Commands

qialike has two command surfaces: flags you pass to the program, and slash commands you type into the composer once it is running.

CLI flags

qialike                              # start a NEW session on the hero screen (never auto-resumes)
qialike resume                       # continue the newest session in this directory
qialike --workspace ~/proj           # operate in ~/proj (its own sessions)
qialike --resume <sessionId>         # resume a specific persisted session
qialike --model deepseek-flash       # pick a model (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash)
qialike --help

Flag	Meaning
(none)	Start a new session and show the hero screen. A bare launch never auto-resumes.
resume	Continue the most recent session in the current directory and open the conversation view directly.
--workspace <dir>	The directory the agent operates in. Defaults to the invoking directory; each workspace keeps its own sessions.
--resume <sessionId>	Open one specific persisted session. Always wins over resume.
--model <model>	Override the model for this run, e.g. deepseek-flash (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash).
--help	Print the width-aware help text and exit without binding a terminal.
--dump-config	Print the composed profile layers (embedded layer + your own) and exit.
--no-project-overlay	Ignore a repository’s .dsh/tui.cordis.patch.yml for this run.

There are also a few forwarded subcommands:

qialike web [flags]        # open the DeepSeek Harness browser UI (needs dsh on PATH)
qialike upgrade [version]  # upgrade (see "Updates")
qialike plugin <command>   # manage skills and MCP rows (see "Plugins")
qialike uninstall          # clear $DSH_HOME (default ~/.dsh, keeps bin/) and the PATH traces

An unknown positional argument fails loud with a hint rather than silently starting a fresh session — qialike resme is an error, not a new session.

qialike web forwards its web flags (--port / --no-open / …) to the installed dsh CLI unchanged; --host 0.0.0.0 is refused outright by the web profile (exposing it to the network is exposing remote code execution), so for remote access use a loopback binding plus an SSH tunnel — see Headless / remote access.

The command needs a dsh CLI on the system: on PATH, or pointed at by $QIALIKE_DSH, at a version no older than the harness embedded in this build. It checks dsh first — when it is missing, or its version differs from the embedded one, a warning prints the matching install command (npm install -g @deepseek-ai/dsh), and on a version difference the command exits without starting the web server.

Caution

qialike uninstall deletes every session, setting and credential under ~/.dsh except bin/, and prints the command that removes bin/ by hand; an npm-installed copy additionally prints npm uninstall -g @qialike/cli (its program lives outside the harness home). The two-step flow for all four install routes is in Install → Uninstall.

Updates

An install that can update itself does so automatically: about a second after launch a background child process checks once for a newer release (it never blocks the UI, and failures are silent). Only a patch release is installed silently; a minor or major release is announced in the status line only.

• What automatic updates require: that something owns the binary — the curl installer’s copy in ~/.dsh/bin (Linux/macOS) or the copy under npm’s global prefix (including Windows). A locally built checkout build and a hand-unpacked binary are never replaced.
• Turning it off, or switching to notice-only: the qialike-update.auto setting takes true (default — patch releases installed silently), false (no check at all) or "notify" (announce only, never install). QIALIKE_DISABLE_AUTOUPDATE=1 disables it globally, and QIALIKE_ALWAYS_NOTIFY_UPDATE=1 forces notice-only.
• Updating by hand:

qialike upgrade              # move to the newest release
qialike upgrade <version>    # install a specific one (v-prefix accepted)
qialike upgrade --check      # report only, install nothing

/upgrade does the same from inside the TUI. Whether these can actually install depends on who owns the binary, not on the platform: an npm copy is replaced by npm (on Windows too), the ~/.dsh/bin copy by the installer (POSIX only), and a copy nobody owns is refused with a suggestion to reinstall through the installer. See Updates for the full story.

