Research Explorer CLI

Research Explorer is the official Pi-based command-line client for the Auto Research Agent core. Its executable is:

rexplore

The product reuses Pi's TUI, model authentication, sessions, streaming, tools, skills, compaction, themes, and RPC mode. Research state and gates remain in the separately deployed Core Service.

Install and run

npm install -g --prefix "$HOME/.local" \
  research-explorer-core research-explorer-cli
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
rexplore

The installer places independently updatable research-explorer-core and rexplore commands in the same user prefix. After installation, rexplore works from any directory and starts Core automatically.

Current status

C0 through C5 are complete. Version 0.3.0 uses one Pi session as the user-visible chat and research save. New sessions remain ordinary chat until a research command lazily creates Core state. Independent Candidate and Auto modes have been replaced by unified chat, /next suggestions and the explicit /run research workflow.

Existing auto-research-agent installations must remove the deprecated package before installing the renamed Core because both packages expose compatibility command names:

npm uninstall -g --prefix "$HOME/.local" auto-research-agent
npm install -g --prefix "$HOME/.local" research-explorer-core research-explorer-cli

npm ci
npm test
npm run validate:c0
npm run validate:c1
npm run validate:c2
npm run validate:c3
npm run validate:c4
npm run validate:c5
node dist/launcher.js --version

No model authentication or model call is required for C0/C1 validation.

Run from development checkouts

cd /path/to/research_explorer_core
npm run build

cd /data0/linsihan/research-explorer-cli
npm ci
npm run build
node dist/launcher.js --offline \
  --research-core-entry /path/to/research_explorer_core/dist/service/cli.js

Inside Research Explorer:

/doctor
/project
/status
/next
/actions
/run Investigate a falsifiable research question
/run-status
/pause
/continue
/research-job-status
/research-plugin-search vision
/research-dependencies
/report ./project-report.md

An interactive rexplore launch opens one native Pi session selector with an explicit new-session entry. Selecting a session goes directly to its chat. Core research state is created only after a research command is used.

Unified chat preserves normal Pi behavior and hides persistent research status. /next asks for detailed directions through a normal Pi turn. /run starts a persistent, budgeted research workflow that advances through evidence, hypotheses, protocol, experiments, analysis, review and reporting while stopping at explicit human gates. /actions remains available for audited early Core transitions.

See the command reference and installation/recovery guide.

After user-level installation of Core and CLI, rexplore starts from any directory without a Core path argument. Both packages can be updated independently.

Architecture boundary

rexplore launcher -> Pi CLI + Research Explorer extension -> public Core SDK/API

The CLI does not import Core internals or access its database. See the Pi decision, Core boundary decision, C1 report and Core API gap register.

Requirements

• Node.js 22.19 or newer
• Linux or macOS for the planned v0.1 support matrix

Development

npm ci
npm run check
npm run check:boundaries
npm test
npm run validate:c0
npm audit --audit-level=high