CLI Commands — Feynman Docs

This page covers the Feynman CLI commands and flags. feynman help prints the same list. Workflow commands like feynman deepresearch map directly to the REPL slash commands.

Core commands

Command	Description
`feynman`	Launch the interactive REPL
`feynman chat [prompt]`	Start chat explicitly, optionally with an initial prompt
`feynman help`	Show CLI help
`feynman setup`	Run the guided setup wizard
`feynman setup preview`	Install or verify pandoc
`feynman doctor`	Diagnose config, auth, Pi runtime, and preview dependencies
`feynman status`	Show the current setup summary (model, auth, alphaXiv, web access, service tier, telemetry)

Model management

Command	Description
`feynman model list`	List available models in Pi auth storage
`feynman model login [id]`	Authenticate a model provider with OAuth or API-key setup
`feynman model logout [id]`	Clear stored auth for a model provider
`feynman model set <provider/model>`	Set the default approved research model for all sessions
`feynman model tier [value]`	View or set the request service tier override

The model set command updates ~/.feynman/agent/settings.json with the new default. It accepts either provider/model-name or provider:model-name; run feynman model list first and choose a model ID from that output. feynman model login <id> goes straight to API-key setup for API-key providers such as google, amazon-bedrock, and openrouter. For OAuth logins in SSH or other headless sessions, paste the final redirect URL into Feynman when the browser runs on another machine.

AlphaXiv commands

Command	Description
`feynman alpha login`	Sign in to alphaXiv
`feynman alpha logout`	Clear alphaXiv auth
`feynman alpha status`	Check alphaXiv auth status
`feynman alpha search "query"`	Search papers through Feynman’s bundled alphaXiv client
`feynman alpha get <id-or-url>`	Fetch paper content and local annotations
`feynman alpha ask <id-or-url> "question"`	Ask a question about a paper
`feynman alpha code <github-url> [path]`	Inspect a paper repository
`feynman alpha annotate ...`	Read, write, list, or clear local paper notes

Use feynman alpha ... rather than a global alpha binary so the bundled client runs. See AlphaXiv.

Package management

Command	Description
`feynman packages list`	Show core packages and optional package presets
`feynman packages install <preset>`	Install an optional package preset
`feynman update [package]`	Update optional Pi packages you installed, or one of them; core packages update with Feynman

See Package Stack for the core packages and optional presets.

Web search

Command	Description
`feynman search status`	Show Pi web-access status and config path
`feynman search set <provider> [api-key]`	Set the web search provider (`auto`, `exa`, `perplexity`, or `gemini`) and optionally save its API key
`feynman search clear`	Reset the web search provider to `auto` while keeping API keys

See Web Search.

REPL hotkeys

Inside the interactive REPL, use /hotkeys to show the live keyboard map. The default reasoning controls are:

Hotkey	Action
`Shift+Tab`	Cycle thinking/reasoning level
`Ctrl+T`	Collapse or expand thinking blocks

Workflow commands

Every workflow prompt can also be run directly from the CLI:

feynman deepresearch "topic"
feynman lit "topic-or-lab"
feynman review artifact.md
feynman audit 2401.12345
feynman replicate "claim"
feynman recipe "fine-tune a small model for math reasoning"
feynman compare "topic"
feynman draft "topic"
feynman autoresearch "idea"
feynman summarize paper.pdf
feynman log

These are equivalent to launching the REPL and typing the corresponding slash command.

Flags

Flag	Description
`--prompt "<text>"`	Run one prompt and exit (one-shot mode)
`--model <provider/model\|provider:model>`	Force a specific approved research model for this session
`--service-tier <tier>`	Override the request service tier for this run
`--thinking <level>`	Set thinking level: `off`, `minimal`, `low`, `medium`, `high`, `xhigh`, `max`
`--cwd <path>`	Set the working directory for tools
`--session-dir <path>`	Set the session storage directory
`--new-session`	Start a new persisted session
`--continue`, `-c`	Continue the most recent session (the default for an interactive launch)
`--resume`, `-r`	Pick a previous session to resume
`--session <path\|id>`	Open a specific session
`--fork <path\|id>`	Fork a session into a new one
`--no-session`	Use an in-memory session that is not persisted
`--no-themes`	Skip theme loading (passed by ACP adapters such as pi-acp)
`--export <session.jsonl> [out.html]`	Export a session file to HTML and exit
`--alpha-login`	Sign in to alphaXiv and exit
`--alpha-logout`	Clear alphaXiv auth and exit
`--alpha-status`	Show alphaXiv auth status and exit
`--doctor`	Alias for `feynman doctor`
`--setup-preview`	Alias for `feynman setup preview`

When stdin is not a terminal, --prompt and workflow commands do not read it, so an idle pipe from a parent process cannot stall the run. Pipe text without --prompt to send it as the prompt, for example git diff | feynman --no-session.

Use the standard -- delimiter before an interactive prompt that starts with a dash, so Pi treats it as research text rather than another option:

feynman -- "- summarize the strongest evidence first"

For one-shot mode, attach a dash-leading value directly to --prompt:

feynman --prompt="- summarize the strongest evidence first"