git:20260731.d7d84c7 to git:20260808.7cd72c9

86 added, 28 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: cognee-cli

- description: Use when the user wants to drive cognee from the terminal with cognee-cli — ingesting data, building and searching the knowledge graph, managing datasets and config, memory commands, or database migrations.

+ description: Use when the user wants to drive cognee from the terminal with cognee-cli — remember/recall/forget/improve memory commands, managing datasets and config, or database migrations.

---

# Use the cognee CLI

`cognee-cli` ships with the package (entry point in `cognee/cli/_cognee.py`;

each command lives in `cognee/cli/commands/`). Every command has

`--help` with examples — prefer that over guessing flags. Needs

`LLM_API_KEY` configured, same as the SDK.

## Core flow

+ The memory commands are the primary surface as of cognee 1.x:

```bash

- cognee-cli add "Your text here" # also accepts file paths / URLs

- cognee-cli add ./docs --dataset-name my_project

- cognee-cli cognify # build the knowledge graph

- cognee-cli search "Your question" # GRAPH_COMPLETION by default

- cognee-cli search "keyword" --query-type CHUNKS

- cognee-cli delete --all # wipe local state

+ cognee-cli remember "Your text here" # also accepts file paths / URLs

+ cognee-cli remember ./docs --dataset-name my_project

+ cognee-cli recall "Your question" # query the graph

+ cognee-cli recall "keyword" --query-type CHUNKS

+ cognee-cli forget --all # wipe local state

```

+ `remember` is ingest + graph build in one step (`add` + `cognify` under the

+ hood); `--background`/`-b` runs the cognify stage in the background, and

+ `--dry-run` estimates LLM tokens/cost without ingesting. `recall` takes

+ `--datasets`/`-d`, `--top-k`/`-k` (default 10), and `--session-id`/`-s`.

+ `forget` targets `--dataset`, `--dataset-id`, `--data-id` (needs a dataset), or

+ `--everything`/`--all` — one unified command covering what `delete`, `prune`,

+ and `empty_dataset` used to do separately.

+ > **`forget --all` does not ask for confirmation.** It deletes every dataset

+ > immediately, even on a non-interactive stdin. The legacy `delete --all`

+ > prompts `Delete ALL data from cognee? [y/N]` first, so switching to `forget`

+ > silently drops that safety net — script it with care.

Search types match exactly 7 of the SDK's `SearchType` enum (`cognee/modules/search/types/SearchType.py`), those 7 being chosen in (`cognee/cli/config.py:SEARCH_TYPE_CHOICES`):

GRAPH_COMPLETION, RAG_COMPLETION, CHUNKS, SUMMARIES, CODE, CYPHER, GRAPH_REPORT

- Others must be reached from the SDK, not CLI; e.g. call cognee.search with `query_type=SearchType.TEMPORAL`

+ Others must be reached from the SDK, not CLI; e.g. call cognee.recall with `query_type=SearchType.TEMPORAL`

- ## Management

+ Note the CLI defaults `--query-type` to `GRAPH_COMPLETION`, whereas the SDK's

+ `cognee.recall()` auto-routes when `query_type` is omitted.

+ ## Session memory and enrichment

+ Session entries are currently written from the SDK — `cognee.remember(...,

+ session_id="chat_1")` — not the CLI (`cognee-cli remember` has no session

+ flag). The CLI side of session memory is reading and bridging:

```bash

- cognee-cli datasets list # dataset operations

- cognee-cli config get|set|list # configuration management

- cognee-cli -ui # launch API server + UI (see cognee-server skill)

- cognee-cli serve --url http://localhost:8000 # connect CLI/SDK to a running instance

+ cognee-cli recall "question" -s chat_1 # session cache first: without -d/-t

+ # this searches the session directly

+ cognee-cli sessions get # retrieve session Q&A history

+ cognee-cli improve -d my_project -s chat_1 # bridge session content into the graph

+ cognee-cli improve -d my_project # enrich/index the graph (no session)

+ cognee-cli feedback ... # attach feedback to results

```

- ## Memory commands

+ `improve` also takes `--node-name`, `--feedback-alpha` (default 0.1), and

+ `--background`/`-b`. `remember`/`improve` build their graphs through

+ `cognify()`, so cognify-level settings (e.g. `CONTRADICTION_DETECTION=true`)

+ apply to them too.

