git:20261012.a7621fb to git:20261012.24c79a0

---

name: cratis-chronicle-cli-operations

description: Inspect and operate a running Chronicle server with the cratis CLI - contexts and connection resolution, machine-readable output, failed partitions, observers, event sequences, read models, projections and jobs, and the authorization discipline for replay, retry, quarantine clearing and other mutations. Use when the question is about the state of a live store rather than source code. Do not use to diagnose a defect that reproduces locally in source.

license: MIT

---

# Operate a running Chronicle with the `cratis` CLI

Source code says what *should* happen. When the question is what *is* happening

in a live store — a projection that will not move, an observer that stopped, an

event you are not sure was appended — read the server instead of the code.

## Verified product sources

This skill is verified against these exact sources:

| Package | Version | Purpose |

| --- | --- | --- |

The CLI ships a **versioned machine-readable catalog of its own surface**, and

```bash

cratis llm-context # every command, option and argument as JSON

cratis llm-context --schema # the JSON Schema for that document

cratis <group> --help # the same, one group at a time

```

Do not guess a command name from this file. This skill covers *when to reach for

the CLI and how to read what comes back*; the catalog covers *what to type*.

## Install and set up

`cratis` is a .NET tool published as `Cratis.Cli` with the command name

`cratis`. Install it with `dotnet tool install -g Cratis.Cli`, or through

Homebrew, or from a release binary. Follow with `cratis completions install`.

Once per project, so every agent working it can reach the store:

```bash

cratis init # detects the AI tools in use and writes project context

cratis init --refresh # re-capture after upgrading the CLI

```

Two things worth knowing before running it:

- The embedded catalog is a **snapshot**, not a live lookup. After a CLI upgrade

it still describes the older surface; `cratis init` reports the mismatch and

`--refresh` fixes it.

- If the repository's instruction file is supplied by a shared package or a

generated adapter, pass `--no-context`. Keep project-specific Chronicle

connection guidance in a repository-owned project context file; never patch

packaged or generated bytes.

## Reach the right server

The connection string resolves in this exact order:

1. `--server <CONNECTION_STRING>`

2. the `CHRONICLE_CONNECTION_STRING` environment variable

3. the active context's server in `~/.cratis/config.json`

4. `chronicle://localhost:35000`

Credentials are composed separately, and only when the resolved string carries

Prefer a named context over repeating a connection string:

```bash

cratis context create <name> --server chronicle://<host>:35000

cratis context set <name>

cratis context show

```

A context also carries `--event-store` and `--namespace` defaults; both can be

overridden per command with `-e` and `-n`. The event store defaults to

`default` and the namespace to `Default`.

**Be deliberate about which store you are pointed at.** The same commands read

production and a local container, and several of them mutate. `cratis context

show` before anything that writes; `--debug` prints the resolved config path,

context, redacted connection string, and RPC timing to stderr.

## Choose the output format

There is one output flag, `-o` / `--output`, with values `table`, `plain`,

`json`, `json-compact`, and `auto`. **There is no `--json` flag.**

- `auto` (the default) resolves to `json-compact` when an AI-agent environment

is detected, `plain` when `NO_COLOR` is set, `json` when stdout is redirected,

and `table` otherwise.

- `-q` / `--quiet` prints identifiers only, one per line — what you want when

piping one command into another. Combined with a JSON format it yields a JSON

array of identifiers.

- Prefer `plain` for large listings; JSON repeats every field name on every row.

Prefer `json`/`json-compact` for `show`/`get` commands where you need the

nested structure.

Exit codes are stable and worth branching on: `0` success, `1` not found, `2`

connection error, `3` server error, `4` authentication error, `5` validation

## Where to look

| Question | Where to look |

| --- | --- |

| Why has this read model stopped updating? | `chronicle failed-partitions list --observer <id>` — the error is on the partition, not in the log |

| An observer is quarantined — why? | `chronicle failed-partitions show <observer> <partition> --detailed`, with attempt history |

| Did this event actually get appended? | `chronicle events get --event-type <type> --event-source-id <id>` (`events tail` returns only the highest sequence number — not a count, not the events) |

| What is this event's shape in the store? | `chronicle event-types list`, then `chronicle event-types show <type>` |

| Is this projection registered? | `chronicle projections list`, then `chronicle projections show <id>` |

| What does the read model actually hold? | `chronicle read-models get <read-model> <key>`, or `read-models instances` |

| Is a replay or migration still running? | `chronicle jobs list`, then `chronicle jobs get <id>` |

| What does the server itself recommend? | `chronicle recommendations list` |

## Read what comes back

- **A failed partition is not necessarily quarantined.** Eligible failures retry

automatically under the configured budget; quarantined partitions stop retrying.

