scriptorium/docs/cli.md

CLI Reference

This is the canonical contract for invoking Scriptorium. Configuration discovery, precedence, application source locations, and server settings are defined in the configuration reference. The HTTP API reference owns service request and response behavior.

Shortest Useful Command

go run ./cmd/scriptorium render \
  --config ./examples/config.yml \
  --prompt generic.markdown_summary \
  --input transcript=./examples/fixtures/transcript.md \
  --input glossary=./examples/fixtures/glossary.yml

render prepares a request without calling an LLM.

Commands

• scriptorium run: prepare a prompt, call the configured LLM, and write the generated artifact.
• scriptorium render: prepare a prompt and write prepared-run output.
• scriptorium serve: start the HTTP server.
• scriptorium inspect prompt: inspect one prompt definition without model execution.
• scriptorium inspect profile: inspect one effective profile without model execution.
• scriptorium config validate: validate application configuration without building an engine.
• scriptorium config show: show the resolved application configuration.
• scriptorium config sources: show the ordered configuration sources.

All commands accept --config <path> and --config-overlay <name> and reject positional arguments. --config-overlay selects one application configuration overlay; it is separate from --profile, which selects a Promptkit execution profile. See configuration composition for name, root, and no-base behavior. run, render, serve, and inspect prompt require an effective prompt_dir; inspect profile does not. Supply the directory through the configuration contract or a supported --prompt-dir flag. Explicit application flags, including empty values, override file settings. Configuration load diagnostics go to stderr and exit with status 1; successful load warnings are printed once before command work.

scriptorium run

scriptorium run [flags]

Required flags:

Flag	Meaning
--prompt <id>	Prompt ID to execute.

Optional flags:

Flag	Meaning
--config <path>	Application configuration file.
--config-overlay <name>	Selected application configuration overlay.
--prompt-dir <dir>	Prompt-definition directory override.
--profile-dir <dir>	Custom profile-directory override.
--schema-dir <dir>	Schema base-directory override.
--prompt-version <version>	Optional prompt-definition version selector.
--profile <id>	Execution-profile override.
--session-id <id>	Optional direct session identifier.
--input name=path	Optional input file mapping; repeat or use comma-separated mappings.
--var name=value	Template-variable mapping; repeat or use comma-separated mappings.
--out <path>	Write generated content to this file instead of stdout.
--execution-report <path>	Write an opt-in terminal execution report as newline-terminated JSON to a separate file.
--llm-base-url <url>	Runtime endpoint override.
--model <name>	Runtime model override.
--api-key-env <name>	Runtime API-key environment-variable name override.
--temperature <float>	Runtime temperature override.
--max-tokens <int>	Runtime maximum-token override.
--top-p <float>	Runtime top-p override.
--reasoning-effort <value>	Runtime reasoning-effort override.
--timeout <duration>	Runtime timeout override using Go duration syntax.
--run-timeout <duration>	Optional whole-run engine deadline using Go duration syntax; zero or omission adds no deadline, negative values are invalid.
--transient-retries <integer>	Nonnegative additional transient attempt count for this request; 0 disables additional attempts.

Deprecated aliases: --prompt-id for --prompt, and --profile-id for --profile.

Omitted numeric runtime flags preserve the selected effective value; explicit zero values override it. --timeout 0s disables the per-attempt generation deadline only; the caller context and configured transport cap remain active. CLI durations are converted to whole seconds by truncation toward zero, so any duration whose absolute value is below one second becomes an explicit zero-second override. The timeout layers are defined in the Promptkit outbound integration contract. With the built-in client, each transient retry gets a fresh generation timeout; this flag does not limit the complete run. --run-timeout keeps subsecond precision and starts immediately before engine execution. It bounds preparation, capacity waits, retry waits, generation, and repairs where they honor context. Parsing, engine construction, and output writes are outside that interval. A failed run whose execution context reaches this deadline exits 1 with a safe deadline diagnostic; a completed invalid output still exits 2. It does not promise immediate interruption of synchronous work. Omitting --transient-retries inherits the application setting or Promptkit's current default of two additional attempts. The flag overrides only this request; it does not alter the configured engine. Structural repair generations have separate transient retry budgets.

There is no raw API-key flag. Use --api-key-env.

--prompt-version is passed directly to Promptkit. When it is omitted, the selected prompt ID must have exactly one available version. --input is optional at the CLI boundary: Promptkit decides whether the selected definition requires declared inputs or template-referenced values.

--session-id supplies a direct, non-secret session identifier. A nonblank value replaces a definition-rendered session ID; an omitted or blank value lets the definition supply one. Promptkit trims direct values and limits them to 256 Unicode code points. Use stable, non-sensitive identifiers because effective session IDs may appear in prepared output, run metadata, and provider-facing requests.

--reasoning-effort is presence-aware: omitting it inherits the selected profile value, a nonblank value replaces that value, and --reasoning-effort= explicitly clears inherited reasoning. Promptkit treats nonblank values as provider-specific opaque strings.

Execution report file

--execution-report requires a nonempty path. It is available only for run; - is an ordinary filename. Parent directories are not created. An existing file is replaced through ordinary file writing, without rollback or an atomic replacement guarantee. Generated content still goes to stdout or --out. Equal output/report paths, including existing paths that refer to the same file, are rejected before execution.

