Build on Chief — MCP server, REST API, and CLI

New to the CLI? Start with the CLI overview to install and authenticate first. Run chief help or chief <command> --help for full, generated usage at any time. This page summarizes the command tree and the most common flags.

chief
├── login                 Authenticate to a host and save credentials
├── doctor                Diagnose local configuration and connectivity
├── project               Manage the default project
│   ├── list
│   └── switch
├── chats                 Start and continue conversations
│   ├── create / send / get / list / update / delete
├── assets                Upload and manage files
│   ├── upload / list / get / update / delete
├── actions               Scheduled and triggered automations
│   ├── create / list / get / update / delete
│   └── enable / disable
├── labels                Organize assets with labels
│   ├── create / list / get / update / delete
│   └── attach / detach
├── skills                Reusable instructions for chat turns
│   ├── create / list / get / update / delete
│   └── enable / disable
├── memories              Persistent context the assistant recalls
│   └── create / list / get / update / delete
├── sessions              Inspect and manage sessions
│   └── list / get / update / delete
├── mcp                   Generate MCP server config for coding agents
│   └── config
└── api                   Make a raw authenticated API request

Chats

Start a conversation, send follow-ups, and read transcripts. By default create and send wait for the assistant’s response and render it as Markdown; pass --no-wait to return as soon as the turn is accepted.

# Start a chat and wait for the answer.
chief chats create "Draft a release note from the latest commits"

# Continue an existing chat.
chief chats send chat_5f3c "Make it half as long"

# Tune the turn.
chief chats create "Research our top three competitors" \
  --intelligence research \
  --provider anthropic \
  --skill competitor-analysis \
  --public-data \
  --label-id label_market

# Print the full transcript, or enqueue and poll later.
chief chats get chat_5f3c
chief chats create "Long-running analysis" --no-wait

By default the assistant’s answer renders as Markdown right in your terminal:

chief chats create rendering a two-bullet summary in the terminal — chief chats create renders the assistant's answer inline.

Turn-tuning flags (shared by create and send):

Flag	Description
`--intelligence`	Mode preset: `auto`, `fast`, `expert`, or `research`
`--provider`	Provider bias: `automatic`, `anthropic`, `openai`, or `google`
`--skill`	Enable a skill for the turn (repeatable)
`--public-data`	Allow public-web search (otherwise follows the mode preset)
`--label-id`	Scope to a label (repeatable)
`--asset-id`	Scope to an asset (repeatable)
`--chat-id`	Include a past chat as context (repeatable)
`--project-id`	Scope to a project (repeatable)
`--concept-id`	Scope to a concept (repeatable)
`--no-wait`	Return once the turn is accepted instead of waiting
`--timeout`	How long to wait for the response (default `5m`)

Assets

Upload a single file or a whole directory, then list, inspect, and manage what’s in your project. Uploads run in parallel, content-identical files are skipped server-side, and by default the CLI waits for each file to finish ingesting.

chief assets upload ./report.pdf
chief assets upload ./docs --recursive --concurrency 8
chief assets upload ./big.csv --no-wait        # don't block on ingest

chief assets list --limit 20
chief assets get asset_abc
chief assets update asset_abc --name "Q3 report" --description "Final"
chief assets delete asset_abc

Uploading shows per-file progress and skips content-identical files:

chief assets upload showing per-file ready, dedup, and failed statuses — Uploads run in parallel, skip content-identical files, and wait for ingest by default.

chief assets list then shows each file’s ingest status at a glance:

chief assets list table with ready and failed statuses — chief assets list shows each file's ingest status at a glance.

Flag	Default	Description
`--recursive`	`true`	Descend into subdirectories
`--concurrency`	`4`	Number of parallel uploads
`--no-wait`	`false`	Return after upload without waiting for ingest
`--timeout`	`15m`	Per-file wait timeout

Actions

Actions are automations that run a prompt on a schedule or in response to events, optionally emailing the result. update replaces an action wholesale — any schedule, trigger, scope, or email not passed as a flag is cleared.

