CLI

elelem [command] [options] [args]

Options can go before or after the command. Any other command prints Unknown command: NAME and exits with status 1.

--model and --system-prompt are new in 0.13.0.

chat #

elelem chat -p anthropic
elelem -p ollama --model gpt-oss:latest
elelem chat -p anthropic --system-prompt "You are reviewing a Rails app. Do not edit files."

Prints elelem vVERSION, then reads lines at a > prompt. A line starting with / runs a slash command; any other non-empty line is a turn.

If building the session fails, for example an unknown provider or a missing API key, elelem prints elelem: <message> and exits with status 1.

ask #

elelem ask -p anthropic "What does lib/elelem/agent.rb do?"

Runs one turn with the words after ask as the prompt, joined by spaces, then exits. With no prompt, it prints Usage: elelem-chat ask <prompt> and exits with status 1.

Piping input #

When stdin is a pipe, its content is appended to the prompt in a fenced block:

git diff --staged | elelem ask -p anthropic "Write a commit message for this diff."

The model receives:

Write a commit message for this diff.

```
diff --git a/lib/elelem/cli.rb b/lib/elelem/cli.rb
...
```

Only a pipe counts. A redirect such as < notes.txt is not read; use cat notes.txt | elelem ask ... instead. You still need a prompt on the command line.

Where output goes #

When stdout is a terminal, progress and the reply stream to stdout as they happen: thinking, tool calls, and each reply.

When stdout is a pipe or a file, progress goes to stderr and only the final reply goes to stdout, after the turn ends. The reply is wrapped in a Markdown code fence:

With the stub provider and elelem-builtins installed:

elelem ask hello > answer.txt

```
done.
```

If the final reply is empty, elelem prints elelem: no reply and exits with status 1.

No prompting #

ask uses an input that never prompts. Anything that would ask you a question gets no answer. With the confirmation hook from elelem-tools, that means every tool set to ask is allowed without asking. Run ask only where you would let the tools run unattended.

ask also ignores input and output factories from plugins. It always uses the core output.

files #

elelem files > repo.xml
git ls-files '*.rb' | elelem files

Reads a list of paths, one per line, from stdin if it is a pipe, or from git ls-files otherwise. Prints each file that exists:

<documents>
<document index="1"><source>README.md</source><document_content><![CDATA[# My project
]]></document_content></document>
</documents>

index is the path’s line number in the input, so skipped lines leave gaps. Blank lines and paths that are not files are skipped. File content is written as-is inside CDATA, without escaping. Options are accepted but unused.

Use it to hand a set of files to a model in one prompt:

git ls-files lib | elelem files | elelem ask -p anthropic "Where is the plugin load path defined?"

help #

elelem help

Prints the same text as elelem --help:

Usage: elelem [command] [options] [args]

Commands:
  chat              Interactive REPL (default)
  ask <prompt>      One-shot query (reads stdin if piped)
  files             Output files as XML (no options)
  help              Show this help

Options:
    -p, --provider NAME              Provider to use (default: stub)
        --model NAME                 Model to use, passed to the provider
        --system-prompt TEXT         Role text prepended to the system prompt
    -h, --help                       Show this help

Other executables #

Several plugin gems ship the same CLI under another name with a different default provider:

Commands and options are the same. Unlike elelem, the provider executables do not load elelem-builtins, so they start with no tools or commands unless a plugin file adds them. elelem-ratatui does load elelem-builtins.

elelem-server, elelem-evals, and elelem-skills have their own options. See their pages under Plugins.

Logging #

elelem logs to stderr at the level in ELELEM_LOG_LEVEL, warn by default. Set it to debug to see every tool call and result:

ELELEM_LOG_LEVEL=debug elelem ask -p anthropic "List the files in lib."