Relay Knowledge CLI

Code-map-backed repository knowledge loop

Workflow

Use the compiled relay-knowledge binary as the control surface. Resolve the executable before the first operation. Prefer JSON output for automation and read command metadata before issuing unfamiliar commands.

Treat cold and incremental repository indexing as status-driven workflows, not single long foreground waits. repo index and repo update submit durable single-writer tasks; a local CLI invocation may also run one bounded worker attempt before rendering its response. If the command runner times out before JSON is captured, recover through repo status <alias> --format json and inspect active_task, checkpoint counters, and freshness before retrying. If a managed platform service is already draining the code-index queue, poll status and do not start a competing worker. If no managed service is draining work and status shows a running task after the command runner killed a foreground attempt, inspect lease_expires_at_ms and checkpoint timestamps and wait for lease recovery before retrying. When repo status or the index/update response shows a queued or retrying code-index task, let the remote managed service drain it; only a local/service-host client may run bounded single-shot repo index-worker --task-id <task-id> --format json attempts before re-checking status. Do not replace leases with loops.

Prefer the bundled assets binary for the current operating system, CPU, and active command runner whenever it exists and version --format json succeeds. GitHub Release skill archives include Linux x64 and Windows x64 binaries at assets/linux-x86_64/relay-knowledge and assets/windows-x86_64/relay-knowledge.exe. Registry distributions such as ClawHub omit these binaries to satisfy per-file limits. Use the published PATH install when the bundled asset is missing, not executable, fails its version check, has no matching OS or CPU architecture, has no matching shell boundary, the Linux host is older than the glibc 2.28 baseline, or the user explicitly asks for the system-installed binary. Version comparisons are diagnostic only; do not choose a newer PATH binary over a working bundled asset by default.

The command examples below use relay-knowledge as readable shorthand for the resolved executable. When the bundled asset is selected, substitute that asset path for relay-knowledge while keeping the same arguments.

Use the command form that matches the active shell. Do not run the Windows bundled asset from POSIX shells. That includes bash, sh, zsh, fish, and WSL bash unless the command intentionally crosses into a Windows shell boundary. On POSIX, check only the POSIX asset first and fall back to PATH only when that asset is unusable:

bash

/absolute/path/to/relay-knowledge-cli/assets/linux-x86_64/relay-knowledge version --format json
command -v relay-knowledge
relay-knowledge version --format json

If the Linux asset fails before printing JSON with an error that mentions GLIBC_, treat the bundled asset as incompatible with that host and use a published install path built for the host instead of retrying the same asset.

powershell

$relayKnowledge = "C:\absolute\path\to\relay-knowledge-cli\assets\windows-x86_64\relay-knowledge.exe"
& $relayKnowledge version --format json
Get-Command relay-knowledge
relay-knowledge version --format json

cmd

set "RELAY_KNOWLEDGE=C:\absolute\path\to\relay-knowledge-cli\assets\windows-x86_64\relay-knowledge.exe"
"%RELAY_KNOWLEDGE%" version --format json
where.exe relay-knowledge
relay-knowledge version --format json

bash

relay-knowledge help --format json
relay-knowledge help repo query --format json

Do not use source-checkout build artifacts or source builds as an installation path. This skill is intended to operate published installs only. If the binary is missing, install it from a published channel first: prefer a verified GitHub Release archive, or use cargo install relay-knowledge from crates.io when Cargo is the selected published package channel.

Before downloading a binary from GitHub Releases or crates.io, tell the user to configure a proxy when their network requires one. Prefer standard HTTPS_PROXY, HTTP_PROXY, and NO_PROXY environment variables, and preserve those settings for checksum verification and follow-up diagnostics.

Do not use this skill for MCP setup, and do not start or configure MCP from this skill. If a task asks for MCP, Streamable HTTP, resources, prompts, sessions, or protocol tools, use the project MCP documentation or a separate MCP skill instead.

