CLI Reference

Chisel is a suite of terminal-native tools. All commands support a --machine flag for LLM-friendly output.

Global Flags

• -h, --help: Show help information.
• -V, --version: Show version information.
• -m, --machine: Output in machine-readable format (YAML).

Commands

chisel init

Initialize a new Chisel workspace in the current directory.

• Creates .chisel/ directory.
• Sets up default documentation and spec tracking.
• Generates PROMPT.md for AI agents.

chisel docs

Manage your project’s knowledge base.

• chisel docs overview: Show workspace stats and recent changes.
• chisel docs list: List available documents.
• chisel docs show <path>: Display document content.
• chisel docs index: Rebuild the local SQLite search index.
• chisel docs search <query>: Search documents using FTS5.
• chisel docs new: Create a new document.
• chisel docs edit <path>: Open a document in your $EDITOR.

chisel spec

Manage your project’s specs.

• chisel spec list: List specs (filter by --status).
• chisel spec view <id>: Show spec details.
• chisel spec new: Create a new spec (supports --template).
• chisel spec edit <id>: Open a spec in your $EDITOR.
• chisel spec status <id> <status>: Change a spec’s lifecycle status.
• chisel spec search <query>: Full-text search across specs.
• chisel spec delete <id>: Remove a spec.
• chisel spec index: Rebuild the spec search index.