# Every day at 07:00 UTC, summarize new assets and email the team.
chief actions create "Daily digest" \
  --prompt "Summarize assets added to the project in 5 bullet points" \
  --hour 7 --timezone UTC \
  --email team@example.com --email-subject "Daily digest"

# Run whenever a new asset lands in a label.
chief actions create "Triage incoming" \
  --prompt "Tag and route this document" \
  --trigger new --label-id label_inbox

chief actions list
chief actions disable action_123
chief actions enable action_123
chief actions delete action_123

chief actions list shows every automation, its schedule, and status:

chief actions list showing scheduled actions with their cron schedules and enabled status — chief actions list shows each automation, its schedule, and status.

Flag	Description
`--prompt`	Instruction the action runs (required on `create`)
`--description`	Human-readable description
`--hour`	Cron hour field (unset positions default to `*`)
`--weekday`	`` or a lowercase day name (`monday`..`sunday`); omit for ``
`--month-day`	Cron day-of-month field
`--timezone`	IANA timezone for the schedule (default `UTC`)
`--trigger`	Event trigger: `new` or `all`
`--email`	Email recipient (repeatable)
`--email-subject`	Subject line for the email outcome
`--label-id`	Scope the action to a label (repeatable)
`--asset-id`	Scope the action to an asset (repeatable)

Labels

Labels organize the assets in a project. Create one with an optional color and icon, attach it to an asset by name, and detach or delete it by id.

chief labels create "Contracts" --color "#6b7280" --icon file
chief labels list
chief labels attach asset_abc Contracts      # attach by name
chief labels detach asset_abc label_xyz      # detach by id
chief labels delete label_xyz

chief labels list shows every label in the project:

chief labels list showing label names, colors, and ids — chief labels list shows every label in the project.

Skills

Skills are reusable instructions (a prompt fragment, a persona, a procedure) you enable per chat turn with chief chats … --skill <name>.

chief skills create competitor-analysis \
  --content "When asked about competitors, produce a SWOT table and cite sources." \
  --description "Structured competitor breakdowns" \
  --scope project --category skill

chief skills list
chief skills disable competitor-analysis

chief skills list shows your reusable instructions and whether each is enabled:

chief skills list showing skills with their scope, category, and enabled status — chief skills list shows your reusable instructions and whether each is enabled.

Flag	Description
`--content`	Skill body (required on `create`)
`--display-name`	Human-readable name
`--description`	What the skill does
`--scope`	`project` or `user`
`--category`	`skill` or `persona`
`--icon`	Icon name

Memories

Memories are durable facts the assistant carries across conversations — identity, preferences, standing instructions.

chief memories create \
  --content "Always answer in metric units." \
  --category instruction --importance 8

chief memories list
chief memories update mem_abc --content "Answer in metric units, 24h time."

chief memories list shows the facts the assistant carries across chats:

chief memories list showing memory content, category, and importance score — chief memories list shows the facts the assistant carries across chats.

Flag	Description
`--content`	Memory text (required on `create`)
`--category`	`identity`, `preference`, `fact`, `context`, or `instruction`
`--importance`	Importance score
`--scope`	Empty (global) or `project`

Sessions

Live sessions are real-time working sessions in your project. List them, read one in full, rename or annotate it, or delete it.

chief sessions list --limit 20
chief sessions get session_abc
chief sessions update session_abc --name "Onboarding" --description "Notes"
chief sessions delete session_abc

chief sessions list shows recent live sessions in the project:

chief sessions list showing session names, descriptions, and timestamps — chief sessions list shows recent live sessions in the project.

Project

Manage which project the CLI reads from and writes to. list shows the projects your token can reach; switch sets the default for every later command.

chief project list
chief project switch project_d8a4td4dib27i4beefb0

chief project list shows the projects your token can reach, with their ids:

chief project list showing project names and project ids with the active one marked — chief project list shows the projects your token can reach — and their ids.

MCP

chief mcp config <harness> prints a ready-to-paste MCP server snippet for a coding agent, prefilled with your current credentials. Supported harnesses: claude, cursor, and codex. See MCP server for details.

chief mcp config claude

The snippet comes prefilled with your binary path and credentials, ready to paste:

chief mcp config claude printing an MCP server JSON snippet — chief mcp config prints a ready-to-paste server snippet with your credentials filled in.

Overview

CLI

Go SDK

Command reference

Chats

Assets

Actions

Labels

Skills

Memories

Sessions

Project

MCP

​Chats

​Assets

​Actions

​Labels

​Skills

​Memories

​Sessions

​Project

​MCP

Chats

Assets

Actions

Labels

Skills

Memories

Sessions

Project

MCP