CLI Commands

Setup

`oak init`

Initialize Open Agent Kit in the current project. Creates the .oak directory structure with configuration, agent command directories, and team intelligence data.

Options:

Flag	Description
`--agent, -a`	Choose AI agent(s) — can be specified multiple times (claude, vscode-copilot, codex, cursor, gemini, windsurf)
`--force, -f`	Force re-initialization
`--no-interactive`	Skip interactive prompts and use defaults

Language selection happens interactively during oak init when you choose which AST parsers to install.

Examples:

# Interactive mode with multi-select checkboxes
oak init

# With specific agent
oak init --agent claude

# Multiple agents
oak init --agent claude --agent vscode-copilot

# Add agents to existing installation
oak init --agent cursor

`oak upgrade`

Upgrade Open Agent Kit templates and agent commands to the latest versions.

What gets upgraded:

Agent commands: Updates command templates with latest features
Feature templates: Replaced with latest versions
Agent settings: Smart merge with existing settings (your custom settings are preserved)
Database migrations: Applied automatically (schema changes, cleanup tasks)

Options:

Flag	Description
`--commands, -c`	Upgrade only agent command templates
`--templates, -t`	Upgrade only RFC templates
`--dry-run, -d`	Preview changes without applying them
`--force, -f`	Skip confirmation prompts

Examples:

oak upgrade --dry-run    # Preview changes
oak upgrade              # Upgrade everything
oak upgrade --commands   # Upgrade only commands

AI Agent Skills

Skills provide specialized capabilities to your AI agent:

oak — Semantic search, impact analysis, memory, and database queries against the team intelligence database
project-governance — Create and maintain project constitutions, agent instruction files, and RFC/ADR documents
context-engineering — Prompt and context engineering guidance using the four strategies (Write, Select, Compress, Isolate)
swarm — Cross-project search for collective knowledge, patterns, and decisions across swarm-connected projects

oak skill list         # List available skills
oak skill install <n>  # Install a skill
oak skill remove <n>   # Remove a skill
oak skill refresh      # Refresh all installed skills

Rules Management

Manage project constitutions and agent instruction files:

oak rules analyze          # Analyze project for constitution creation
oak rules analyze --json   # Output JSON for agent parsing
oak rules sync-agents      # Sync agent instruction files with constitution
oak rules sync-agents --dry-run  # Preview changes
oak rules detect-existing  # Detect existing agent instruction files

`oak rules analyze`

Performs comprehensive project analysis to determine if the project is greenfield, brownfield-minimal, or brownfield-mature. Useful for understanding the project context before creating a constitution.

Options:

Flag	Description
`--json`	Output JSON for agent parsing

`oak rules sync-agents`

Ensures all configured agents have instruction files that reference the project constitution. Creates files for agents that don’t have one, appends references to existing files.

Options:

Flag	Description
`--json`	Output JSON for agent parsing
`--dry-run`	Show what would be done without making changes

`oak rules detect-existing`

Checks for existing agent instruction files (.github/copilot-instructions.md, CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, etc.) and reports what exists.

Options:

Flag	Description
`--json`	Output JSON for agent parsing

Language Parsers

Add language support for better code understanding:

oak languages list                        # List parsers and status
oak languages add python javascript       # Add parsers
oak languages add --all                   # Install all 13 languages
oak languages remove ruby php             # Remove parsers

Supported languages: Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Java, C#, Go, Rust, C, C++, Ruby, PHP, Kotlin, Scala

Team (Daemon Lifecycle)

These commands manage the daemon lifecycle. Once the daemon is running, use the Dashboard for configuration, search, and memory management.

oak team start       # Start the daemon
oak team start -o    # Start and open dashboard in browser
oak team stop        # Stop the daemon
oak team restart     # Restart the daemon
oak team status      # Show daemon status and index statistics
oak team reset       # Clear all indexed data
oak team logs -f     # Follow daemon logs

Team Relay

oak team cloud-init          # Deploy relay Worker and connect (turnkey)
oak team cloud-init --force  # Re-scaffold and re-deploy with latest template
oak team cloud-connect [url] # Connect to a specific Worker URL
oak team cloud-disconnect    # Disconnect from the relay
oak team cloud-status        # Show relay connection state
oak team cloud-url           # Print Worker URL (for scripting)

Team Members

oak team members status      # Show team sync status
oak team members list        # List online team members

MCP Server

oak team mcp                 # Start the MCP server (used by agents)

CI (Index & Data)

These commands manage the codebase index, search, and data operations.

oak ci sync        # Sync daemon after OAK upgrade (re-indexes if needed)
oak ci port        # Show the daemon's port number
oak ci backup      # Create a backup
oak ci restore     # Restore from backup
oak ci index       # Rebuild the codebase index
oak ci config      # Manage CI configuration
oak ci search QUERY # CLI semantic search
oak ci memories    # Query stored memories
oak ci sessions    # Query session history

Agent Client Protocol (ACP)

OAK can act as a coding agent in ACP-compatible editors like Zed. See the ACP documentation for full details.

oak acp serve      # Start the ACP agent server (stdio transport for editors)

The ACP server requires the daemon to be running (oak team start). It communicates with the daemon over HTTP and translates between the ACP JSON-RPC protocol and the daemon’s REST API.

Swarm

Swarm enables cross-project federation — connecting multiple OAK projects into a unified search and agent network via a Cloudflare Worker.

oak swarm create -n NAME     # Create a new swarm configuration
oak swarm deploy -n NAME     # Deploy the swarm Worker to Cloudflare
oak swarm destroy -n NAME    # Remove the swarm Worker
oak swarm start -n NAME      # Start the swarm daemon
oak swarm stop -n NAME       # Stop the swarm daemon
oak swarm restart -n NAME    # Restart the swarm daemon
oak swarm status -n NAME     # Show swarm status and connected nodes
oak swarm mcp                # Start the swarm MCP server

Project Removal

oak remove         # Remove OAK configuration and files from the project

This removes:

.oak/ directory (including the daemon port file and all CI data)
Agent command files and settings (.claude/commands/, .cursor/commands/, etc.)
Agent task YAML files in oak/agents/ that were created by OAK
OAK-managed hooks, MCP registrations, and skills

It does not remove user content in oak/ (RFCs, constitution, insights, etc.) or the CLI tool itself.