On Windows most installs update by hand only: the installer is bash and a running .exe cannot be replaced, so the installer’s copies and hand-unpacked ones only check — qialike upgrade --check reports the version and prints the download links, and updating means replacing the file by hand: download the new .zip, quit qialike, replace qialike.exe. An npm-installed copy is the exception (it installs patches automatically and qialike upgrade hands the job to npm) — see Updates → Updating, by how you installed.

See Config → Data and responsibility for the harness telemetry that shares these outbound requests.

Plugins

Everything in qialike is a plugin — the interface itself included. Extensions therefore need no rebuild, and both channels take plain data files:

• Skills: drop a skill bundle at $DSH_HOME/skills/<name>/SKILL.md (or a project’s .dsh/skills/, .agents/skills/, or ~/.agents/skills/) and the harness discovers it — there is no switch to flip.
• MCP servers: their tools then appear to the model as mcp__<name>__<tool>.

qialike plugin does that file work for you, so there is no YAML to hand-write:

qialike plugin list [--available]   # layers and rows; --available also lists every bundled plugin
qialike plugin add-mcp <name> <command> [args...] [--project]
qialike plugin remove-mcp <name> [--project]
qialike plugin trust-overlay        # trust the repository overlay (see below)

--project targets the repository-level overlay (<repo>/.dsh/tui.cordis.patch.yml) rather than your personal one. Enabling or disabling a built-in row needs no command either: write a row without insert containing disabled: true and it overrides that row by id. qialike --dump-config prints the composed layers and which layer each plugin came from.

Caution

A repository overlay is not you. git clone <repo> && qialike must not quietly start a process or quietly loosen your sandbox:

• Rows that spawn a process need one per-repo decision: an MCP server row runs its command at startup, so it takes effect only once that file is explicitly trusted — run qialike plugin trust-overlay inside the repository to record the content hash and harness version in <profile>/overlays.trust.json; any edit to the file asks again. Untrusted, startup refuses outright and prints the fix.
• Security rows are always refused: rows that change (or disable) sandbox / sandbox-policy / fs-sandbox / bash-sandbox / pwsh-sandbox / approval / permission / fs-observation-policy can only be written in your own overlay; a repository has no say over your file-effect boundary, and trust cannot buy one.

When a repository overlay is active the hero says so (⚠ repo overlay applied: …); --no-project-overlay (or QIALIKE_NO_PROJECT_OVERLAY=1) ignores that layer for one run.

Slash commands

Type / in the composer to open the autocomplete palette. ↑/↓ move the highlight, Enter runs the selected command, and Esc dismisses the palette. The seven panel commands are:

Command	Hint	What it does
/help	show this help	Opens the full-screen help dialog (keybinds and command list). Esc or Ctrl+C closes it.
/models	manage models and the API key	Opens the model manager: provider list, model list, and — for models that declare it — a reasoning-effort step.
/compact	compact the session history	Compacts the current session’s older history into a summary through the harness compaction seam.
/clear	clear the transcript	Clears the on-screen transcript. The durable session log is untouched.
/new	start a new session (the current one is saved)	Cancels the current turn, creates a fresh agent in place, and keeps the old conversation reachable.
/sessions	list, filter, resume or delete sessions	Opens the session manager for the current directory.
/exit	quit qialike	Leaves the TUI and restores the terminal.

What /compact prints

/compact takes no arguments — anything after the command is rejected with Usage: /compact (no arguments). On success it reports Compacted N history items (~X tokens).; when there is nothing to compact it reports No compactable history yet.; otherwise it prints the harness’s classified failure text (busy / cancelled / changed / summary / commit / persistence).

Other panels

The TUI registers a few more commands that are documented in Keybinds and the harness docs:

Command	Hint
/think	show/hide details under Think and tool rows (reasoning + tool output)
/theme	open the colour-scheme picker (bare) or set a scheme / role colour
/export	export the session as JSON or Markdown
/sidebar	cycle the right-hand Steps panel: auto → on → off
/plan	enter or leave plan mode
/goal	set, view, pause, resume or clear the session goal
/upgrade	check for, or install, a newer release (see Updates)