CLI Reference
Ante can run as an interactive TUI, a one-shot headless command, a long-lived protocol server, or a channel gateway.
ante [OPTIONS] [COMMAND]
Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ante | Start the interactive TUI. If -p / --prompt is provided, run in headless mode instead. |
ante auth | Manage provider sign-in without starting an agent session. |
ante serve | Run a long-lived protocol server over stdio, a Unix socket, or WebSocket. |
ante gateway | Run the Slack / Discord channel gateway. |
ante update | Check for the latest Ante release and install it if available. |
ante offline | Manage the local inference engine used by offline mode. |
ante rage | Collect a redacted bug-report bundle (logs + environment) to share with the Ante team. |
ante catalog | Print the loaded provider catalog as JSON. |
ante doctor | Run a boot-time self-check and report startup phase timings. |
ante <name> | Run an external ante-<name> application. |
Global option
--profile <NAME> selects an existing ~/.ante/<name>.settings.json as the settings file for the whole process, reads and writes alike. It can appear before or after any subcommand, and ANTE_PROFILE is equivalent. An unknown profile warns and falls back to ~/.ante/settings.json rather than creating a new file. The bundled bare profile is seeded as a real file on first use and disables skills, MCP servers, session saving, auto-memory, and ambient UI features.
ante --profile work
ante update --profile work
ANTE_PROFILE=work ante doctor
ante
ante [OPTIONS]
Without --prompt, Ante starts the interactive TUI. With --prompt, Ante runs one headless task and exits.
The TUI needs stdout attached to a terminal. Redirecting or piping it (ante > log.txt) is refused up front with a message pointing at headless mode, rather than failing later on a cursor-position query.
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
-m, --model <MODEL> | Override the default model name. |
--provider <PROVIDER> | Override the API provider by catalog provider name. |
--effort <LEVEL> | Override the model's effort level for this run: min, low, medium, high, xhigh, or max. |
--yolo | Skip tool approval prompts for the session. |
--permission-mode <MODE> | Override the permission mode for this run: strict, auto, or yolo. Conflicts with --yolo. |
--system-prompt <PROMPT> | Replace the default system prompt entirely. Conflicts with --system-prompt-file. Persist a default with the system_prompt setting. |
--system-prompt-file <PATH> | Read the replacement system prompt from a UTF-8 file. Conflicts with --system-prompt. |
--append-system-prompt <TEXT> | Append content to the default system prompt. Persist a default with the append_system_prompt setting. |
--short-prompt | Use the compact prompt set for this run: a condensed system prompt and shorter built-in tool descriptions. Persist the default with the short_prompt setting. |
--skills | Load skills for this run, overriding the skills setting. Conflicts with --no-skills. |
--no-skills | Skip skill discovery for this run, overriding the skills setting. No skills are advertised to the model or available as slash commands. |
--enable-auto-memory | Enable auto-memory for this run, overriding the auto_memory setting. Conflicts with --disable-auto-memory. |
--disable-auto-memory | Disable auto-memory for this run, overriding the auto_memory setting. Conflicts with --enable-auto-memory. |
--tools <TOOLS> | Replace the default tool set with exactly these tools. Pass a comma-separated value or repeat the flag; a space-separated list is rejected. Overrides the tools setting. The old --allowed-tools name has been removed. |
--include-tools <TOOLS> | Add tools on top of the default set, or on top of the --tools base set. Pass a comma-separated value or repeat the flag. |
--exclude-tools <TOOLS> | Remove tools after --tools and --include-tools are applied. Pass a comma-separated value or repeat the flag. The deprecated --disallowed-tools alias remains accepted. |
--output-format <FORMAT> | Headless output format: json, human, or minimal. Defaults to minimal. |
-p, --prompt <PROMPT> | Prompt to run in headless mode. Also supports stdin when piped. |
--check | Run a verification pass after the headless task completes. |
-r, --resume <SESSION_ID> | Resume a previous session by ID. |
--session-save | Save the session transcript and resumable snapshot, overriding the session_save setting. Conflicts with --no-session-save. |
--no-session-save | Do not save the session transcript or resumable snapshot, overriding the session_save setting. Conflicts with --resume. |
--offline-model <PATH> | Path to a local GGUF model file for offline inference. |
-h, --help | Print command help. |
-V, --version | Print the Ante version. |
The session flags in this table configure the default TUI/headless run. Supplying one alongside a subcommand is an error rather than a silently ignored option; the process-wide --profile flag above is the exception.
