Sentinel CLI

Command-line companion for Eternal Sentinel. Confirm "I'm alive" check-ins from your terminal instead of clicking a link in an email.

Install

npm install -g @eternal-sentinel/cli

Or, from a clone of this repo:

cd cli
npm install
npm run build
npm link        # makes `sentinel` available on $PATH

Requires Node 20 or later.

First-time setup

1. Open the dashboard, go to Settings → Companion app, and generate a personal access token. Copy it — it's shown only once.

2. Run:

   sentinel login

   Paste the token when prompted. The CLI validates it against the server before saving.

Commands

sentinel status

Shows your current check-in state.

Sentinel status
  Status:           active
  Cadence:          monthly
  Last check-in:    5/13/2026, 7:42:11 AM (12 min ago)
  Next check-in:    6/13/2026, 7:42:11 AM (in 31 days)

  No pending check-in. You're up to date.

Add --json to print the raw API payload, suitable for piping into jq:

sentinel status --json | jq '.polling.nextCheckInDue'

When a check-in is pending the output shifts to highlight it:

Sentinel status
  Status:           grace period 1 of 3
  Cadence:          monthly
  Last check-in:    4/13/2026, 7:42:11 AM (30 days ago)
  Next check-in:    5/20/2026, 7:42:11 AM (in 7 days)

  ⚠ You have a pending check-in. Run `sentinel confirm` to confirm you're alive.
    Expires:  5/20/2026, 7:42:11 AM (in 7 days)
    Sent via: EMAIL, SMS

sentinel confirm

Resolves the pending check-in. Idempotent — succeeds even when no check-in is currently due (acknowledged-only mode).

✓ Confirmed.
  Next check-in: 6/13/2026, 7:42:11 AM (in 31 days)

Add --json for the raw payload.

sentinel login

Saves a personal access token to disk. Three input modes:

sentinel login                      # interactive prompt (recommended)
echo "$TOKEN" | sentinel login --stdin
sentinel login --token sntl_pat_... # discouraged — visible in shell history

For self-hosted Sentinel servers, override the URL:

sentinel login --api-url https://sentinel.internal.example.com

sentinel logout

Removes the local config file. Does not revoke the token server-side — to invalidate it everywhere, revoke it from the dashboard.

Config file

The CLI stores its config at a platform-appropriate path:

| OS | Path | | --- | --- | | Linux | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/sentinel/config.json or ~/.config/sentinel/config.json | | macOS | ~/.config/sentinel/config.json | | Windows | %APPDATA%\sentinel\config.json |

On POSIX systems the file is written with mode 0600. The file contains your API URL and your bearer token in plaintext, so back it up like any other secret — and never commit it to git.

Exit codes

| Code | Meaning | | --- | --- | | 0 | Success. | | 1 | Any failure (auth, network, rate limit, validation). The error message goes to stderr. |

Scripting tip: pipe stderr to /dev/null and inspect $? if you want silent failure detection.

Development

cd cli
npm install
npm run dev -- status            # run a command without building
npm run dev -- login --token sntl_pat_...
npm run build                    # compile to ./dist
npm run test:run                 # run tests

The project uses TypeScript, native fetch, and commander. No native modules — clean cross-platform installs.

License

MIT.