cratis-chronicle-cli-operations · git:20261012.c4b6c7f · 2026-10-12 · sha256 5d370a75cfa39a08

cratis-chronicle-cli-operations git:20261012.c4b6c7fA

Immutable. This exact content never changes and is served at /api/v1/blob/5d370a75cfa39a08.

---
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 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `Cratis.Cli` | `3.2.0` | the `cratis` command, its contexts, output formats, and command tree |

> Re-verified at `Cratis/cli` **v3.2.0** (originally written against 2.4.0): every command, branch, flag and output format this skill names exists there; the 2.x→3.x change is the Chronicle 17/18 wire migration plus new branches (`ai`, `arc`, `screenplay`, `prologue`, `llm`) this skill does not cover.
| `Cratis.Chronicle` | `18.3.0` | the observer, partition, sequence, and job concepts the CLI reads |

The CLI ships a **versioned machine-readable catalog of its own surface**, and
that catalog is the authority for exact command names on the installed version:

```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
no embedded `user:pass@` and no `apiKey=`: a cached access token first, then the
context's client id and secret.

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
error.

## Where to look

| Question | Where to look |
| --- | --- |
| Is the server healthy at all? | `cratis chronicle diagnose` (exit code 3 when unhealthy) |
| 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 does not retry itself.** It stays failed until something
clears it, so a stale value is permanent rather than slow. That distinction is
the whole diagnosis: "not arrived yet" and "will never arrive" look identical
from the outside.
- **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.
4. Show the dry run and obtain explicit authorization for that exact target and
action.
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`,
`observers retry-partition`, `observers clear-quarantine`, `jobs stop`,
`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
performs one of these, which makes `--yes` the authorization boundary. Declining
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 terminal Workbench (`cratis chronicle workbench`) presents the same
read-only data as a navigable full-screen view; reach for it when you are
exploring rather than answering one question.
- The browser Workbench owns redaction, revision, and event-type authoring.
- Narrator (VS Code extension `cratis.narrator`, verified at `v3.0.2`) browses stores, event types, observers and projections from the editor, using the same contexts in `~/.cratis/config.json`.
- 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.