and remote branch, and mark its isolation environment as destroyed.

archon complete feature-auth
archon complete feature-auth --force  # bypass safety checks

Flags:

Use this after a PR is merged and you no longer need the worktree or branches. If GitHub has deleted a squash-merged branch, first prune its remote-tracking ref so the local clone reflects that deletion:

git fetch --prune origin # replace origin with the configured remote when needed
archon complete feature-auth

Completion verifies its patches are already on the configured or detected remote default branch before removing it. Accepts multiple branch names in one call.

Start the web UI server. On first run, downloads a pre-built web UI tarball from the matching GitHub release, verifies the SHA-256 checksum, and extracts it. Subsequent runs use the cached copy.

Binary installs only — in development, use bun run dev instead.

# Start web UI server (downloads on first run)
archon serve

# Override the default port
archon serve --port 4000

# Download the web UI without starting the server
archon serve --download-only

Flags:

The cached web UI is stored at ~/.archon/web-dist/<version>/. Each version is cached independently, so upgrading the binary automatically downloads the matching web UI.

Install the bundled archon-cli skill into both .claude/skills/archon-cli/ (Claude Code) and .agents/skills/archon-cli/ (Codex). The command overwrites existing files so both destinations match the current Archon binary. It also removes the retired archon and manage-run skill directories.

# Install into the current directory
archon skill install

# Install into a specific project
archon skill install /path/to/project

The unified skill covers workflow execution, run management, setup, configuration, authoring, and prompt guidance. It is also installed automatically during archon setup.

Show version, build type, and database info.

archon version

The CLI determines where to run based on:

1. --cwd flag (if provided)
2. Current directory (default)

Running from a subdirectory (e.g., /repo/packages/cli) automatically resolves to the git repository root (e.g., /repo).

When using --branch, workflows run inside the worktree directory.

Commands and workflows are loaded from the working directory at runtime. The CLI reads directly from disk, so it picks up uncommitted changes immediately. This is different from the server (Telegram/Slack/GitHub), which reads from the workspace clone at ~/.archon/workspaces/ — that clone only syncs from the remote before worktree creation, so changes must be pushed to take effect there.

At startup, the CLI strips all Bun-auto-loaded CWD .env keys and nested Claude Code session markers from process.env, then loads two archon-owned env files with override: true. Keys in archon-owned files pass through to AI subprocesses — no allowlist filtering.

On startup, the CLI:

1. Strips <cwd>/.env* keys + CLAUDECODE markers from process.env (via stripCwdEnv). Emits [archon] stripped N keys from <cwd> (...) when N > 0.
2. Loads ~/.archon/.env (user scope). Emits [archon] loaded N keys … when N > 0 and ARCHON_VERBOSE_BOOT=1 or LOG_LEVEL=debug/trace is set.
3. Loads <cwd>/.archon/.env (project scope, overrides user scope). Same verbosity gate as step 2.
4. Auto-enables global Claude auth if no explicit tokens are set.

<cwd>/.env is never loaded — it belongs to the target project. See Configuration Reference: .env File Locations for the full three-path model.

• Without DATABASE_URL (default): Uses SQLite at ~/.archon/archon.db — zero setup, auto-initialized on first run
• With DATABASE_URL: Uses PostgreSQL (optional, for cloud/advanced deployments)

Both work transparently. Most users never need to configure a database.

# One-off AI chat
archon chat "How does error handling work in this codebase?"

# Interactive setup wizard
archon setup

# Quick question (auto-isolated in archon/task-assist-<timestamp>)
archon workflow run assist --cwd ~/projects/my-app "How does error handling work here?"

# Quick question without isolation
archon workflow run assist --cwd ~/projects/my-app --no-worktree "How does error handling work here?"

# Plan a feature (auto-isolated)
archon workflow run plan --cwd ~/projects/my-app "Add rate limiting to the API"

# Implement with explicit branch name
archon workflow run implement --cwd ~/projects/my-app --branch feature-rate-limit "Add rate limiting"

# Branch from a specific source branch instead of auto-detected default
archon workflow run implement --cwd ~/projects/my-app --branch test-adapters --from feature/extract-adapters "Test adapter changes"

# Approve or reject a paused workflow
archon workflow approve <run-id> "Ship it"
archon workflow reject <run-id> --reason "Missing test coverage"

# Check worktrees after work session
archon isolation list

# Clean up old worktrees
archon isolation cleanup