CLI commands

alc --version prints the version. Every other flag belongs to a subcommand.

By intent#

The fast path when you already know what you want.

Setup#

alc init#

Scaffold a default .alc/ Operator Layer into the current directory. Detects your stack and writes real checks.

alc onboard#

Harvest the checks your project already declares — Makefile targets, package.json scripts — and propose adopting them into a project check set. Proposes first; writes nothing without approval.

alc setup#

Install or update the user-level editor skill.

alc lint#

Validate the Operator Layer against the Policy Gate. --json for machine-readable violations.

Running work#

alc run <blueprint> "<task>"#

Run one Blueprint as a verified Single Mandate.

alc spike "<task>"#

Sugar over the Prototyper pack's spike Blueprint: forced isolation, zero repairs, no commit or auto-merge, excluded from the Scorecard streak. --engine NAME is the only flag.

alc flow <flow> "<task>"#

Run a multi-stage pipeline. Same flags as alc run, with --tier applying to every stage and --isolate using one shared worktree for the whole flow.

alc specialist <name> "<task>"#

Run an area Specialist (Recall → Act → Learn). --engine NAME is the only flag.

alc conduct "<goal>"#

Let the Conductor plan which Flows and Specialists to run.

The queue#

alc enqueue <name> ["<task>"]#

Write one or more queue tasks directly, with no planning turn.

Omit the task argument when using --from-file.

alc tick#

Drain the task queue once and exit. Call it from cron.

alc retry [stem]#

Re-enqueue a failed task with its failure feedback appended. No stem lists the outstanding failures.

alc loop <name>#

Run an Autonomous Loop. By default it repeats cycles — replenish, drain, check stop conditions — until the loop stops, sleeping between them. With --once it runs a single cycle and exits; state persists between fires, so that is what cron calls.

alc cycle <name> (deprecated)#

The old spelling of alc loop <name> --once, kept because it is in people's crontabs. It behaves identically and warns on stderr. alc schedule writes the new spelling.

alc schedule install|list|remove#

Manage the crontab entry that fires alc tick or alc loop NAME --once.

alc schedule install tick --every 15m
alc schedule install cycle deliver --every 1h
alc schedule list --json
alc schedule remove cycle deliver

--every is required on install. name is required for cycle and omitted for tick. Install is idempotent; remove is scoped to ALC's own marker.

alc serve --webhook#

A minimal HTTP door onto signal intake and the enqueue path: POST /signal, POST /enqueue, GET /health. Validates and writes only; never executes.

Branches#

alc land [branch...]#

Integrate alc/* demand branches into the current branch by linear cherry-pick. No arguments lists the unmerged ones.

A push or PR failure never fails the land.

alc discard [branch...]#

Force-delete alc/* branches, prune stale worktrees, or remove old bundles. No arguments lists the unmerged branches.

Variants#

alc explore <blueprint> "<task>"#

Run N variants of the same unit in isolated worktrees. Never auto-merges.

alc compare [<branch|stem>...]#

Put explored variants side by side. Omit the refs to list every archived variant.

alc adopt <branch>#

Integrate the chosen variant and discard the other losing alc/variant-* branches. --yes confirms non-interactively; --json prints the outcome.

Authoring#

alc new <kind> <name>#

Scaffold a new unit from a core template. kind is one of blueprint, flow, specialist, loop, primer.

alc primer new <name>#

Scaffold a Primer at .alc/primers/<name>.md. --force overwrites.

alc prompts list|eject [name]#

Manage keyed prompt overrides in .alc/prompts/. eject writes a reserved default to a file so you can edit it; it requires a name. --force overwrites an existing override, --json applies to list.

alc team hire|list|status|retire#

Manage Archetype Packs. A bare alc team is the same as alc team status.

The five archetypes are prototyper, builder, sweeper, grower, maintainer.

Inspection#

alc status#

One-shot health snapshot for monitoring: pending tasks, outstanding failures, loop states, unmerged branches. Always exits 0. --json for the payload.

alc runs list|show|tail#

Inspect the structured run logs in .alc/runs/.

alc audit#

Aggregate the archived queue reports over a trailing window: task counts, Scorecard totals and averages, changed files, engine usage and cost.

alc metrics#

Show the metric-check time series from the project's ledger: value, delta against the previous measurement, and trend. Read-only.

alc checks audit|history#

A bare alc checks is the same as alc checks audit.

Both take --json.

alc artifacts [<stem>]#

List a run's captured e2e evidence — screenshots, curled responses, the health-poll log. Defaults to the most recent run that captured anything. --json for machine-readable output.

alc signal ingest|list#

--kind, --source and --title are required unless --from-file supplies an already-formed JSON object.

Web UI#

alc ui#

Serve the local web IDE. Requires the optional ui extra.