TrinaxAI CLI Command Reference: ask, chat, index, and More

Every TrinaxAI CLI command is a subcommand of the trinaxai binary. Run trinaxai --help for a top-level summary or trinaxai <command> --help for per-command usage. Each command section below includes the full flag list extracted from the source.

All commands require the TrinaxAI backend to be running (trinaxai start) unless otherwise noted. Use trinaxai doctor to verify that services are healthy before running queries.

trinaxai ask

trinaxai ask — one-shot question

Send a single question to TrinaxAI and print the answer, then exit. Ideal for scripting, shell aliases, or quick lookups.Syntax

trinaxai ask [--session <name>] [--collections <ids>] "your question here"

Flags

Flag	Default	Description
`prompt` (positional)	—	The question or prompt text. Multiple words are joined into one string.
`--session <name>`	`default`	Session name used to persist this exchange to `~/.local/share/trinaxai/sessions/<name>.jsonl`.
`--collections <ids>`	—	Comma-separated collection IDs to scope the RAG retrieval, e.g. `--collections myproject,docs`.

Examples

trinaxai ask "What does the index.py file do?"

trinaxai ask always uses the RAG engine so answers are grounded in your indexed code and documents. To force the generative Ollama engine instead, use trinaxai chat --prompt "..." with --engine ollama set in your config.

trinaxai chat

trinaxai chat — interactive or single-shot chat

Start a streaming, context-aware chat session. Without --prompt, opens a full interactive REPL with multi-turn conversation history and slash commands. With --prompt, behaves like a richer version of ask with streaming output.Syntax

trinaxai chat [--prompt "text"] [--session <name>] [--collections <ids>]

Flags

Flag	Default	Description
`--prompt <text>`	—	Run a single prompt and exit instead of opening the REPL.
`--session <name>`	`default`	Conversation session name. Messages are appended to the session log on disk.
`--collections <ids>`	—	Comma-separated collection IDs to target for RAG retrieval.

Slash Commands (REPL only)

Command	Description
`/help`	Show all slash commands
`/exit` or `/quit`	Exit the chat REPL
`/clear`	Clear in-memory conversation history (session log is kept)
`/model [name]`	Show the current model hint or set a new one for subsequent messages
`/index [path]`	Index a folder directly from within chat (defaults to current directory)
`/status`	Print local service status

Examples

trinaxai chat

trinaxai index

trinaxai index — index a directory into RAG

Recursively indexes a local directory using AST-aware chunking and stores the result in the local RAG vector store. Indexing is incremental — on subsequent runs only changed files are re-processed.Syntax

trinaxai index [path] [--folder <path>] [--collection <id>] [--append]

Flags

Flag	Default	Description
`path` (positional)	—	Directory to index. Expanded to an absolute path automatically.
`--folder <path>`	—	Legacy alias for the positional `path` argument.
`--collection <id>`	`default`	Collection ID to store the indexed data in.
`--append`	`false`	Append-only mode: add new files but do not remove chunks for deleted files.

The indexer is invoked as a subprocess running index.py from the TrinaxAI project root. Environment variables such as TRINAXAI_INDEX_BATCH_SIZE (from .env) apply automatically.Examples

trinaxai index .

After indexing, run trinaxai browse list-files --collection <id> to confirm that your files were ingested correctly.

trinaxai research

trinaxai research — multi-pass deep research

Performs a multi-pass deep research query. TrinaxAI breaks the question into sub-questions, retrieves context from the RAG store across multiple passes, and synthesises a comprehensive answer with cited sources.Syntax

trinaxai research --query "question" [--collections <ids>] [--depth 1|2|3]

Flags

Flag	Default	Description
`--query <text>`	(required)	The research question.
`--collections <ids>`	—	Comma-separated collection IDs to scope retrieval.
`--depth <1\|2\|3>`	`2`	Number of research passes. Higher depth is more thorough but slower.