For repository knowledge navigation contracts, use references/knowledge-map-workflows.md. Prefer relay-knowledge map commands to create, read, update, delete, validate, and route the shared codespec/codespec-map.yaml and knowledge/knowledge-map.yaml contracts. Read that reference for repository bootstrap, spec work, coding work, commit refresh, or source reconciliation. When an editor, validator, or agent needs the machine-readable v4 artifact shape, load the Draft 2020-12 schemas at references/knowledge-map.schema.json and references/codespec-map.schema.json. They cover the typed roots, directory governance, topic shards, bounded recent history, and redirect while allowing unknown fields for Serde reader compatibility. The schema is structural guidance only: relay-knowledge map validate remains authoritative for digests, cross-file identity, route and recent-history continuity, and reserved sources. It does not grant permission to edit generated roots, topic shards, or redirects directly. Repository map archives are not retained; use Git or repository backups for history older than the latest 16 entries. For the intentionally authored knowledge/glossary/business-glossary.yaml, load references/business-glossary.schema.json. This separate Draft 2020-12 schema describes glossary schema v1 domains, terms, aliases, semantics, and technical mappings while allowing unknown fields for Serde reader compatibility. It is structural guidance: relay-knowledge map validate remains authoritative for the document byte limit, UTF-8 byte-sized fields, identity and domain-reference rules, and case-insensitive alias uniqueness. The authored glossary may be edited directly with normal source review. Do not hand-edit generated Knowledge Map YAML unless the CLI is unavailable and the user explicitly asks for manual repair.

When the user asks for a test, smoke check, or reproduction that should not touch existing runtime state, set an explicit temporary RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_HOME and clean it up after the scenario. Prefer local deterministic retrieval backends for isolated tests so smoke checks do not depend on external embedding services.

POSIX shells:

bash

export RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_HOME="$(mktemp -d /tmp/relay-knowledge-skill.XXXXXX)"
export RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_SEMANTIC_BACKEND=local
export RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_VECTOR_BACKEND=local

PowerShell:

powershell

$env:RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_HOME = Join-Path $env:TEMP ("relay-knowledge-skill-" + [guid]::NewGuid())
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $env:RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_HOME | Out-Null
$env:RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_SEMANTIC_BACKEND = "local"
$env:RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_VECTOR_BACKEND = "local"

cmd.exe:

cmd

set "RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_HOME=%TEMP%\relay-knowledge-skill-%RANDOM%-%RANDOM%"
mkdir "%RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_HOME%"
set "RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_SEMANTIC_BACKEND=local"
set "RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_VECTOR_BACKEND=local"

If each command runs in a fresh shell or tool call, pass these environment variables inline on every relay-knowledge invocation rather than relying on a previous export to persist. Prefer the tool's environment map when it is available. Otherwise choose one temporary absolute path for the scenario, substitute it into every command, and include the shell-specific assignments in the same command invocation.

POSIX per-command invocation:

bash

mkdir -p /tmp/relay-knowledge-skill-example && \
  RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_HOME=/tmp/relay-knowledge-skill-example \
  RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_SEMANTIC_BACKEND=local \
  RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_VECTOR_BACKEND=local \
  relay-knowledge status --format json

PowerShell per-command invocation:

powershell

$relayKnowledgeHome = Join-Path $env:TEMP "relay-knowledge-skill-example"; New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $relayKnowledgeHome | Out-Null; $env:RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_HOME = $relayKnowledgeHome; $env:RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_SEMANTIC_BACKEND = "local"; $env:RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_VECTOR_BACKEND = "local"; relay-knowledge status --format json

cmd.exe per-command invocation:

cmd

if not exist "%TEMP%\relay-knowledge-skill-example" mkdir "%TEMP%\relay-knowledge-skill-example" && set "RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_HOME=%TEMP%\relay-knowledge-skill-example" && set "RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_SEMANTIC_BACKEND=local" && set "RELAY_KNOWLEDGE_VECTOR_BACKEND=local" && relay-knowledge status --format json

Remove the temporary directory after capturing the test result.

Readiness

Check whether the resolved CLI works, then inspect runtime configuration and live health:

bash

relay-knowledge version
relay-knowledge setup doctor --format json
relay-knowledge health --format json
relay-knowledge service doctor --format json

On Windows, run the same diagnostics through the resolved executable.

Run live diagnostics with a command timeout when the host shell supports one, and report timeout as a diagnostic finding instead of waiting indefinitely. On Linux or hosts with GNU coreutils, timeout is acceptable:

bash

timeout 20s relay-knowledge health --format json
timeout 20s relay-knowledge service doctor --format json
timeout 20s relay-knowledge audit query --limit 50 --format json

On default macOS shells where GNU timeout is not installed, use the command runner's timeout setting if available. If only shell text is available, use a short POSIX watchdog for each diagnostic:

bash

relay-knowledge health --format json &
relay_knowledge_pid=$!
( sleep 20; kill "$relay_knowledge_pid" 2>/dev/null ) &
relay_knowledge_watchdog=$!
wait "$relay_knowledge_pid"
relay_knowledge_status=$?
kill "$relay_knowledge_watchdog" 2>/dev/null
exit "$relay_knowledge_status"

For online install or upgrades, prefer the official release path first and Cargo second:

bash

cargo install relay-knowledge
relay-knowledge version check --format json

version check only reports available stable versions. It must not replace the binary automatically. Follow installer or package-manager policy for the actual upgrade.

