CLI Overview

The netclaw CLI controls your agent — configuration, diagnostics, chat, daemon lifecycle.

netclaw <command> [options]

The Daemon column in each table indicates whether the netclaw daemon (the background process that manages sessions, connectors, and model routing) must be running for that command to work.

Commands

Chat & Sessions

Command	Description	Daemon	TUI
`chat`	Interactive terminal UI chat	Required	Yes
`chat -p <text>`	Headless single-prompt mode (supports `--resume` / `-r`, `--json`)	Required	No
`sessions`	Browse and resume recent sessions	Required	Yes
`sessions --once`	List sessions without the terminal UI	Required	No
`sessions --json`	JSON output (implies `--once`)	Required	No

First Run & Diagnostics

Command	Description	Daemon	TUI
`init`	First-run setup wizard (starts the daemon for you)	Not required	Yes
`doctor`	Config and connectivity diagnostics; `--fix` for auto-repair	Optional	No
`status`	Daemon runtime health, connector status, model info	Required	No
`stats`	Token usage, session counts, memory stats; `--tui` for dashboard	Required	No

Daemon Management

Command	Description
`daemon start`	Start daemon as a background process
`daemon stop`	Stop daemon gracefully
`daemon status`	Show daemon process status
`daemon install`	Install systemd user service (Linux)
`daemon uninstall`	Remove systemd user service (Linux)
`daemon pair`	Generate a pairing code (run on the host machine)
`daemon devices`	List paired devices
`daemon devices revoke <name>`	Revoke a paired device by name
`pair <endpoint>`	Pair this device with a remote daemon using a pairing code (run on the remote device)

See the Pairing Remote Devices guide for the full walkthrough.

Configuration

Command	Description	Daemon	TUI
`provider`	Manage LLM providers	No	Yes (bare invocation)
`model`	Manage model role assignments	No	Yes (bare invocation)
`mcp`	Manage MCP (Model Context Protocol) server profiles and tool permissions	Optional	Partial
`webhooks`	Manage inbound webhook routes	No	No
`secrets`	Store encrypted secrets via `secrets set <key> <value>`. See Secrets.	No	No
`reminder`	Manage scheduled reminders	Required	Yes (`ui` or `tui` subcommand)
`skill`	Manage skills and external skill sources. See Skills.	No	No

See Configuration for field references and config file details.

Housekeeping

Command	Description
`update`	Check for and install CLI updates; `--check` to check only
`version` / `--version` / `-V`	Print version, commit hash, and build timestamp

First Run

# First-time setup (starts the daemon automatically)
netclaw init

# Check everything is wired up
netclaw doctor

# Verify the daemon is healthy
netclaw status

If status shows errors, run netclaw doctor --fix to auto-repair common issues.

# Start chatting
netclaw chat

Once you’re up and running, head to First Conversation for a walkthrough of your first chat session.

netclaw status output

netclaw status shows the daemon’s health, active model, and connector states.

Config Files

File	Purpose
`~/.netclaw/config/netclaw.json`	Main configuration
`~/.netclaw/config/secrets.json`	Encrypted credentials overlay
`NETCLAW_*` env vars	Highest-priority overrides

See Configuration for field references.

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
`0`	Success
`1`	Validation, policy, or runtime failure
`2`	Usage or argument error

Background Update Check

Non-TUI commands silently check for updates on startup. TUI commands skip this — run netclaw update --check to check manually.

Version Output

netclaw 0.16.2 (commit 5f3f0ee, built 2026-04-30T03:18:25Z)

Quickstart — Get netclaw running from scratch
Installation — Platform-specific install instructions
First Conversation — Walk through your first chat session
systemd deployment — Run the daemon as a system service
Docker deployment — Containerized daemon setup
.NET CLI tools documentation — Background on .NET global tools, which is how netclaw is distributed
systemd user services — Reference for daemon install / daemon uninstall on Linux
Model Context Protocol spec — MCP specification