core-ai-cli-manual

name

core-ai-cli-manual

description

Complete operation manual for core-ai-cli covering all configuration, features, and operational modes. Use when the user asks about configuring core-ai-cli, understanding available features, reading or writing agent.properties, setting up LLM providers, memory system configuration, hooks, MCP servers, CLI commands, ACP mode, serve mode, remote agents, or any aspect of core-ai-cli operation. This skill is for both users and LLMs — use it to look up exact property names, defaults, and configuration patterns before making changes.

core-ai-cli Operation Manual

Comprehensive reference for configuring and operating core-ai-cli.

Configuration Files

File	Location	Purpose
agent.properties	~/.core-ai/agent.properties	Main configuration (global)
agent.properties	<workspace>/.core-ai/agent.properties	Per-project overrides (merges over global)
instructions.md	<workspace>/.core-ai/instructions.md	Project instructions injected into system prompt
MCP.json	<workspace>/.core-ai/MCP.json	Per-project MCP server overrides
hooks.json	<workspace>/.core-ai/hooks.json	Per-project hook scripts
Plugin hooks	~/.core-ai/plugins/<name>/hooks/hooks.json	Plugin-provided hooks

Configuration loading chain: workspace-local properties override global properties. For hooks, workspace hooks.json has highest priority, then global plugins, then local plugins.

Quick Start: Enabling Features

# Minimal: enable memory
agent.memory.enabled=true
agent.memory.daily.logs.enabled=true

# Enable coding mode
agent.coding.enabled=true

# Enable todo v2
agent.todo.v2.enabled=true

Document Index

For detailed reference, read the relevant file:

Topic	File
All agent.properties keys, defaults, and descriptions	references/agent-properties.md
CLI modes (interactive, headless, serve, ACP), flags, and commands	references/cli-modes.md
hooks.json format, events, environment variables	references/hooks.md
MCP server configuration	references/mcp.md
Memory system architecture, properties, and modes	references/memory.md
LLM provider configuration patterns (LiteLLM, OpenAI, DeepSeek, etc.)	references/providers.md

Feature Gates (Quick Reference)

Property	Interactive	Headless	Serve	ACP
agent.memory.enabled	true	true	true	true
agent.memory.daily.logs.enabled	false	false	false	false
agent.memory.prompt.extraction	false	n/a	n/a	n/a
agent.coding.enabled	false	false	false	false
agent.todo.v2.enabled	false	false	false	n/a

All boolean feature flags default to false unless noted. agent.memory.enabled defaults to true. Interactive mode = core-ai, Headless = core-ai --prompt, Serve = core-ai --serve, ACP = core-ai --acp-agent.

Writing Configuration

When instructed to add or change a property, edit the appropriate file:

• Global defaults: ~/.core-ai/agent.properties
• Project-specific overrides: <workspace>/.core-ai/agent.properties

Always use edit_file to modify existing files. Only use write_file when creating a new file. Property format: key=value (no spaces around =). Comments start with #.