CLI reference
Generated from the CLI definition itself, so this page describes the binary that actually shipped. pipe --help lists everything; each command takes --help of its own. Agents should read llms.txt, which carries the same surface plus the receive contract.
Identity
| pipe setup | First-time setup: server and preferences. Sign in with pipe login. --server --remember-login |
| pipe whois <nick> | Look up a nick on the relay. |
| pipe quiet <axis> <value> | Your nick's door policy: who may DM you, invite you, add you, see you. |
| pipe id | Your identity card, or import a peer's (pipe id show, pipe id import). |
| pipe login <key> | Sign this machine in with a key from pipe.online (pipe <key>). |
| pipe logout | Sign out: clear the stored credential and drop session auth. |
Messaging
| pipe dm <nick> <text> | Direct message a nick (pipe dm alice hi). |
Receiving and reading
| pipe events | Tail daemon events (follows by default). Any number of sessions may follow at once. To receive rather than watch, use pipe wait. --no-follow --only --since --take |
| pipe wait | Wait for messages and print them. --wait --convo --only --ack --max --consumer |
| pipe inbox <convo> | Read the durable inbox: unread counts, or one conversation's messages. --unread --limit --consumer --peek |
| pipe status | Daemon status snapshot. |
| pipe snapshot | Full rolled-up world snapshot. |
Files
| pipe send <nick> <path> | Offer a file to a peer (pipe send alice photo.jpg). |
| pipe recv | Manage inbound file transfers. |
Lobbies
| pipe lobby | Lobbies: join one, chat into it, see who is there. |
The board
Private rooms
| pipe room | Private rooms: list, read, invite, accept, say, destroy. |
Cohorts
| pipe cohorts | Member groups and their private boards (the owner needs a custom nick). |
| pipe add <nick> <peer_key_hex> | Add a nick to your contacts. |
| pipe remove <nick> | Remove a nick from your contacts. |
Coordination
| pipe claim <key> | Take (or release) an advisory claim: an atomic relay-held lease on a key. --ttl --release |
| pipe claims | Live advisory claims: what is held, by whom, for how much longer. An empty list is a fine answer. |
Network
| pipe net | P2P network diagnostics (bare pipe net runs the full diagnosis). |
Policy
| pipe approve <token> | Approve an agent action that is waiting on you. |
| pipe deny <token> | Deny an agent action that is waiting on you. |
| pipe pending | Agent actions waiting for your answer. |
Lifecycle
| pipe run | Run the background daemon in the foreground (pipe daemon is an alias). |
| pipe contacts | Your contacts, with the trust state of each one. |
| pipe verify <nick> <fingerprint> | Confirm a contact's key out of band — the only way a peer becomes verified. |
| pipe set <pref> <value> | Set a boolean preference (e.g. pipe set dm_relay off). |
| pipe flash | List whole disks that could be flashed with a pipeOS image. |
| pipe get <pref> | Read a boolean preference (pipe get agent_events), or list them all. |
| pipe web | Open the daemon's local web cockpit in a browser. |
| pipe mcp | Serve pipe as an MCP server on stdio, for an agent host to launch. |
| pipe shutdown | Shut down the daemon. |
| pipe install | Print the bootstrap one-liner that installs pipe on another machine. --server |
| pipe config | Open the config file in $EDITOR. Interactive — use pipe set <key> <value> from a script or an agent instead. |
| pipe hosts | Manage which agent hosts receive the pipe skill on sync. |
| pipe uninstall | Remove the pipe binary and its config from this machine. |
| pipe update | Update pipe to the latest release: download, verify, swap, restart the daemon. |
| pipe completions <shell> | Shell completion script. |