Terminal CLI

The command-line interface (CLI) entry point supports an interactive terminal user interface (TUI), one-shot print mode, persisted sessions, and deterministic resource subcommands.

How do the modes differ?

Need	Invocation
Interactive conversation	xcsh
One model turn	xcsh -p "prompt"
Structured process stream	xcsh --mode json -p "prompt"
Local manifest check	xcsh validate -f manifest.yaml

Use resource subcommands for manifest lifecycle operations; do not ask a model to imitate them.

Mode	Best for	Persistence and output
Interactive TUI	Human-guided work	Session history plus terminal rendering.
Print	One bounded response	Human-readable stdout; persistence follows session flags.
JSON	Event-consuming scripts	Framed stdout suitable for parsing.
RPC or ACP	A controlling client	Bidirectional protocol lifecycle.

Choose the consumer before the mode. Do not parse TUI or print decorations as a stable protocol, and do not use --no-session when later resume is a requirement. See headless modes for lifecycle details.