--- 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 --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 ` 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 --server chronicle://:35000 cratis context set 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 ` — the error is on the partition, not in the log | | An observer is quarantined — why? | `chronicle failed-partitions show --detailed`, with attempt history | | Did this event actually get appended? | `chronicle events get --event-type --event-source-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 ` | | Is this projection registered? | `chronicle projections list`, then `chronicle projections show ` | | What does the read model actually hold? | `chronicle read-models get `, or `read-models instances` | | Is a replay or migration still running? | `chronicle jobs list`, then `chronicle jobs get ` | | What does the server itself recommend? | `chronicle recommendations list` | Inspection commands are read-only: `diagnose`, `version`, `event-stores list`, `namespaces list`, `event-types list|show`, `events get|tail`, `observers list|show`, `failed-partitions list|show`, `projections list|show`, `read-models list|instances|get|snapshots|occurrences`, `jobs list|get`, `recommendations list`, `subscriptions list`, `identities list`, `users list`, `applications list`, and `auth status`. ## 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. 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. - 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.