CLI reference
Core commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
elephant | Shows the branded landing and next-step guidance. |
elephant init | Runs first-use onboarding, provider setup, creates the first elephant, and surfaces the Feishu IM handoff before wake opens. |
elephant status | Checks whether the active local install is ready. |
elephant provider | Configures or inspects the active provider, dialogue model, reasoning effort, context window, and embedding readiness. |
elephant provider embeddings status | Shows the active embedding provider selection, including local-default fallback versus a configured OpenAI-compatible override. |
elephant provider embeddings local | Switches semantic retrieval back to the local Elephant Agent embedding default. |
elephant provider embeddings openai-compatible --base-url <url> --model <id> --dimensions <n> | Persists one active OpenAI-compatible embedding override with an encrypted local API key. |
elephant herd new [name] | Creates a named Elephant Agent elephant, prompting only for any missing name. |
elephant herd | Lists known herd. |
elephant herd current | Shows which elephant wake will reopen by default. |
elephant herd use <name> | Selects one elephant as the current wake target. |
elephant herd delete <name> | Deletes one elephant. |
elephant herd delete --all | Deletes every elephant. |
elephant wake | Opens the main conversational surface. |
elephant wake --elephant-id <name> | Opens one specific elephant directly. |
elephant wake --message "..." | Runs a single turn without staying in the TUI. |
elephant skills | Lists the visible skill catalog outside wake, with subcommands for active, search, view, enable, disable, and install. |
elephant gateway setup | Opens IM setup and writes the selected adapter's wiring. Elephant routing is bound later with /elephant create <name> from the messaging surface. |
elephant gateway doctor | Runs whole-surface readiness checks across configured IM providers and accounts. |
elephant gateway describe | Prints the resolved IM provider and account wiring as JSON. |
elephant gateway feishu start --transport long-connection --detach | Starts the Feishu long-connection bridge in the background and returns immediately. |
elephant gateway feishu status | Shows the Feishu runtime status, account posture, PID activity, and runtime record paths. |
elephant gateway feishu stop --force | Gracefully stops the configured Feishu runtime, with --force available when needed. |
elephant gateway feishu restart | Restarts the configured Feishu runtime in the background. |
elephant gateway feishu logs ops-feishu --follow | Tails one Feishu account log and keeps streaming new output. |
elephant gateway discord setup --account-id ops-discord --bot-token-env-var ELEPHANT_DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN | Adds or updates one Discord account configuration. |
elephant daemon start | Starts the unified local daemon that serves IM adapters, cron, learning, and the dashboard HTTP surface. |
elephant dashboard | Opens the daemon-served dashboard, building frontend assets from a checkout when needed and starting the daemon by default. |
elephant upgrade | Backs up state, stops managed gateway/cron runtimes, upgrades the package, bootstraps storage, and restarts prior runtimes. |
Installers
| Command | When to use it |
|---|---|
| `curl -fsSL https://elephant.agentic-in.ai/install.sh | bash` |
| `curl -fsSL https://elephant.agentic-in.ai/install.sh | bash -s -- --channel stable` |
elephant upgrade --channel stable | Graceful in-place upgrade to the stable package stream. |
bash scripts/install.sh | Repo-local install from a checkout. |
bash scripts/install.sh upgrade | Rewrites the checkout-bound launcher. |
bash scripts/install.sh health | Runs health through the checkout-bound launcher. |
In-session control surfaces
Inside wake, these slash commands stay available without leaving the
conversation:
/status/recall/tools/skills/gateway/cron/providers/models/clear/exit
/skills now fronts discoverable skill packages inside the conversation, and
matching skill packages also register dynamic slash commands such as
/apple-notes .... Outside wake, elephant skills mirrors the same skill
inventory and install surface without opening the shell first.
Inside wake, /recall inspects understanding and recall, while the local
Dashboard is the place to inspect Personal Model claims, provenance, questions,
and corrections in one view.
/providers and /models keep provider
posture, dialogue model choice, and embedding readiness close at hand.
Embedding management stays under /providers, for example:
/providers embeddings status,
/providers embeddings local, and
/providers embeddings openai-compatible <base_url> <model_id> <dimensions> [api_key].
The built-in runtime already exposes this curated tool catalog:
terminal:tool.terminal.execprocess:tool.process.managefile:tool.file.read,tool.file.write,tool.file.patch,tool.file.searchweb:tool.web.search,tool.web.read,tool.web.extractbrowser:tool.browser.navigate,tool.browser.snapshot,tool.browser.click,tool.browser.type,tool.browser.scroll,tool.browser.back,tool.browser.press,tool.browser.images,tool.browser.vision,tool.browser.consoleclarify:tool.clarifycron:tool.cron.managecode_execution:tool.code.executepersonal_model:tool.personal_model.search,tool.personal_model.update,tool.personal_model.questionsmessaging:tool.message.sendtodo:tool.todo.manageskills:tool.skill.list,tool.skill.view,tool.skill.managesub_agents:tool.sub_agents
The wider extension surface still includes built-in skills, authored skills,
and recurring scheduled jobs on top of the built-in tools. The personal_model
family is the durable understanding surface: search returns active claims with
match status, update changes one lens/topic claim, and questions manage useful
future prompts.
Local dashboard
elephant dashboard is the private local web surface. It is served by the
unified Elephant daemon and reads live elephant.sqlite3 state through
page-specific internal dashboard routes such as
/v1/internal/dashboard/overview, /v1/internal/dashboard/runtime, and
/v1/internal/dashboard/tools.
That means:
- PyPI installs launch from the prebuilt dashboard assets shipped in the wheel, without requiring Node.js or npm at runtime
- repo checkouts can launch it directly after installing dashboard dependencies
- repo checkouts run one frontend build check before launch so the checkout is
current; use
--skip-buildonly when you are iterating and already know the frontend assets exist elephant dashboardstarts the daemon by default when it is not already running; use--no-startwhen you only want to attach to an existing daemonelephant dashboardopens the default browser automatically; use--no-openwhen you only want the URL printed in the terminal- use
--rebuildafter frontend code changes when you want to force a fresh dashboard asset build - installs that do not include
apps/dashboardassets stay truthful by printing launch guidance instead of pretending the web surface exists
Runtime paths
By default, Elephant Agent uses:
ELEPHANT_HOME=$HOME/.elephantELEPHANT_HERD_DIR=$ELEPHANT_HOME/herdELEPHANT_CRON_DIR=$ELEPHANT_HOME/cronELEPHANT_PAIRING_DIR=$ELEPHANT_HOME/pairingELEPHANT_SKILLS_DIR=$ELEPHANT_HOME/skillsELEPHANT_BUILTIN_SKILLS_DIR=$ELEPHANT_SKILLS_DIR/builtinELEPHANT_INSTALLED_SKILLS_DIR=$ELEPHANT_SKILLS_DIR/installedELEPHANT_AUTHORED_SKILLS_DIR=$ELEPHANT_SKILLS_DIR/authored
The messaging gateway shares ELEPHANT_HERD_DIR, so CLI and gateway state live in
one runtime database.