Examples
ante
ante -p "explain what this project does"
git diff | ante -p "review this diff for bugs"
ante --provider openai --model gpt-5.6-sol -p "refactor the database module"
ante --effort max -p "find the race condition in the scheduler"
ante --profile work
ante --profile bare -p "review this repository"
ante --resume ses_01ARZ3NDEKTSV4RRFFQ69G5FAV -p "now add tests"
ante -p "summarize this repo" --enable-auto-memory
ante auth
ante auth login [PROVIDER] [OPTIONS]
Sign in to an OAuth provider without starting a TUI session. Today the supported provider is antix, and it is the default when [PROVIDER] is omitted.
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--force | Re-run browser sign-in even when stored credentials already exist. |
--no-browser | Print the authorization URL instead of opening a browser. |
-h, --help | Print command help. |
Examples
ante auth login
ante auth login antix --force
ante auth login --no-browser
ante serve
ante serve [OPTIONS]
Server mode exposes the Ante protocol over stdin/stdout by default, over a Unix domain socket when --sock is provided, or over WebSocket when --ws is provided.
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--stdio | Serve the JSONL protocol over stdin/stdout. This is the default transport. The three transport flags are mutually exclusive. |
--sock [PATH] | Serve the protocol over a Unix domain socket. Defaults to run/serve.sock in the Ante home when no path is given. |
--ws <ADDR> | Serve the protocol over WebSocket on the given loopback socket address. |
--offline-model <PATH> | Load a local GGUF model at startup for offline mode. |
-h, --help | Print command help. |
serve is session-agnostic, so it does not accept the session flags (--model, --provider, --yolo, --system-prompt, --tools, …). The connecting client configures those per session over the protocol.
The global --profile flag remains accepted and selects the settings file used by the server process.
--ws accepts loopback addresses only (127.0.0.0/8, ::1). A non-loopback address such as 0.0.0.0:8080 is refused before the listener binds — the protocol is unauthenticated, so exposing it beyond the local machine would hand any reachable client full tool access. To reach the daemon from elsewhere, front it with an SSH tunnel or an authenticating reverse proxy.
One host owns a socket at a time. --sock takes an exclusive lock on a .lock file beside the socket, so a second ante serve --sock on the same path refuses to start and leaves the running host's socket untouched. A socket file left behind by a crashed host holds no lock and is replaced on the next start.
Each client connection drives its own session. A client's Shutdown ends only that connection — the host keeps listening, and exits on SIGINT or SIGTERM.
Examples
ante serve
ante serve --sock # ~/.ante/run/serve.sock
ante serve --sock /tmp/ante.sock
ante serve --ws 127.0.0.1:8080
ante gateway
ante gateway [OPTIONS]
Gateway mode connects Ante to Slack, Discord, or both using the channels config file.
| Flag | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
--config <PATH> | ~/.ante/channels.json | Path to the channels configuration file. |
--model <MODEL> | local | Model to use for agent sessions. |
--provider <PROVIDER> | local | Provider to use for agent sessions. |
--output-format <FORMAT> | minimal | Gateway stdout format: json, human, or minimal. |
--offline-model <PATH> | - | Load a local GGUF model for all gateway conversations. |
-h, --help | - | Print command help. |
Examples
ante gateway
ante gateway --provider anthropic --model claude-sonnet-5
ante gateway --config ./channels.json --output-format human
ante update
ante update [OPTIONS] [CHANNEL]
The update command checks for a newer Ante release and installs it when one is available. Without arguments, it follows the channel in the active settings file (defaults to stable); select a named settings file with the global --profile flag. Passing a channel — either as a positional argument or via --channel — overrides the tracked channel for this run only. See Update & Channels for the full list of channels.
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
[CHANNEL] | Release channel to update from (stable or nightly). latest is accepted as a legacy alias for stable. Conflicts with --channel and --version. |
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--channel <CHANNEL> | Release channel to update from. Equivalent to the positional form. |
--version <VERSION> | Install an exact release instead of the channel's newest release. Accepts values with or without a leading v, such as v0.preview.93 or 0.preview.93. Conflicts with channel arguments. |
-h, --help | Print command help. |
Examples
ante update
ante update nightly
ante update --channel stable
ante update --version v0.preview.93
ante --profile work update
ante offline
ante offline <COMMAND>
Manage the local inference engine used by offline mode, without starting a session.
| Subcommand | Description |
|---|---|
install | Download and install Ante's pinned llama.cpp build. |
install converges the engine on the pinned build: it is a no-op when the pin is already installed, and replaces a different (or unrecorded) build otherwise, printing progress as it goes. It installs the same pinned, checksum-verified build as the TUI's /offline-mode dialog; running an offline model on a machine without the engine fails fast and points here.