- Higher-level agent-memory surface on top of the core flow:

+ ## Legacy / lower-level commands

+ `add`, `cognify`, `search`, `memify`, and `delete` still ship and are what the

+ memory commands call underneath. Use them only to drive a single stage in

+ isolation; prefer `remember`/`recall`/`forget`/`improve` otherwise.

```bash

- cognee-cli remember "fact to keep" # store into permanent memory

- cognee-cli recall "what do I know about X" # retrieve

- cognee-cli memify # enrich the graph

- cognee-cli forget ... # remove memories

- cognee-cli improve # bridge session memory into the graph

- cognee-cli sessions get # retrieve session Q&A history

- cognee-cli feedback ... # attach feedback to results

+ cognee-cli add "text" && cognee-cli cognify # what `remember` does in one step

+ cognee-cli search "question" # `recall` minus routing/scope/session sources

+ cognee-cli memify -d my_project # custom extraction/enrichment tasks

+ cognee-cli delete --all # superseded by `forget --all`

```

- `remember`/`improve` build their graphs through `cognify()`, so cognify-level

- settings (e.g. `CONTRADICTION_DETECTION=true`) apply to them too.

+ ## Management

+ ```bash

+ cognee-cli datasets list # dataset operations

+ cognee-cli config get [key] [--show-secrets] # view one/all settings (API keys masked by default)

+ cognee-cli config set <key> <value> # set + persist to ./.env in the cwd

+ cognee-cli config unset <key> # reset a key to its default (also persisted)

+ cognee-cli -ui # launch API server + UI (see cognee-server skill)

+ cognee-cli serve --url http://localhost:8000 # connect CLI/SDK to a running instance

+ ```

## Relational DB migrations (Alembic)

```bash

cognee-cli upgrade # apply migrations

cognee-cli downgrade

cognee-cli history

cognee-cli current

```

Typically needed after version upgrades when the server refuses to start on

an old schema.

## Gotchas

- The CLI initializes cognee lazily; the first command in a fresh environment

is slow (DB + model setup), later ones are fast.

- - `add` without `--dataset-name` targets the default dataset `main_dataset`;

- cognify/search operate across your accessible datasets unless a dataset is

- given.

+ - `remember` (and `add`) without `--dataset-name` targets the default dataset

+ `main_dataset`; `recall`/`search` operate across your accessible datasets

+ unless a dataset is given.

+ - `forget` refuses to run bare — pass `--dataset`, `--dataset-id`, `--data-id`

+ (with a dataset), or `--everything`/`--all`.

+ - Session commands (`recall -s`, `sessions get`, `improve -s`) require

+ `CACHING=true` (the default) — with it off, session reads return nothing and

+ SDK session writes raise. To cut read latency and token cost while keeping

+ session memory, `cognee-cli config set AUTO_FEEDBACK false` — by default

+ cognee makes one structured-output LLM call per answered query to self-tune

+ its memory.

- `memify` requires one of the arguments -d/--dataset-name --dataset-id

- - `cognee-cli get` is not implemented presently; `cognee-cli set` is not working. The user must presently rely on .env and environment variables for config

+ - `config set`/`config unset` write to the `.env` file in whatever directory

+ you run the command from (creating it if missing). `config reset` (reset

+ *all* keys) is still not implemented.

+ - **Which `.env` actually wins is not always the cwd one.** At import, cognee

+ calls `dotenv.load_dotenv(override=True)`, which resolves relative to the

+ *cognee package location*, not your working directory. In a source/editable

+ checkout (`uv pip install -e .`) a `.env` at the repo root therefore shadows

+ the `.env` in the directory you ran from — and because `override=True`, it

+ also beats variables you `export`ed. Symptom: `config set` appears to do

+ nothing, or the CLI connects to a backend you thought you had overridden.

+ To test against different settings, move the repo `.env` aside, or set

+ values programmatically after import (`cognee.config.set_*`). (Under

+ `python -c` the cwd `.env` does win, because dotenv falls back to the cwd

+ when `__main__` has no `__file__` — which is why the same command can

+ behave differently as a script vs. `-c`.)