Code Repository Graph

For repository questions, make the index state explicit before querying. Use a short alias and narrow scope when the user provides relevant paths or languages. Start with repo list --format json when the runtime may already contain registered repositories; reuse a matching completed alias instead of creating duplicate registrations. The command is read-only and omits registrations that have never completed an indexed scope. For code-structure, code-query-kind, or repository relationship prompts, use the graph-backed CLI surfaces before raw text search:

• repo query --kind ... for code graph retrieval tied to symbols, definitions, references, calls, imports, or SBOM dependency facts.
• repo context for one bounded coding-agent context pack over the committed graph at an immutable ref.
• repo graph for an OKF v0.2 Markdown-bundle neighborhood rooted at an explicit --focus path and --path boundary. It is not a call graph.
• repo software --kind ... for repository-wide software graph projections: dependencies, SDK/API usage, files, topics, relationships, build, IaC, design, or all slices together.
• repo business --kind ... for authored domains, canonical terms, aliases, semantics, conflicts, and business-to-technical mappings.
• repo feature-flags for configuration-driven feature flags and guarded-code relationships.

Treat kind values as command-local. Do not pass repo software kinds to repo query, do not pass repo query kinds to repo software, and do not pass repo business kinds (terms, mappings, all) to either command. Do not use index refresh kinds (bm25, semantic, vector), worker kinds (embedding, ocr, vision, extractor), or knowledge-map source kinds (repo, file, doc, config, db, ci, runtime, wiki, monitoring) as repository query kinds.

Use --path only where the CLI supports a path filter: repo register stores the indexed scope, while repo query and repo feature-flags narrow reads inside an already indexed scope. Do not pass --path to repo index, repo scope preview, repo update, repo impact, or repo software; those commands use the registered scope plus their ref arguments. For non-Git source directories, use --ref HEAD for the normal moving filesystem snapshot. The worktree selector is for Git worktree overlays only.

Repository Knowledge Bootstrap

For repository initialization, prepare the knowledge map and code map as one recoverable workflow. Validate first; create or upgrade the map with map init; reuse a matching completed alias or register the root; index a clean HEAD baseline; add a worktree overlay only when authorized uncommitted state must be modeled. Wait for the exact target before reading the software model. Finish with the same-ref architecture view and another map validation:

bash

relay-knowledge map validate --format json
relay-knowledge map init --format json
relay-knowledge map route business-knowledge --type knowledge --format json
relay-knowledge repo list --format json
relay-knowledge repo register . --format json
relay-knowledge repo index <alias> --ref HEAD --format json
relay-knowledge repo status <alias> --format json
relay-knowledge repo business <alias> --kind all --ref <pinned-ref> --freshness wait-until-fresh --format json
relay-knowledge repo software <alias> --kind all --ref <pinned-ref> --freshness wait-until-fresh --format json
relay-knowledge repo view <alias> --kind architecture-layers --ref <pinned-ref> --freshness wait-until-fresh --format json
relay-knowledge repo view <alias> --kind business-domains --ref <pinned-ref> --freshness wait-until-fresh --format json
relay-knowledge map validate --format json

map init idempotently ensures the software-model route and the business-knowledge route whose repository-scoped source points to knowledge/glossary/business-glossary.yaml; it creates the minimal valid glossary only when that file is absent. Edit the glossary as the version-controlled authored business surface, but never copy derived architecture, build, IaC, resolved mapping ids, or commit facts into the Knowledge Map. Follow references/knowledge-map-workflows.md for missing/invalid-map handling, conditional register/worktree steps, durable task recovery, source reconciliation, and shell-specific examples.

repo query --kind Code Retrieval

Choose the command-local query kind from the user's intent:

• hybrid: natural-language discovery, broad concepts, or ambiguous code questions.
• symbol: symbol, class, function, method, type, or constant name lookup.
• definition: definitions, declarations, implementations, and API locations.
• references: references, usages, and "where is this used" questions.
• callers: incoming call edges and "who calls this" questions.
• callees: outgoing call edges and "what does this call" questions.
• imports: import, include, module, and dependency edges.
• sbom: package-manager dependency inventory from indexed manifests and lockfiles.