Missing `IsQuarantined` is Unknown, not healthy. A stale value can mean lag or a

stopped partition: inspect attempts and observer state rather than guessing.

Observer clear does not clear partition quarantine. Source: Chronicle

**v19.50.1**, `Documentation/concepts/observers.mdx`.

- **Fix the cause before replaying.** Replaying into an unfixed handler fails the

same way and buries the original error under a newer one.

- **A quarantined observer does not resume by itself.** A quarantine ends when

an operator clears it, or when the observer is subscribed again — for an

application observer, when the client reconnects, for example after a

redeploy. Clearing the quarantine is an explicit operation and the last step,

not the first. A redeploy that restarts the client can also end the quarantine

as a side effect, so check the observer's state before and after a redeploy.

## Before you change anything

Default to read-only inspection. A request to diagnose a live store does not

authorize replay, retry, removal, quarantine clearing, or another mutation.

These commands mutate the running store:

- `chronicle observers replay`, `replay-partition`, `retry-partition`,

`clear-quarantine`

- `chronicle jobs stop`, `chronicle jobs resume`

- `chronicle recommendations perform`, `chronicle recommendations ignore`

- `chronicle subscriptions add`, `chronicle subscriptions remove`

- `chronicle users add`, `chronicle users remove`

- `chronicle applications add`, `chronicle applications remove`

Where the Cratis hooks are installed, this boundary is enforced: a `PreToolUse` guard on shell

commands blocks every `cratis chronicle` command that is not on its read-only allowlist, unknown

commands and the interactive `workbench` included, with or without `--yes`. When it blocks, do not

retry or work around it; report the exact command, the target context or server, and what it

changes and why, and ask. A person who authorizes the mutation runs it, or sets

`CRATIS_HOOKS_ALLOW_STORE_MUTATIONS=1` in the environment the agent harness starts from.

Before any of them:

1. Name the exact server context, event store, namespace, observer, partition,

event sequence, or job that will change.

2. Capture its exact pre-state and the failure evidence that justifies the

operation.

3. Prepare the repository-approved inverse or safe compensation when one exists;

stop when the effect cannot be safely reversed unless the owner separately

authorizes that irreversible operation.

5. Re-read the target immediately before mutation and stop on drift.

### Two confirmation traps

**Destructive commands fail closed outside a terminal.** Every command with a

confirmation prompt — `observers replay`, `observers replay-partition`,

`jobs resume`, `recommendations perform`, `recommendations ignore`,

`users remove`, `applications remove`, `subscriptions remove` — asks

interactively, and when the session is **not** interactive (a script, a

pipeline, an agent harness) it does *not* proceed: it writes

"Re-run the command with --yes to confirm the operation" and exits with the

validation error code. `--yes` is therefore the only way a non-interactive run

the interactive prompt exits successfully having done nothing.

**Additive commands do not prompt.** `users add`, `applications add` and

`subscriptions add` run without confirmation in every mode.

Reaching for `--yes` to silence a prompt you have not read is how the wrong

store gets replayed. A failed partition you have not yet explained is not a

thing to clear: read it, fix the handler, then replay. Clearing it first

destroys the evidence and the same failure returns on the next event.

## What the CLI cannot do

There is no `delete`, `purge`, `redact`, or `revise` command. Event redaction

and revision are browser Workbench operations. Treat a request to "remove an

event with the CLI" as a request that needs a different tool and a separate

authorization.

## Related

- The browser Workbench owns redaction, revision, and event-type authoring.

- Source-level diagnosis belongs in the application's own diagnostic workflow;

start there when the symptom reproduces locally, and start here when it is

only visible on a running server.