Alera CLI

alera is the Rust binary the desktop app ships and runs as its runtime sidecar, the process that owns your terminals. The same binary is a command-line tool. Run from an Alera terminal or through the launcher below, it works on the app’s own runtime profile, so a workspace you create from a script shows up in the sidebar and on the paired phone.

Get It On Your PATH#

Inside Alera terminals there is nothing to set up. Every terminal Alera starts puts the bundled alera first on PATH and sets ALERA_RUNTIME_DIR to the app’s runtime profile, along with ALERA_WORKSPACE_ID and ALERA_TERMINAL_HANDLE, which many commands use as defaults.

For any other shell, open Settings → Agents → Alera CLI And Skills and choose Register next to Alera CLI Command (it reads Update once registered). Alera writes a small launcher that points at the bundled binary and the app’s runtime profile:

• macOS and Linux: ~/.local/bin/alera
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Alera\bin\alera.cmd

Alera does not edit your PATH. If that folder is missing from it, the status reads Registered, add to PATH. Registration conflict means a file Alera did not write is already there, or another alera comes first on PATH. On the phone, a host’s Settings screen offers the same Register button under Host Tools.

Commands that need the runtime host start one in the background when none is running. alera runtime start starts one that stays up after the app quits.

Command Groups#

Every group and subcommand answers --help.

runtime-host, terminal-host, and runtime-proxy are entry points the app starts on its own.

Examples#

alera runtime status
alera workspace --json list --all
alera workspace add --project-id <project-id> --worktree --branch fix-login --source-branch main
alera agent-profile launch --profile "Claude Code" --workspace <workspace-id> --prompt "Fix the flaky login test"
alera tab create --workspace-id <workspace-id> --title Tests --command "pnpm test" --spawn
alera terminal read --handle <terminal-handle>
alera terminal write --handle <terminal-handle> --text "Also run the linter" --submit
alera runtime agents enable claude codex

--submit sends the text to an agent TUI as a bracketed paste followed by Enter; --enter only adds the Enter. Inside an Alera terminal, agent-profile launch targets the current workspace when you leave out --workspace.

JSON For Scripts#

Each group takes --json and --runtime-dir right after its name, before the subcommand: alera workspace --json list --all works, while alera workspace list --all --json is rejected. Without --json, most commands print a one-line confirmation such as projects listed. With it you get the full result, and lists come back in an envelope:

{
  "filters": {},
  "items": [],
  "kind": "projects"
}

Errors go to standard error with a non-zero exit code; usage errors exit with 64.

Agent Skills#

Skills teach coding agents to drive Alera through the CLI:

• alera-cli: projects, workspaces, worktrees, SSH hosts, automations, and recovery.
• alera-orchestration: dispatching, coordinating, and completing tasks.
• alera-agent-profiles, optional: researching, managing, and validating Agent Profiles.

Install them from Settings → Agents → Alera CLI And Skills. All Alera Skills installs the CLI and orchestration skills and reapplies your selected status hooks, and Alera CLI Skill and Alera Orchestration Skill install one each. The profiles skill is under Extra Skills → Agent Profiles Skill. Every row has a runner menu (Auto, npx, or bunx), Copy for the command, and Install / Update, which runs it in a terminal dialog:

npx skills add https://github.com/leynier/alera --skill alera-cli --agent codex --global --yes

These buttons install the skills globally for Codex and need Node.js or Bun. Host Tools on the phone installs the CLI and orchestration skills on that host.