setup

name	setup
description	Use when setting up, checking, or connecting Cognee through the cognee CLI from Codex.

Cognee CLI Setup

Use this skill when the user asks to configure Cognee, check whether Cognee is ready, connect to a local or cloud Cognee instance, or inspect CLI capability.

Rules

• Use uv run cognee-cli ... as the primary interface.
• Do not use MCP for this plugin.
• Work from the Cognee repository root when available.
• Do not print secret values from .env, config files, shell history, or command output.
• If a command may create, delete, or overwrite durable Cognee state, say what it will affect before running it.

Checks

Start with the local command surface:

uv run cognee-cli --help
uv run cognee-cli --version

If dependencies are missing, use the repository command:

uv sync --dev --all-extras --reinstall

Inspect configuration without exposing values:

uv run cognee-cli config list

Use config get <KEY> only for non-secret settings. For secret-like keys, report whether the key appears configured rather than showing the value.

Connect

For a local backend:

uv run cognee-cli serve --url http://localhost:8000

For a hosted instance with an API key, do not paste the key into the transcript. Use an environment variable or an already configured credential.

For the plugin itself, durable configuration (COGNEE_BASE_URL, COGNEE_API_KEY, LLM_API_KEY, ...) belongs in ~/.cognee/.env — a one-time setup file shared with the Claude Code plugin, loaded at session start. Shell exports still override it per terminal. Guide the user to edit that file rather than exporting in every shell; never echo its secret values.

The file may hold both modes' variables at once: with nothing exported, cloud wins (COGNEE_BASE_URL routes the connection). To pin one terminal to a mode, the user exports COGNEE_BACKEND=local or COGNEE_BACKEND=cloud before launching — that beats the URL rule, and unset COGNEE_BASE_URL is NOT a way to go local (the file re-injects the URL on the next launch).

To disconnect:

uv run cognee-cli serve --logout

Multi-Agent Or API Mode

When the user wants concurrent or multi-agent use, prefer a running Cognee API server and pass:

uv run cognee-cli --api-url http://localhost:8000 <command>

For isolated session history and permissions, include:

uv run cognee-cli --user-id <uuid> <command>