sensegrep index --root .
sensegrep status --root .              # fast metadata-only stats
sensegrep status --root . --verify     # freshness check
sensegrep search "error handling and retry logic"
sensegrep search emit --exact --no-shake --include "src/**/*.ts"
sensegrep search "request flow" --purpose understand --json
sensegrep show <result-id> --before 10 --after 20
sensegrep literal "TODO:" --filesystem --max-output-bytes 50000 --json
sensegrep audit "regression risks" --base origin/main --require-coverage --continue-uncovered --max-total-tokens 8000 --max-output-bytes 32000 --max-batches 8
sensegrep investigate "where is access blocked before payment?" --dry-run
sensegrep daemon start
sensegrep daemon call --tool search --arguments '{"query":"request flow","limit":5}'
sensegrep survey "authentication login token" --limit 4
sensegrep cluster "checkout payment order cart" --limit 4
sensegrep detect-duplicates --cross-file-only --timeout 30s
sensegrep semantic-kinds --json

status, verify, search, graph, and indexed literal open existing indexes read-only. literal --filesystem and show use lightweight paths that do not open the vector table. If the table schema is old, commands report incompatibility and recommend an atomic full rebuild; they never recreate the active table. Search JSON defaults to minified schema v2 minimal cards (id/file/lines/symbol/kind/rank/relevance), while survey/cluster JSON defaults to actionable summary. Use --json-detail content|representatives|diagnostic|full, as supported by each command, --diagnostic, or --pretty to opt into heavier output. Audit --batch-tokens is a strict per-batch ceiling, including explicit split ranges from large files. Duplicate JSON omits code unless --show-code is set.

--json writes parseable JSON to stdout; progress and warnings are written to stderr. Argument errors under --json also use stdout JSON and exit code 2. --max-output-bytes is enforced against the complete serialized payload. Hybrid retrieval runs semantic and lexical work concurrently and uses one batched index read for lexical matches. --hybrid-mode adaptive is the default; --no-hybrid is available for latency-sensitive semantic-only discovery. Deterministic query embeddings are cached locally by opaque hash unless SENSEGREP_QUERY_CACHE=false. The daemon is query-only by default; daemon start --watch explicitly enables background incremental indexing. Use --log-format none when a JSON command must suppress all non-fatal logs entirely. If an --include/--exclude scope matches no indexed files, JSON output includes a structured warning instead of failing silently.