CLI Reference

The intend CLI is your primary tool for managing projects and compiling intents.

Global Flags

• --help, -h: Show help for a command.
• --version, -v: Show the CLI version.

Commands

init

Initialize a new Intend project.

intend init <project_name>

Scaffolds a new directory with a default configuration, directory structure, and example files.

build

Compile all .intent files in the current project.

intend build [options]

Options:

Flag	Description
--output <dir>	Override the output directory specified in config.
--config <file>	Use a specific configuration file (default: intend.config.json).
--provider <name>	Override the AI provider (gemini or ollama).
--model <name>	Override the model name (e.g., gemini-1.5-pro, llama3).
--api-key <key>	Override the API key for cloud providers.
--watch	Watch for file changes and rebuild automatically.
--force	Force a full rebuild, ignoring the intend.lock file.
--debug	Enable verbose logging. Shows system prompts, user prompts, and reasoning.
--attempts <num>	Max retry attempts for AI generation (default: 3).

watch

Watch for changes in .intent files and recompile them automatically.

intend watch [options]

Options:

Flag	Description
--output <dir>	Override the output directory.
--config <file>	Use a specific config file.
--provider <name>	Override the AI provider.
--api-key <key>	Override the API key.

parse

Debug command to test the parser on a specific file. Prints the AST (Abstract Syntax Tree).

intend parse <file_path> [options]

Options:

• --cst: Print the Concrete Syntax Tree (CST) instead of the AST. Useful for debugging grammar issues.