CLI Reference

rax is the artisan command line for Reactive Agents.

Rax stands for Reactive Agents Executable. Think of it as the Reactive Agents equivalent of Laravel’s Artisan CLI.

Use it to scaffold projects, generate agents, run and stream tasks, inspect runtime state, serve A2A endpoints, and deploy across local and cloud targets.

For workflow-first onboarding, start with Rax CLI.

Commands

rax init

Create a new Reactive Agents project.

rax init <name> [--template minimal|standard|full]

Templates:

Template	Packages Included
minimal	core, runtime, llm-provider
standard	+ memory, reasoning, tools
full	+ guardrails, verification, cost, orchestration, prompts

rax create agent

Generate an agent file from a recipe.

rax create agent <name> [--recipe basic|researcher|coder|orchestrator]

Recipes:

Recipe	What It Generates
basic	Minimal agent with LLM only
researcher	Agent with memory + reasoning
coder	Agent optimized for code tasks
orchestrator	Multi-agent orchestrator with memory

rax run

Run an agent with a prompt.

rax run <prompt> [--provider anthropic|openai|ollama|gemini|litellm|test]
          [--model <model>] [--name <name>] [--tools] [--reasoning] [--stream]

Example:

rax run "Explain quantum computing" --provider anthropic --model claude-sonnet-4-20250514

rax serve

Start an agent as an A2A server.

rax serve [--port <number>] [--name <name>] [--provider <provider>] [--model <model>]
          [--with-tools] [--with-reasoning] [--with-memory]

Options:

Option	Default	Description
--port	3000	HTTP port for the A2A server
--name	"agent"	Agent name (used in Agent Card)
--provider	"test"	LLM provider
--model	—	Model name
--with-tools	off	Enable built-in tools on the A2A server agent (file-write, web-search, etc.)
--with-reasoning	off	Enable reasoning strategies
--with-memory	off	Enable memory (tier 2)

Endpoints served:

• GET /.well-known/agent.json — Agent Card (A2A discovery)
• GET /agent/card — Agent Card (fallback)
• POST / — JSON-RPC 2.0 (message/send, tasks/get, tasks/cancel, agent/card)

Example:

rax serve --name researcher --provider anthropic --model claude-sonnet-4-20250514 --with-tools --port 4000

rax discover

Fetch and display the Agent Card from a remote A2A-compatible agent server.

rax discover <url>

Fetches GET <url>/.well-known/agent.json and pretty-prints the agent’s name, description, capabilities, and supported skills.

Example:

rax discover http://localhost:3000

Agent Card: researcher
  Provider: anthropic (claude-sonnet-4-20250514)
  Capabilities: streaming, tools
  Skills: web-search, file-write
  Endpoint: http://localhost:3000

rax deploy

Deploy an agent using a provider adapter (local Docker, Fly.io, Railway, Render, Cloud Run, DigitalOcean).

rax deploy up [--target local|fly|railway|render|cloudrun|digitalocean]
              [--mode daemon|sdk]
              [--dry-run]
              [--scaffold-only]
              [--name <agent-name>]

rax deploy down [--target <target>]
rax deploy status [--target <target>]
rax deploy logs [-f] [--target <target>]
rax deploy init   # legacy alias for `deploy up --scaffold-only`

Options:

Option	Default	Description
--target	local (auto-detected if config exists)	Deploy provider adapter
--mode	daemon	daemon for full agent loop, sdk for HTTP API mode
--dry-run	off	Run provider preflight() checks and print execution plan
--scaffold-only	off	Generate config files only, do not deploy
--name	auto-detected from package.json	Agent/app identifier
--follow, -f	off	Follow logs for deploy logs

Provider CLI Contracts:

These commands and flags are validated by apps/cli/tests/cli-contracts.test.ts to detect upstream CLI breaking changes early.

Provider	CLI	Contract Baseline
local	Docker + Compose	Docker >= 20, Compose >= 2, supports compose build/up/down/ps/logs, up -d, logs --tail/--follow, ps --format
fly	flyctl / fly	supports auth whoami, launch --copy-config --name --no-deploy, deploy, status, logs, apps destroy --yes
railway	railway	supports whoami, link, up, down --yes, status, logs, variables
render	render	supports blueprint launch, services list
cloudrun	gcloud	SDK >= 380, supports config get-value project, auth list --filter --format, run deploy --source --region --port --memory --timeout --allow-unauthenticated, run services describe/delete/update
digitalocean	doctl	>= 1.72, supports account get --format --no-header, apps create/list/update/delete/logs, --spec, --format

Containerized CLI fallback:

For flyctl, gcloud, and doctl, rax deploy resolves local binaries first and can fall back to a Docker-wrapped CLI when Docker is available.

Contract test commands:

bun test apps/cli/tests/cli-contracts.test.ts
RUN_SLOW_TESTS=1 bun test apps/cli/tests/cli-contracts.test.ts

RUN_SLOW_TESTS=1 enables container image availability checks for the fallback images.

rax dev

Run your local entrypoint in watch mode.

rax dev [--entry src/index.ts] [--no-watch]

Default entrypoint is src/index.ts. Use --entry if your project uses a different file.

rax eval

Run an evaluation suite (placeholder).

rax eval run --suite <suite-name>

rax playground

Launch an interactive agent REPL session.

rax playground [--provider <provider>] [--model <model>] [--tools] [--reasoning] [--stream]

Use /help and /exit inside the session.

rax inspect

Inspect local deployment/runtime signals for an agentId.

rax inspect <agent-id> [--logs-tail 200] [--json]

This checks Docker/Compose availability, prints compose status, and scans recent logs for lines containing the provided agentId.

rax version

rax version
rax --version
rax -v

rax help

rax help
rax --help
rax -h