git:20260731.4a3a3c3 to git:20260731.d7d84c7

---

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.

---

# 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

```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

```

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`

## Management

```bash

cognee-cli datasets list # dataset operations

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

```

## Memory commands

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

```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

```

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

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

## 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.

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