Reference: Command‑Line Interface

The lectic command is the primary way to interact with Lectic. It can read from a file or from standard input, and it offers flags to control how the result is printed or saved.

Usage

lectic [FLAGS] [OPTIONS]

Subcommands

  • lectic lsp Start the LSP server. Transport: stdio.

  • lectic parse Parse a lectic file into a JSON representation of the parsed file structure. Useful for programmatic analysis and modification.

    Flags:

    • --yaml: Emit YAML instead of JSON.
    • --reverse: Ingest JSON (or YAML) output and reconstruct the original lectic file.

  • lectic models List available models for providers with detected API keys. Only providers with API keys in the environment are queried.

Flags and options

  • -v, --version Prints the version string.

  • -f, --file <PATH> Path to the conversation file (.lec) to process. If omitted, Lectic reads from standard input.

  • -i, --inplace <PATH> Read from the given file and update it in place. Mutually exclusive with --file.

  • -s, --short Only emit the newly generated assistant message, not the full updated conversation.

  • -S, --Short Like --short, but emits only the raw message text (without the :::Speaker wrapper).

  • -H, --header Emit only the YAML frontmatter of the input. With --inplace, this will overwrite the file to contain only the header (effectively resetting the conversation).

  • -l, --log <PATH> Write detailed debug logs to the given file.

  • -q, --quiet Suppress printing the assistant’s response to stdout.

  • -h, --help Show help for all flags and options.

Constraints

  • –inplace cannot be combined with –file.
  • –header cannot be combined with –short or –Short.
  • –quiet cannot be combined with –short or –Short.

Common examples

  • Generate the next message in a file and update it in place:

    lectic -i conversation.lec

  • Read from stdin and write the full result to stdout:

    cat conversation.lec | lectic

  • Stream just the new assistant message:

    lectic -s -f conversation.lec

  • Add a message from the command line and update the file:

    echo "This is a new message." | lectic -i conversation.lec

  • List available models for detected providers:

    lectic models

  • Start the LSP server (stdio transport):

    lectic lsp

  • Parse a file to JSON:

    lectic parse -f conversation.lec

  • Round-trip a file through parsing and reconstruction:

    lectic parse -f conversation.lec | lectic parse --reverse