Reference

CLI reference

Every vault command — synopsis, options, examples.

The vault command is the local control surface for Personify. npm run setup installs it into the repo's .venv; if you are running commands directly, activate that virtualenv first or call the executable inside .venv/Scripts on Windows. Run vault --help for live help.

The global --vault NAME option selects which named vault to operate on. If omitted, the default vault (personal, database personify) is used.

bash

vault --vault code-corpus stats

vault init

Create the on-disk vault directories and apply the database schema. Idempotent. npm run setup runs this for the default personal vault. The UI's New vault... flow runs the same initialization for named vaults.

Synopsis

bash

vault [--vault NAME] init

Options

Flag	Description
`--vault NAME`	Operate on a named vault. Default: `personal`.

Example

bash

vault init
vault --vault code-corpus init

vault sources

List the parser sources the binary knows how to ingest.

Synopsis

bash

vault sources

Example

bash

vault sources

vault

$ vault sources
chatgpt    ChatGPT (OpenAI) export
claude     Claude (Anthropic) export
discord    Discord data package
files      Generic file folder / archive
github     Git repository or archive
gmail      Gmail MBOX (Google Takeout)
notion     Notion Markdown + CSV export
twitter    X (Twitter) data archive

vault add-export

Register a raw export file with the vault. The file is copied into vault/raw/, never moved. The SHA-256 is computed and stored — re-registering the same bytes is rejected.

Synopsis

bash

vault add-export --source SOURCE --path PATH --account ACCOUNT

Options

Flag	Required	Description
`--source`	yes	Source slug (see `vault sources`).
`--path`	yes	Path to the export file or folder.
`--account`	yes	Account handle this export belongs to (free-form string — your email, handle, etc.).

Example

bash

vault add-export --source chatgpt \
  --path ~/Downloads/chatgpt-export.zip \
  --account myname@example.com

vault scan-repos

Walk an intake folder, find every git repository, and report which would be new vs. already-registered. Read-only — does not write to the vault.

Synopsis

bash

vault scan-repos --path INTAKE

Options

Flag	Required	Description
`--path`	yes	Folder to walk. Each immediate subfolder containing a `.git/` is treated as a candidate repo.

Example

bash

vault scan-repos --path ~/code

vault add-repos

Bulk-register every new git repo in an intake folder. Optionally kick off ingestion immediately.

Synopsis

bash

vault add-repos --path INTAKE --account ACCOUNT [--ingest]

Options

Flag	Required	Description
`--path`	yes	Intake folder containing git repos as immediate children.
`--account`	yes	Account / org handle to attribute these repos to.
`--ingest`	no	Run `vault ingest` on each newly registered repo right away.

Example

bash

vault add-repos --path ~/code --account my-org --ingest

vault ingest

Run a parser over one or more registered raw exports. Idempotent — items deduped by their source-specific keys.

Synopsis

bash

vault ingest [--export-id ID] [--source SOURCE] [--all-pending] [--replace]

Options

Flag	Description
`--export-id ID`	Ingest a single raw export by its database id.
`--source SOURCE`	Ingest every pending export for a given source slug.
`--all-pending`	Ingest every export with status `pending`.
`--replace`	Drop existing items for an export and re-ingest from scratch. Use after a parser change.

Exactly one of --export-id, --source, or --all-pending should be specified.

Example

bash

vault ingest --all-pending
vault ingest --export-id 7 --replace

vault embed

Compute embeddings for chunks that don't yet have them. Pulls the model on first run.

Synopsis

bash

vault embed [--limit N]

Options

Flag	Description
`--limit N`	Process at most N chunks this run. Default is unbounded.

Example

bash

vault embed --limit 1000

vault search

Full-text search across item_text.body. For semantic search use the /semantic-search HTTP endpoint or the semantic_search MCP tool.

Synopsis

bash

vault search "QUERY" [--limit N] [--source SOURCE]

Options

Flag	Description
`--limit N`	Maximum hits to return. Default `25`.
`--source SOURCE`	Restrict results to a single source slug.

Example

bash

vault search "rust borrow checker"
vault search "thanksgiving" --source gmail --limit 10

vault stats

Print a summary of vault contents — totals plus per-source and per-account breakdowns.

Synopsis

bash

vault stats

Example

bash

vault stats

vault

$ vault stats
Vault: personal
  items:        128,402
  exports:      12
  runs:         14 (last: 2026-05-03 09:11)
By source:
  gmail        82,140
  chatgpt       4,210
  github       38,902
  ...

vault dev

Start the full development stack — Docker Postgres, the FastAPI HTTP API, and the Vite frontend. Convenient one-shot for hacking on Personify itself.

Synopsis

bash

vault dev

Behavior

Brings up the personify-db container if it's not running.
Launches FastAPI on port 18765.
Launches the Vite frontend on port 18766.
Probes a UI-required backend route so an old stale FastAPI process is not mistaken for a healthy server.

Press Ctrl-C to stop both processes. The Postgres container keeps running.

Most users can run npm start, which calls this command through the local virtualenv after ensuring .env exists.

Example

bash

vault dev

vault mcp

Run the Personify MCP server over stdio. Wire this into Claude Desktop or any other MCP client. See the MCP overview.

Synopsis

bash

vault [--vault NAME] mcp

Example

bash

vault mcp
vault --vault code-corpus mcp

vault --vault

Global flag, applied before the subcommand, to select a named vault. The vault name is sanitized for the database name and directory: --vault Code Corpus becomes database personify_code_corpus and directory ./vaults/code-corpus/.

Synopsis

bash

vault --vault NAME <subcommand> [...]

Example

bash

vault --vault code-corpus init
vault --vault code-corpus add-repos --path ~/code --account my-org --ingest
vault --vault code-corpus stats