@siftable/cli

Siftable CLI is the command-line interface to Siftable — your tasks, agent work queues, knowledge, calendar, people, and code intelligence, scriptable from the shell.

If you want Siftable inside your editor or coding agent (Claude, Cursor, other MCP clients), use the Siftable MCP server.
If you want the web app, go to siftable.io.

Quickstart

Installing the CLI

There's one package on the npm registry — install it with whatever you use:

# Run directly, no install
npx @siftable/cli <command>

# Install globally
npm install  -g @siftable/cli     # npm
bun  install -g @siftable/cli     # bun
pnpm add     -g @siftable/cli     # pnpm

Then run sift to get started. The binary installs as sift, with siftable and the exf compatibility alias. Full install notes live at siftable.io/docs.html#cli-install.

Authenticating

sift auth login

Or set a Personal Access Token directly:

export SIFT_TOKEN=sift_pat_your_token_here

Your first commands

sift tasks list
sift tasks create --title "Ship CLI v1"
sift notes search "deployment process"
sift work list --agent codex --json

The interactive copilot

sift interactive

A terminal copilot that acts on your filesystem and the Siftable work graph. It requires Bun (curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash); the command tells you if Bun isn't installed.

Performance-critical paths (context compaction, long-thread memory, filesystem scanning, merge orchestration) run through native Zig modules loaded via Bun FFI. The published package ships prebuilt libraries for macOS (Apple Silicon) and Linux (x64), which get the fast native path by default. Every native module has a lockstep TypeScript fallback, so other platforms still work — just without the native acceleration.

Mental model

Users plan commitments with sift tasks. Agents execute bounded queue items with sift work. User-visible executor identities, aliases, capabilities, and default permissions live under sift agents.

• sift tasks — human planning: outcomes, priority, acceptance criteria, project linkage, and human approval.
• sift work — executable agent packets: claim leases, assigned aliases, write scope, verification commands, artifacts, and review state.

Link the two with sift work create --task <task-id> rather than assigning an executor directly to a task.

Commands

The most-used surface, grouped by domain. Run sift --help or sift <topic> --help for the complete set (including datasets, graph, timeline, research, and evidence).

Full command reference

Auth

Command	Description
sift auth login	Authenticate with Siftable
sift auth logout	Clear stored credentials
sift auth status	Show current auth status

Tasks

Command	Description
sift tasks list	List human planning tasks (filterable by status, project)
sift tasks get <id>	Get human planning task details
sift tasks create	Create a human planning task
sift tasks update <id>	Update a human planning task
sift tasks complete <id>	Mark a human planning task complete
sift tasks delete <id>	Delete a human planning task

Work

Command	Description
sift work list	List executable agent work queue items
sift work create	Create a bounded executable agent work item
sift work claim	Claim queued executable work with a lease
sift work start <id>	Mark claimed work as running
sift work heartbeat <id>	Extend a claim lease
sift work block <id>	Mark work blocked
sift work review <id>	Mark work as needing review
sift work complete <id>	Approve and complete work with summary/artifacts
sift work fail <id>	Mark work failed
sift work release <id>	Release a claim back to the queue
sift work cancel <id>	Cancel work

Agents

Command	Description
sift agents list	List user-visible agent aliases
sift agents get <alias>	Get alias capabilities and permissions
sift agents create	Create an agent alias
sift agents update <alias>	Update alias metadata
sift agents disable <alias>	Disable an alias without deleting history
sift agents work <alias>	List executable work assigned to an alias

Projects

Command	Description
sift projects list	List projects
sift projects create	Create a project
sift projects update <id>	Update a project
sift projects archive <id>	Archive a project
sift projects context <id>	Get full project context

Notes

Command	Description
sift notes list	List notes
sift notes get <id>	Get note with full content
sift notes create	Create a note
sift notes search <query>	Search knowledge base
sift notes update <id>	Update a note
sift notes delete <id>	Delete a note

Calendar

Command	Description
sift calendar list	List events (filterable by date range)
sift calendar create	Create an event
sift calendar update <id>	Update an event
sift calendar delete <id>	Delete an event

People

Command	Description
sift people list	List contacts
sift people search <query>	Search contacts

Codebase

Command	Description
sift codebase list	List indexed repositories
sift codebase register	Register a repo for indexing
sift codebase status <id>	Check indexing status
sift codebase index <id>	Trigger indexing
sift codebase search <query> [--repo <id>|--project <id>]	Semantic code search scoped to the current registered repo by default
sift codebase snapshot <id>	Get latest snapshot
sift codebase delete <id>	Delete a repository

Code tools

Command	Description
sift code history <repo>	Get commit history
sift code who-knows <repo> <area>	Find experts for a code area
sift code blame <file>	Git blame for a file
sift code link <task>	Link a task to code
sift code expertise <repo>	Refresh expertise index
sift code memory store	Store a codebase fact
sift code memory list	List stored facts
sift code memory search <query>	Search stored facts
sift code memory delete <id>	Delete a stored fact

Vault

Command	Description
sift vault list	List vault entries (metadata only)
sift vault create	Store an encrypted secret
sift vault read <id>	Retired; use first-party web reveal until brokered use and approved materialization ship
sift vault search <query>	Search vault entries
sift vault update <id>	Update entry metadata

Documents

Command	Description
sift documents upload <file>	Upload a document (PDF, MD, TXT) as a note

Codex automation

Command	Description
sift codex daily-review collect --json	Collect read-only Siftable and local git context for daily Codex reviews

Scripting

Every command supports --json for structured output, so the CLI composes with other tools:

# List tasks as JSON and filter with jq
sift tasks list --json | jq '.[] | select(.status == "in_progress")'

# Create a human planning task and capture the ID
TASK_ID=$(sift tasks create --title "Deploy v2" --json | jq -r '.task.id')

# Create executable agent work linked to the human task
sift work create --task "$TASK_ID" --agent codex --title "Implement Deploy v2" --verify "npm run build;npm test"

# Use in CI/CD scripts
export SIFT_TOKEN=sift_pat_...
sift tasks complete "$TASK_ID"

Configuration

Global flags (each maps to an environment variable where noted):

Flag	Env var	Description
--token	SIFT_TOKEN	Personal access token
--api-url	SIFT_API_URL	API base URL (default: https://siftable.io)
--json	—	Output raw JSON instead of tables
--no-input	—	Disable interactive prompts

Other environment variables:

Variable	Description
SIFT_TOKEN	Personal access token for authentication
SIFT_API_URL	API base URL (default: https://siftable.io)
SIFT_WORKSPACE_ID	Workspace org ID to scope operations

Legacy EXF_TOKEN, EXF_API_URL, EXF_WORKSPACE_ID, and exf_pat_ tokens remain supported while older automation configs migrate.

Docs

• CLI reference — every command and flag, with conventions and scripting
• Interactive copilot — the sift interactive TUI in full
• Siftable docs — the same docs, published online
• Siftable MCP server — editor and agent integration
• Issues & source

License

MIT — see LICENSE.