Global options

The CLI accepts a small set of flags on every command.

Flag	Description
`--help`, `-h`	Show help for the command
`--version`, `-v`	Print the CLI version
`--token-stdin`	Read a bearer session token from stdin for this command

--json is not a global flag — it is a per-subcommand option declared on the commands that support machine-readable output (see below).

`--json`

--json is a per-subcommand flag, not a program-level option. Most commands have a default human-readable output and an opt-in JSON output. When --json is set:

Tables become arrays of objects
Status messages move to stderr
Exit codes still indicate success or failure

abadge item list --json | jq '.[].id'
abadge agent list --json
abadge permission list --json
abadge audit --json

`--token-stdin`

Override the bearer session token the CLI would normally use (the daemon-held operator session). Useful for one-off API calls in scripts where you don’t want to log in interactively.

echo "$ABADGE_TOKEN" | abadge item list --token-stdin

The token is consumed once and never written to disk.

Environment variables

Variable	Effect
`ABADGE_API_URL`	Override `apiUrl` for the current invocation
`ABADGE_SESSION_TOKEN`	Use a pre-minted bearer session token instead of the daemon-held one
`ABADGE_AGENT_ID`	Use a specific agent ID (mostly relevant for MCP)
`ABADGE_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH`	Path to an Ed25519 private key JWK (mostly relevant for MCP)

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
`0`	Success
`1`	General error (the CLI prints `code` and `hint` from the API on stderr)
`2`	Usage error (bad flags, missing required argument)
Other	Forwarded from `abadge run` (the child process exit code)

Error output

When the API returns an error, the CLI prints:

error: PERMISSION_DENIED — No matching permission for (agent, item, capability).
hint: Grant a permission with `abadge permission create --agent-id ... --item-id ... --capability mount_env`.

The error envelope (code, message, hint, meta) comes straight from the API. With --json the CLI prints the envelope as JSON instead.

Getting started

Authentication

Local daemon

Resources

Runtime

Data movement

Global options

`--json`

`--token-stdin`

Environment variables

Exit codes

Error output

​--json

​--token-stdin

​Environment variables

​Exit codes

​Error output

`--json`

`--token-stdin`

Environment variables

Exit codes

Error output