Use references/cli-workflows.md for deeper recipes, but keep this selection rule: if the user names a supported kind, use it directly. If the intent is unclear, start with --kind hybrid, then narrow to symbol, definition, references, callers, callees, imports, or sbom based on the returned evidence. For call-chain questions, expand callers or callees step by step from the known symbol and report when the CLI exposes only bounded one-hop call edges.

Large-repository budgets are elastic by default. The effective cold-index budget scales from the authorized Git file count and throughput baseline, then is capped explicitly; the historical 180-second value is not a universal hard timeout. Preserve durable staging, leases, checkpoints, single-writer behavior, and freshness checks while a long task progresses. Only an explicit fixed/strict benchmark mode opts out of elastic calculation.

Non-Git source directories use the same registered path filter and HEAD selector flow. The resulting indexed commit is a filesystem:<hash> snapshot; query HEAD after indexing unless you intentionally copy an explicit filesystem:<hash> from repo status.

Query only an indexed ref:

bash

relay-knowledge repo query core \
  --query retry_policy \
  --kind hybrid \
  --ref HEAD \
  --path src \
  --language rust \
  --freshness wait-until-fresh \
  --limit 10 \
  --format json

repo software --kind Software Graph

Use repo software when the user asks for graph relationships or a repository overview beyond one symbol-level code query:

• dependencies: package and manifest dependency facts.
• sdks: SDK/API usage and unresolved external target metadata.
• files: file roles and indexed source/document surfaces.
• topics: documentation and source topics discovered from indexed evidence.
• relationships: cross-domain relationships between files, topics, configs, dependencies, SDK/API usages, build targets, IaC resources, and design facts.
• build: build target and build-manifest facts.
• iac: infrastructure-as-code resource facts.
• design: design documentation and design element facts.
• all: all software graph slices for repository overviews or when the user asks for "everything" about the software graph.

For prompts like "show graph relationships", "what relates these modules", "dependency paths", "software architecture map", or "代码图关系", prefer --kind relationships first. Use --kind all when the user asks for a broad inventory that should include relationship context and all supporting slices.

bash

relay-knowledge repo software core \
  --kind relationships \
  --ref HEAD \
  --freshness wait-until-fresh \
  --limit 100 \
  --format json

repo business --kind Authored Business Graph

Use repo business when the user asks for a domain term, synonym or acronym, definition conflict, calculation semantics, or a business-to-technical link. Use terms for the glossary surface, mappings for technical links, and all when both are required. Pin --ref; add --domain when homonyms exist. Treat an ambiguous response as a request for domain evidence, never as permission to guess. Preserve unresolved target_hint metadata and use it as a bounded repo context or repo query seed rather than declaring repository damage.

bash

relay-knowledge map route business-knowledge --type knowledge --format json
relay-knowledge repo business core \
  --kind all \
  --query "conversion rate" \
  --domain sales \
  --ref HEAD \
  --freshness wait-until-fresh \
  --limit 20 \
  --format json

Feature Flags

For feature flag, config gate, environment-variable gate, settings gate, gray-release switch, or guarded-code prompts, use the separate repo feature-flags command. Do not invent repo query --kind feature_flag; feature flags are indexed graph facts, not a normal query kind.

bash

relay-knowledge repo feature-flags core \
  --query checkout \
  --ref HEAD \
  --path src \
  --limit 20 \
  --format json

repo feature-flags reads feature flag facts and FTS documents from the indexed scope. It must not recursively scan source at query time. After adding or fixing feature flag extraction rules, run repo index or repo update before expecting new facts in this command.

Spec-Grounded Incremental Loop

Before writing a spec, read map route business-knowledge --type knowledge and combine relevant route results with pinned repo business --kind all, repo software --kind all, both architecture/business-domain views, and requirement-specific code context. For a registered Git repository, omit both refs for the normal commit event:

bash

relay-knowledge repo update core --format json
relay-knowledge repo status core --format json

--head defaults to HEAD; --base defaults to the last successfully published clean Git commit and unwraps a preceding worktree:<commit>:<hash> identity. Use explicit refs for replay or audit, but never assume the branch is named main. The update is a durable, idempotent, single-writer task. A local CLI may drain one bounded attempt; a remote CLI may return it queued.

