If you want Siftable inside your editor or coding agent (Claude, Cursor, other MCP clients), use the Siftable MCP server. If you want the web app, go to siftable.io.

Quickstart

Installing the CLI

There's one package on the npm registry — install it with whatever you use:

# Run directly, no install
npx @siftable/cli <command>

# Install globally
npm install  -g @siftable/cli     # npm
bun  install -g @siftable/cli     # bun
pnpm add     -g @siftable/cli     # pnpm

Then run sift to get started. The binary installs as sift, with siftable and the exf compatibility alias. Full install notes live at siftable.io/docs.html#cli-install.

Authenticating

sift auth login

Or set a Personal Access Token directly:

export SIFT_TOKEN=sift_pat_your_token_here

Your first commands

sift tasks list
sift tasks create --title "Ship CLI v1"
sift notes search "deployment process"
sift work list --agent codex --json

The interactive copilot

sift interactive

A terminal copilot that acts on your filesystem and the Siftable work graph. It requires Bun (curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash); the command tells you if Bun isn't installed.

Performance-critical paths (context compaction, long-thread memory, filesystem scanning, merge orchestration) run through native Zig modules loaded via Bun FFI. The published package ships prebuilt libraries for macOS (Apple Silicon) and Linux (x64), which get the fast native path by default. Every native module has a lockstep TypeScript fallback, so other platforms still work — just without the native acceleration.

Mental model

Users plan commitments with sift tasks. Agents execute bounded queue items with sift work. User-visible executor identities, aliases, capabilities, and default permissions live under sift agents.

• sift tasks — human planning: outcomes, priority, acceptance criteria, project linkage, and human approval.
• sift work — executable agent packets: claim leases, assigned aliases, write scope, verification commands, artifacts, and review state.

Link the two with sift work create --task <task-id> rather than assigning an executor directly to a task.

Commands

The most-used surface, grouped by domain. Run sift --help or sift <topic> --help for the complete set (including datasets, graph, timeline, research, and evidence).

Auth

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift auth login | Authenticate with Siftable | | sift auth logout | Clear stored credentials | | sift auth status | Show current auth status |

Tasks

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift tasks list | List human planning tasks (filterable by status, project) | | sift tasks get <id> | Get human planning task details | | sift tasks create | Create a human planning task | | sift tasks update <id> | Update a human planning task | | sift tasks complete <id> | Mark a human planning task complete | | sift tasks delete <id> | Delete a human planning task |

Work

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift work list | List executable agent work queue items | | sift work create | Create a bounded executable agent work item | | sift work claim | Claim queued executable work with a lease | | sift work start <id> | Mark claimed work as running | | sift work heartbeat <id> | Extend a claim lease | | sift work block <id> | Mark work blocked | | sift work review <id> | Mark work as needing review | | sift work complete <id> | Approve and complete work with summary/artifacts | | sift work fail <id> | Mark work failed | | sift work release <id> | Release a claim back to the queue | | sift work cancel <id> | Cancel work |

Agents

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift agents list | List user-visible agent aliases | | sift agents get <alias> | Get alias capabilities and permissions | | sift agents create | Create an agent alias | | sift agents update <alias> | Update alias metadata | | sift agents disable <alias> | Disable an alias without deleting history | | sift agents work <alias> | List executable work assigned to an alias |

Projects

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift projects list | List projects | | sift projects create | Create a project | | sift projects update <id> | Update a project | | sift projects archive <id> | Archive a project | | sift projects context <id> | Get full project context |

Notes

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift notes list | List notes | | sift notes get <id> | Get note with full content | | sift notes create | Create a note | | sift notes search <query> | Search knowledge base | | sift notes update <id> | Update a note | | sift notes delete <id> | Delete a note |

Calendar

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift calendar list | List events (filterable by date range) | | sift calendar create | Create an event | | sift calendar update <id> | Update an event | | sift calendar delete <id> | Delete an event |

People

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift people list | List contacts | | sift people search <query> | Search contacts |

Codebase

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift codebase list | List indexed repositories | | sift codebase register | Register a repo for indexing | | sift codebase status <id> | Check indexing status | | sift codebase index <id> | Trigger indexing | | sift codebase search <query> [--repo <id>\|--project <id>] | Semantic code search scoped to the current registered repo by default | | sift codebase snapshot <id> | Get latest snapshot | | sift codebase delete <id> | Delete a repository |

Code tools

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift code history <repo> | Get commit history | | sift code who-knows <repo> <area> | Find experts for a code area | | sift code blame <file> | Git blame for a file | | sift code link <task> | Link a task to code | | sift code expertise <repo> | Refresh expertise index | | sift code memory store | Store a codebase fact | | sift code memory list | List stored facts | | sift code memory search <query> | Search stored facts | | sift code memory delete <id> | Delete a stored fact |

Vault

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift vault list | List vault entries (metadata only) | | sift vault create | Store an encrypted secret | | sift vault read <id> | Decrypt and read a secret | | sift vault search <query> | Search vault entries | | sift vault update <id> | Update entry metadata |

Documents

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift documents upload <file> | Upload a document (PDF, MD, TXT) as a note |

Codex automation

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | sift codex daily-review collect --json | Collect read-only Siftable and local git context for daily Codex reviews |

Scripting

Every command supports --json for structured output, so the CLI composes with other tools:

# List tasks as JSON and filter with jq
sift tasks list --json | jq '.[] | select(.status == "in_progress")'

# Create a human planning task and capture the ID
TASK_ID=$(sift tasks create --title "Deploy v2" --json | jq -r '.task.id')

# Create executable agent work linked to the human task
sift work create --task "$TASK_ID" --agent codex --title "Implement Deploy v2" --verify "npm run build;npm test"

# Use in CI/CD scripts
export SIFT_TOKEN=sift_pat_...
sift tasks complete "$TASK_ID"

Configuration

Global flags (each maps to an environment variable where noted):

| Flag | Env var | Description | |------|---------|-------------| | --token | SIFT_TOKEN | Personal access token | | --api-url | SIFT_API_URL | API base URL (default: https://siftable.io) | | --json | — | Output raw JSON instead of tables | | --no-input | — | Disable interactive prompts |

Other environment variables:

| Variable | Description | |----------|-------------| | SIFT_TOKEN | Personal access token for authentication | | SIFT_API_URL | API base URL (default: https://siftable.io) | | SIFT_WORKSPACE_ID | Workspace org ID to scope operations |

Legacy EXF_TOKEN, EXF_API_URL, EXF_WORKSPACE_ID, and exf_pat_ tokens remain supported while older automation configs migrate.

Docs

• CLI reference — every command and flag, with conventions and scripting
• Interactive copilot — the sift interactive TUI in full
• Siftable docs — the same docs, published online
• Siftable MCP server — editor and agent integration
• Issues & source

License

MIT — see LICENSE.