The output includes the generated sub-questions, the final synthesised answer rendered as Markdown, and a list of up to eight source citations showing file path and page number.Examples

trinaxai research --query "How does the auth middleware work?" --depth 1

trinaxai doctor

trinaxai doctor — system health check

Runs a comprehensive local health check and prints a summary table. Use this after installation or whenever a command fails to narrow down the root cause.Syntax

trinaxai doctor

Checks performed

Check	What it verifies
`Python package`	CLI import works correctly
`Service manager`	`service_manager.py` is present in the project root
`Ollama command`	`ollama` is on `$PATH`
`Services`	Reports running/stopped status via `service_manager.py status`
`RAG API`	HTTP health endpoint (`/health`) is reachable
`Index built`	At least one document has been indexed
`Projects`	Number of indexed projects
`Collections`	Names of the first five collections
`Usage stats`	Total messages and estimated token usage
`Memory summary`	Prints the AI-generated memory summary if one exists

The command exits with code 0 if the Python package and Service manager checks both pass, and 1 otherwise.Example

trinaxai doctor

┌─────────────────── TrinaxAI doctor ────────────────────┐
│ check            │ status │ detail                      │
│ Python package   │ OK     │ CLI import works             │
│ Service manager  │ OK     │ /home/user/TrinaxAI/...py   │
│ Ollama command   │ OK     │ /usr/local/bin/ollama        │
│ Services         │ OK     │ rag_api running | pwa running│
│ RAG API          │ OK     │ http://localhost:3333        │
│ Index built      │ OK     │ ready                        │
│ Projects         │ OK     │ 3                            │
│ Collections      │ OK     │ default, myproject, docs     │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

trinaxai memory

trinaxai memory — manage persistent memory entries

Creates, lists, and deletes persistent memory entries. Memories are short facts (“remember that the API uses JWT for auth”) that TrinaxAI injects into context automatically during chat. They persist across sessions and devices (via the shared backend state).Syntax

trinaxai memory <list|add|forget|refresh|summary> [flags]

Subcommands

Subcommand	Description
`list`	Display all stored memories in a table (id, text, tags, created)
`add`	Add a new memory entry
`forget`	Delete a memory by its ID or unique ID prefix
`refresh`	Re-generate the AI memory summary from all current entries
`summary`	Print the current AI-generated memory summary

Flags for memory add

Flag	Description
`--text <text>`	Memory text. If omitted, the CLI prompts interactively.
`--tags <tags>`	Comma-separated tags for organisation, e.g. `--tags auth,backend`.

Flags for memory forget

Flag	Description
`--memory-id <id>`	Full UUID or a unique prefix. If omitted, the CLI prompts interactively.

Examples

trinaxai memory list

trinaxai collections

trinaxai collections — manage RAG knowledge collections

Creates, lists, deletes, and switches between RAG collections. Collections are independent vector stores — useful for separating projects, clients, or topics so RAG retrieval stays focused.Syntax

trinaxai collections <list|create|delete|use> [flags]

Subcommands

Subcommand	Description
`list`	Show all collections with their ID, name, and creation time
`create`	Create a new collection
`delete`	Permanently delete a collection and all its indexed data
`use`	Set the active collection used by default for queries

Flags for collections create

Flag	Description
`--name <name>`	Display name for the collection. If omitted, the CLI prompts interactively.

Flags for collections delete

Flag	Description
`--collection-id <id>`	ID of the collection to delete. The `default` collection cannot be deleted. A confirmation prompt is shown before deletion.

Flags for collections use

Flag	Description
`--collection-id <id>`	Collection ID to activate. Saved to the local CLI config.

Examples

trinaxai collections list

trinaxai collections delete removes all indexed data for that collection. This action is irreversible. Re-indexing the source directory is required to restore the data.

trinaxai browse

trinaxai browse — browse indexed collections and files

Inspects the RAG index — lists collections, files within a collection, or the raw text chunks for a specific file. Useful for verifying that indexing succeeded and for debugging retrieval quality.Syntax

trinaxai browse <list-collections|list-files|show-chunks> [flags]

Subcommands

Subcommand	Description
`list-collections`	Show all available collections
`list-files`	List every indexed file in a collection with chunk count, size, and mtime
`show-chunks`	Display the raw text chunks stored for a given file

Flags for browse list-files

Flag	Default	Description
`--collection <id>`	`default`	Collection to inspect.

