CLI reference

The tau command launches the interactive TUI by default; subcommands and flags cover everything else.

tau [OPTIONS] [PROMPT] [COMMAND] [ARGS]

• With no arguments, tau opens the interactive TUI.
• A positional PROMPT opens the TUI and submits it as the first turn.
• -p/--prompt runs a single prompt in print mode.

On TUI and text print-mode startup, Tau may show a non-blocking notice when a newer tau-ai release is available on PyPI. Disable it with TAU_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1; utility commands such as tau --version, tau sessions, and tau export do not run the check.

Commands

Command	What it does
tau	Open the interactive TUI
tau "<prompt>"	Open the TUI with an initial prompt
tau sessions	List indexed sessions (id, title, model, cwd)
tau export <ref> [dest] [--format html|jsonl]	Export a session id or JSONL path (HTML default)
tau providers	List configured providers and how each authenticates
tau [setup options] setup	Create/update an OpenAI-compatible provider

Options

Flag	Description
-p, --prompt TEXT	Run this prompt in non-interactive print mode
-m, --model TEXT	Model to request from the provider
--provider TEXT	Configured provider name to use
--cwd PATH	Working directory for the built-in tools
-o, --output [text|json|transcript]	Output mode for print mode (default text)
--resume TEXT	Resume a session id in the TUI
--new-session	Start a new session instead of resuming the default
--auto-compact-threshold INT	Auto-compact above this rough token estimate
--version	Print the version and exit

Provider setup options

Tau’s setup mode registers an OpenAI-compatible provider. Put these flags before the final setup argument:

Flag	Default	Description
--provider TEXT	openai	Provider name to create/update
--model TEXT	default model	Default model for the provider
--base-url TEXT	OpenAI URL	OpenAI-compatible base URL
--api-key-env TEXT	OPENAI_API_KEY	Env var holding the API key
--timeout-seconds FLOAT	60.0	HTTP timeout
--max-retries INT	2	Retry count for transient failures
--max-retry-delay-seconds FLOAT	1.0	Delay between retries
--set-default / --no-set-default	set-default	Make this the default provider

Example:

tau --provider local \
  --base-url http://localhost:11434/v1 \
  --api-key-env LOCAL_API_KEY \
  --model qwen \
  setup

See also: Slash commands (in-session) and Keyboard shortcuts.