Clyde Help Articles

Command reference for Clyde, organized by workflow with syntax, options, examples, AI-ready JSON help, and safety notes.

Executive summary

Clyde is Starlit Digital's local MCP-client and Ollama harness for auditable repository feedback, source bundling, and NotebookLM sync. The official project homepage is sltd.ca/clyde. Source and project context live in the Clyde GitHub repository. Use clyde help --json for the structured AI-ready command catalog, clyde doctor --json for machine-readable local diagnostics, and clyde scan-report --json for repository-shape summaries.

Clyde terminal showing doctor diagnostics and repository scan report output — Clyde in action: local diagnostics, Ollama readiness, repository scan counts, and skip reasons before bundling or sync.

Human and AI readiness: every command has a human-readable article, CLI help path, explicit access/network notes, examples, and structured catalog metadata via clyde help --json.

Total commands20

Generated2026-09-04

SourceClyde CLI

Core#

Command	Access	Network	Purpose
`about`	Read-only	None	Show Clyde product details and official links.
`help`	Read-only	None	Show human-readable help or a JSON command catalog.

Packaging#

Command	Access	Network	Purpose
`completion`	Read-only	None	Generate shell completion for Bash, Zsh, Fish, PowerShell, Elvish, Nushell, Xonsh, Tcsh, Clink, Yash, or Oil.

Diagnostics#

Command	Access	Network	Purpose
`doctor`	Read-only	Local Ollama	Check Clyde configuration, platform, PATH tools, Ollama, and optional repo scan readiness.

Configuration#

Command	Access	Network	Purpose
`config`	Reads or writes local config	None	Show, initialize, or print the Clyde configuration path.
`config init`	Writes local config	None	Write Clyde's default configuration file.
`config path`	Read-only	None	Print the config file path Clyde will use.
`config show`	Read-only	None	Print the effective Clyde configuration as JSON.

Interactive#

Command	Access	Network	Purpose
`tui`	Local interactive	Optional local Ollama	Open Clyde's dependency-free terminal UI.

Local Models#

Command	Access	Network	Purpose
`agent`	Reads repo and sends selected context	Local Ollama by default	Scan repository context and ask a local model for feedback.
`ask`	Sends prompt to Ollama	Configured Ollama	Send a direct prompt to the selected local Ollama model.
`models`	Read-only	Local Ollama	List local Ollama models and the selected default.

NotebookLM Sync#

Command	Access	Network	Purpose
`book`	Read-only	None	Generate a dated NotebookLM book title and slug.
`sync`	Uploads repository chunks	NotebookLM backend	Upload scanned repository chunks to NotebookLM after explicit approval.

Repository Bundles#

Command	Access	Network	Purpose
`bundle`	Writes local files	None	Write a local manifest and source chunks for review.
`preview`	Read-only	None	Report included and skipped repository files before bundling or upload.
`scan-report`	Read-only	None	Summarize repository scan shape with largest files, extensions, skip reasons, and chunk counts.

Status#

Command	Access	Network	Purpose
`daemon`	Starts local server	Localhost only	Start the localhost-only JSON-RPC status daemon.
`status`	Read-only	Localhost by default	Read Clyde daemon progress for a job.