Examples
ante offline install
ante rage
ante rage [OPTIONS]
When something goes wrong, ante rage gathers the context the Ante team needs to investigate into a single shareable archive that you can attach to a GitHub issue. By default it writes ./ante-rage-<timestamp>.tar.gz and prints a short summary. Nothing is uploaded — the bundle stays local until you share it.
Secrets are redacted before anything is written. API keys and OAuth tokens are reported only as present/absent (never their values), credentials embedded in URLs and known token shapes are masked, conversation transcripts and system prompts are excluded, and ~/.ante/auth/*.json and channels.json are never included.
The archive contains:
| File | Contents |
|---|---|
report.md | Ante version, OS/architecture, shell, git branch, the resolved model/provider, a provider authentication table (present/absent), the telemetry installation id if one exists, and a redaction notice. |
env.txt | Ante-relevant environment variables. Safe values are shown verbatim; known secrets appear as <SET> / <UNSET> only. |
settings.redacted.json | ~/.ante/settings.json with secrets removed (MCP server credentials and custom system_prompt / append_system_prompt text are stripped). |
catalog.redacted.json | ~/.ante/catalog.json with secrets removed, included only when a custom catalog exists. |
logs/ | Recent application and crash logs, filtered and scrubbed; each copy is prefixed with its date (<date>-<name>). DEBUG/TRACE lines are dropped so request bodies never enter the bundle. |
When a project settings file applies to the directory you collect from, its .ante/settings.json is included too, redacted the same way as the user file — so the bundle shows the settings that were actually in effect.
By default the newest logs are collected, up to 10 files or 10 MB (crash logs are always prioritized). Use --since to collect everything within a time window instead.
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--output <PATH> | Write the bundle to this path instead of ./ante-rage-<timestamp>.tar.gz. |
--no-compress | Leave the staging folder uncompressed instead of producing a .tar.gz. |
--verbose-logs | Also include DEBUG/TRACE log lines. Conversation transcripts and system prompts are still excluded. |
--since <DURATION> | Collect every log modified within the window, ignoring the file-count and size limits. Accepts <n>d, <n>h, <n>m, or a bare number of days (for example 7d, 48h, 90m, 2). |
-h, --help | Print command help. |
Examples
ante rage
ante rage --output ./ante-bug.tar.gz
ante rage --since 7d
ante rage --no-compress
ante catalog
ante catalog
Print the merged provider catalog (built-in presets plus ~/.ante/catalog.json) to stdout as a JSON document with a single providers array, in catalog order. Each provider embeds its preferred models with user model overrides applied, so the output is a published view for consumers; it is not the config-file schema and does not round-trip into ~/.ante/catalog.json. Warnings for skipped catalog entries go to stderr, so stdout stays a clean JSON document that pipes into jq. See the Catalog Reference for the config-file schema.
Examples
ante catalog
ante catalog | jq '.providers[].id'
ante doctor
ante doctor
Boot the same runtime a real launch uses — load the merged catalog, start a daemon session, and render the first TUI frame — then print a readiness report with per-phase timings. Use it to confirm Ante is installed and configured correctly, or as a CI smoke test ("does Ante boot, does the first frame render").
It needs no TTY and no API key: MCP warm-up is skipped and the session reaches readiness from the catalog alone. The report lists five checks — home (the Ante home and input history are writable), project (the project settings file that applies to this directory, or that none was found), catalog (provider/model counts), session (the resolved provider/model), and first frame (the headless render) — followed by a total. Warnings (such as no authenticated provider, a skipped catalog entry, a settings.json parse notice, or a key dropped from a project settings file) are listed below the table. doctor exits non-zero if any hard check fails, including an unwritable Ante home, so it works in scripts.
Examples
ante doctor
ante doctor || echo "ante is not healthy"
External applications
An unrecognized command name dispatches to an executable named ante-<name>, following the same convention as git subcommands:
# Runs ~/.ante/bin/ante-deploy or ante-deploy from PATH
ante deploy --target production
Ante searches ~/.ante/bin before PATH, passes remaining arguments through unchanged, and mirrors the application's exit status. Built-in subcommands always win, so an external executable cannot shadow ante update or another built-in. If no executable is found, Ante reports exit status 127 and still suggests a similarly named built-in for likely typos.
External applications receive ANTE (the absolute path to the Ante binary), ANTE_APP (the resolved app name), and the selected ANTE_PROFILE when one is active. Like help and usage errors, dispatch occurs before Ante starts its runtime, logging, telemetry, or crash hook.
Output Formats
| Format | Description |
|---|---|
minimal | Print agent messages, info, and errors only. |
human | Print all events in a human-readable format. |
json | Print events as JSON lines for machine processing. |