Flags for browse show-chunks

Flag	Default	Description
`--collection <id>`	`default`	Collection containing the file.
`--file <path>`	(required)	Relative file path as stored in the index.
`--limit <n>`	`50`	Maximum number of chunks to display.

Examples

trinaxai browse list-collections

trinaxai watch

trinaxai watch — file watcher daemon control

Controls the background file watcher daemon. When running, the watcher monitors one or more directories for changes and automatically re-indexes modified files into the RAG store without any manual intervention.Syntax

trinaxai watch <start|stop|status> [flags]

Subcommands

Subcommand	Description
`start`	Start the watcher daemon
`stop`	Stop the watcher daemon
`status`	Show whether the watcher is running and how many events it has processed

Flags for watch start

Flag	Description
`--paths <dir> [dir ...]`	One or more directories to watch. Multiple values are space-separated.
`--collection <id>`	Restrict auto-reindex to a single collection path.

Examples

trinaxai watch start --paths .

trinaxai export

trinaxai export — export a conversation session

Exports a saved chat session to a Markdown file. Each exchange (user message + assistant reply) is written out in order with role labels and timestamps. Useful for sharing conversations, creating runbooks, or archiving research sessions.Syntax

trinaxai export [--session <name>] [--format md] [--output <path>]

Flags

Flag	Default	Description
`--session <name>`	`default`	Name of the session to export. Sessions are stored at `~/.local/share/trinaxai/sessions/<name>.jsonl`.
`--format <fmt>`	`md`	Output format. Currently only `md` (Markdown) is supported.
`--output <path>`	`./trinaxai-<session>.md`	File path for the exported output. If omitted, the file is written to the current working directory.

Examples

trinaxai export

trinaxai start

trinaxai start — start all services

Starts all TrinaxAI local services: the RAG API (FastAPI) and the PWA frontend. Uses the platform’s service manager (service_manager.py) so the services are also registered for auto-start.Syntax

trinaxai start

This command has no additional flags. It runs service_manager.py start with a 180-second timeout and streams service manager output directly to the terminal.Example

trinaxai start
# Starting TrinaxAI services...
# rag_api  → started (pid 12345)
# pwa      → started (pid 12346)

On Linux the service manager uses user-level systemd units. On macOS it uses launchctl. On Windows it uses a subprocess supervisor. trinaxai start wraps all three transparently.

trinaxai stop

trinaxai stop — stop services

Stops AI services and optionally the PWA frontend. By default it stops only the AI backend (RAG API and Ollama supervisor). Pass --all to also take down the PWA.Syntax

trinaxai stop [--all] [-y | --yes]

Flags

Flag	Default	Description
`--all`	`false`	Also stop the PWA frontend (runs `stop-all` instead of `stop-ai`).
`-y` / `--yes`	`false`	Skip the interactive confirmation prompt.

Examples

trinaxai stop

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TrinaxAI CLI Command Reference: ask, chat, index, and More

trinaxai ask

trinaxai chat

trinaxai index

trinaxai research

trinaxai doctor

trinaxai memory

trinaxai collections

trinaxai browse

trinaxai watch

trinaxai export

trinaxai start

trinaxai stop

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Core Features

CLI Reference

Configuration & Security

Developer Guide

Documentation Index

​trinaxai ask

​trinaxai chat

​trinaxai index

​trinaxai research

​trinaxai doctor

​trinaxai memory

​trinaxai collections

​trinaxai browse

​trinaxai watch

​trinaxai export

​trinaxai start

​trinaxai stop

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

trinaxai ask

trinaxai chat

trinaxai index

trinaxai research

trinaxai doctor

trinaxai memory

trinaxai collections

trinaxai browse

trinaxai watch

trinaxai export

trinaxai start

trinaxai stop