Do not run impact or context against moving refs. When a local update completes, capture and validate summary.base_resolved_commit_sha and summary.resolved_commit_sha. When an update is queued, treat .task.mode.incremental.base_ref and .task.resolved_commit_sha as the authoritative immutable pair. Let the managed service drain remote work, or use bounded local repo index-worker attempts, then poll repo status until status.last_indexed_commit equals the exact target and status.stale is false. Use the pinned pair directly; do not reissue an update merely to obtain a non-null summary:

bash

relay-knowledge repo impact core --base <pinned-base> --head <pinned-head> --limit 100 --format json
relay-knowledge repo business core --kind all --ref <pinned-head> --freshness wait-until-fresh --format json
relay-knowledge repo context core --query "explain the affected implementation" --ref <pinned-head> --freshness wait-until-fresh --format json
relay-knowledge repo software core --kind all --ref <pinned-head> --freshness wait-until-fresh --format json
relay-knowledge repo view core --kind architecture-layers --ref <pinned-head> --freshness wait-until-fresh --format json
relay-knowledge repo view core --kind business-domains --ref <pinned-head> --freshness wait-until-fresh --format json
relay-knowledge map validate --format json

When changed evidence includes Markdown, specifications, or the knowledge map, also inspect repo software --kind topics, repo software --kind relationships, and the OKF neighborhood with repo graph --focus <changed-markdown> --path <bundle-root> --ref <pinned-head>. repo graph requires a fresh indexed Markdown snapshot and is distinct from code call edges. Refresh the worktree overlay when an uncommitted map mutation must affect the current decision; otherwise commit it and publish it in the next update. See references/knowledge-map-workflows.md for the complete spec/coding contract and references/cli-workflows.md for deeper CLI recipes.

When the managed service and watcher are enabled, Git HEAD/ref reconciliation automatically submits the same durable incremental work after a commit. Treat repo update as explicit recovery, replay, or manual event ingress; do not replace the service with a shell polling loop.

Retention keeps active/recent/incremental/worktree/task/set-pinned scopes and retires older graph/index scopes through durable phased jobs. Without the service, repeat bounded index-worker calls until maintenance_error is absent and response/status report no maintenance. Under partitioning, preserve the counted catalog route through batched shard deletion; only the coordinator removes it immediately before final scope_metadata. Never bypass it to relieve capacity. SQLite reuses free pages; immediate file shrink needs separate bounded compaction. A truncated status scope listing is not exhaustive. A pruned ref is not a valid incremental base: create a full snapshot with repo index <alias> --ref <desired-head> and start a new update window instead of bypassing retention.

Keep non-Git directories separate: rerun repo index <alias> --ref HEAD after changes. They have no commit-ref event stream and do not participate in managed Git reconciliation.

If a Git commit leaves other files dirty, recreate the worktree overlay with repo index <alias> --ref worktree; the clean commit update does not claim that uncommitted remainder.

Use grep, ripgrep, rg, or other plain text search only as a fallback after the CLI is unavailable, the target scope cannot be indexed, the supported query/software kinds cannot express the request, or the user explicitly needs raw text or regex matching instead of graph semantics. Do not start with grep or rg for code kind or graph relationship queries.

Knowledge Graph

For non-code evidence, ingest scoped text, refresh derived indexes when needed, and query with freshness metadata:

bash

relay-knowledge ingest --source docs \
  --content "Rust async services isolate blocking SQLite work" \
  --entity Rust \
  --format json

relay-knowledge query SQLite \
  --source docs \
  --freshness wait-until-fresh \
  --limit 10 \
  --format json

relay-knowledge index refresh --kind bm25 --format json
relay-knowledge graph inspect --format json

Troubleshooting

If a command fails, prefer its JSON error when present; otherwise read the stderr or text error exactly and avoid guessing hidden state. Run diagnostics in this order:

bash

relay-knowledge status --format json
relay-knowledge setup doctor --format json
relay-knowledge health --format json
relay-knowledge service doctor --format json
relay-knowledge audit query --limit 50 --format json

For empty code results, verify repo status, the queried ref, path/language filters, and --kind. Use --kind hybrid before narrowing. For stale graph results, use --freshness wait-until-fresh or run index refresh explicitly.

For deeper command recipes, read references/cli-workflows.md.