The file is written after engine execution when Promptkit supplies a terminal event, including for a failed run or invalid generated output. A failure before invocation leaves the report path untouched. If no terminal event is supplied, Scriptorium leaves the path untouched and emits a diagnostic; an existing file may therefore contain an older report. Artifact output is attempted first on a successful run, and report writing is attempted even if artifact writing fails. Any output or report write failure exits 1; already-written output is not undone. Without a write failure, the actual run keeps its usual exit status.

The HTTP API reference defines the shared report fields and usage-presence semantics. The file contains that JSON object followed by a newline.

The report excludes content, credentials, URLs, headers, and raw errors, but its identifiers can still be sensitive. The caller owns file retention and access.

scriptorium render

scriptorium render [flags]

--prompt <id> is required. The following optional flags are supported: --config, --config-overlay, --prompt-dir, --profile-dir, --schema-dir, --prompt-version, --profile, --input, --var, --out, --llm-base-url, --model, --api-key-env, --temperature, --max-tokens, --top-p, --reasoning-effort, --session-id, --timeout, --transient-retries, and --format text|json. Their meanings match the corresponding run flags; --format selects prepared-run output and otherwise uses defaults.render_format.

The same deprecated aliases and numeric/timeout behavior as run apply. The same session and reasoning inheritance, replacement, and clearing behavior also applies. render validates the retry override but does not generate model output or include a retry field in prepared output. render resolves profiles and schemas as part of preparation but does not call an LLM.

scriptorium serve

scriptorium serve [flags]

Optional flags:

Flag	Meaning
--config <path>	Application configuration file.
--config-overlay <name>	Selected application configuration overlay.
--addr <listen-address>	HTTP listen-address override.
--prompt-dir <dir>	Prompt-definition directory override.
--profile-dir <dir>	Custom profile-directory override.
--schema-dir <dir>	Schema base-directory override.
--artifact-root <dir>	Root for HTTP file input references.
--max-request-bytes <n>	Maximum encoded HTTP request-body bytes; 0 disables the limit.
--max-artifact-bytes <n>	Maximum HTTP file-input artifact bytes; 0 disables the limit.
--max-response-bytes <n>	Maximum encoded HTTP response bytes; 0 disables the limit.

serve accepts no runtime model override flags. HTTP request fields, response schemas, and error codes are defined in the HTTP API reference.

scriptorium inspect prompt

scriptorium inspect prompt --prompt ID [--prompt-version VERSION]
    [--config PATH] [--config-overlay NAME] [--prompt-dir DIR] [--format text|json] [--out PATH]

--prompt is required. Inspection uses normal configuration discovery and a --prompt-dir override, defaults to text regardless of defaults.render_format, and writes to stdout unless --out is supplied. It loads and normalizes the selected definition but does not resolve a profile, load a schema, render a template, reserve backend capacity, or call a model.

scriptorium inspect profile

scriptorium inspect profile --profile ID
    [--config PATH] [--config-overlay NAME] [--profile-dir DIR] [--format text|json] [--out PATH]

--profile is required; built-in profiles need no prompt directory. Inspection resolves profile inheritance and backend defaults, but never reads a credential value, loads a prompt, reserves capacity, or calls a model. Unset provider controls are shown as zero values when Promptkit leaves them unspecified.

Application configuration inspection

scriptorium config validate [flags]
scriptorium config show [flags]
scriptorium config sources [flags]

Each accepts --config, --config-overlay, --prompt-dir, --profile-dir, --schema-dir, --addr, --artifact-root, --max-request-bytes, --max-artifact-bytes, and --max-response-bytes. These are application configuration selectors and overrides; request, credential, backend-editing, output-format, and output-file flags are not accepted. Positional arguments are rejected.

validate writes no success output; status 0 means the application configuration loaded and passed its own validation. It does not establish that a prompt directory exists, credentials are present, or Promptkit can construct an engine. show writes ConfigKit's resolved, redacted YAML snapshot. sources writes one newline-terminated JSON array of source records in load order. Each record has id, label, and layer, plus path when available; explicit CLI overrides appear as synthetic sources. Defaults-only input without overrides produces [] for sources.

Diagnostics and warnings go to stderr, never into successful stdout. Parse, load, output, and diagnostic-write failures exit 1. Ordinary output writes may leave partial data on failure. The inspection output can contain paths, identifiers, api_key_env reference names, and ordinary extra_params values; protect it accordingly. Raw API-key values are not read or emitted by these commands.

Input And Variable Syntax

--input name=path maps an input name to a local file; --var name=value maps a template variable to a string. Both flags can be repeated or contain comma-separated mappings. Values may contain = after the first separator. Empty names and values are rejected.

CLI inputs are file references. HTTP inline inputs are defined by the HTTP API reference.

Output And Exit Behavior

• run writes generated content to stdout, or to --out when supplied, and writes a concise summary to stderr. The summary includes backend=<id> when Promptkit selected a backend; endpoint-only profiles omit it.
• render writes prepared-run output to stdout, or to --out when supplied, without a success summary. Text output includes selected_backend_id after selected_profile_id when Promptkit selected one; endpoint-only profiles omit it.
• serve writes startup and server errors to stderr.

Exit statuses:

Status	Meaning
0	Success.
1	Parse, configuration, loading, rendering, generation, output-write, or other runtime error.
2	run generated and wrote output, but validation failed.

A backend admission rejection is a runtime error and prints run error: model backend capacity is exhausted. The HTTP capacity response is defined in the HTTP API reference.

Workflows And Examples

The maintained render script is a copyable render workflow. The HTTP request example is for a running serve process.