Commands

Cerebro provides the following command-line tool commands:

Build commands

`cerebro build`

Generate the dashboard. Uses cached data where fresh.

cerebro build                    # Build all projects
cerebro build --project my-proj  # Build specific project
cerebro build --fresh            # Force rebuild, ignoring cache

`cerebro serve`

Serve the generated dashboard with mdBook locally.

cerebro serve              # Default port is 3000
cerebro serve --port 8080  # Custom port

Note: this spawns mdbook in the configured output_dir and exits immediately. For a persistent server, run mdbook serve directly in your cortex.

Status commands

`cerebro status`

Check cache status for all projects.

cerebro status

Shows last build time per project, cache TTL remaining, and any stale data.

Query commands

These commands read cortex data and output JSON: useful for scripting or piping.

`cerebro projects list`

List all tracked projects.

cerebro projects list              # All projects
cerebro projects list --active-only  # Only active projects

`cerebro projects read <name>`

Read the full context for a specific project.

cerebro projects read my-project

Returns sessions, commits, TODOs, and manual notes for the named project.

`cerebro journal read <date>`

Read a journal entry for a specific date.

cerebro journal read 2026-05-17

`cerebro journal today`

Read today’s journal entry.

cerebro journal today

`cerebro intent <period> <identifier>`

Read intent/goals for a period.

cerebro intent daily 2026-05-17
cerebro intent weekly 2026-W20
cerebro intent monthly 2026-05
cerebro intent yearly 2026

`cerebro todos`

Search TODO comments across all projects.

cerebro todos                       # All TODOs
cerebro todos --keyword FIXME       # Filter by keyword
cerebro todos --project my-project  # Filter by project

`cerebro stats`

Get overall cortex statistics.

cerebro stats

Returns project count, session count, commit count, TODO count, and recent activity metrics.

MCP commands

`cerebro mcp`

Start the MCP server. Works with any MCP-compliant client, including OpenCode, Claude, and Cursor. Reads from the cortex directory containing the config file.

cerebro mcp

Reads CORTEX_PATH to locate the cortex data dir (falls back to ~/Projects/cortex). For the CLI/TUI config, see Configuration.

TUI

`cerebro tui`

Launch the Terminal User Interface for browsing projects interactively.

cerebro tui

The Terminal User Interface shares data types with the command-line tool, cerebro-core, and reads the same cortex content that mdbook renders. A standalone binary cerebro-tui is also available for running the Terminal User Interface independently.

Keyboard shortcuts

Cerebro