CLI

Wenlan CLI Commands and Service Management

Use the Wenlan CLI to install the runtime, check the daemon, search memory, and connect MCP clients.

Qi-Xuan LuUpdated Jul 9, 20265 min read

At a glance

Quick answer: use wenlan setup, status, doctor, background, recall, search, capture, and connect when you need terminal control over the local memory runtime.

The daemon owns memory, search, pages, and retrieval. The CLI talks to that daemon instead of editing the database directly.

Quick answer: what the CLI controls

Use the CLI when you need repeatable terminal commands for setup, daemon health, service state, memory recall, search, capture, and MCP client wiring.

Claude Code slash commands and MCP tools reach the same local daemon. The CLI is the direct path when a client UI hides status or configuration details.

Terminal

npx -y wenlan setup

Check the daemon

The daemon listens on 127.0.0.1:7878 and owns storage, search, pages, graph context, and distill cycles. Use status for a quick health check and doctor for a fuller setup report.

Service installation is per-user. Wenlan uses launchd on macOS, systemd user units on Linux, and a Task Scheduler logon task on Windows.

Service commands

wenlan status
wenlan doctor
wenlan background on
wenlan background off

Use memory from the terminal

The CLI can recall, search, capture, and show recent memories from scripts or from a plain terminal session. It is useful when you need a repeatable diagnostic or when your current tool does not expose Wenlan commands directly.

Use specific queries. Project names, feature names, people, and decisions usually retrieve better context than generic phrases.

Daily CLI

wenlan recall "wenlan website positioning"
wenlan search "MCP setup"
wenlan capture "We chose spaces for client separation" --type decision
wenlan memories --limit 10

Wire MCP clients

After setup, use wenlan connect to configure a supported MCP client. The command writes or previews the client-specific config that launches the local wenlan-mcp connector.

Use --dry-run when you want to inspect the generated config before changing a client settings file.

MCP setup

~/.wenlan/bin/wenlan connect codex
~/.wenlan/bin/wenlan connect cursor --dry-run

When to use the CLI

Use Claude Code slash commands for the richest daily workflow. Use MCP tools from clients that support them. Use the CLI for setup, diagnostics, scripts, service management, and cases where a client UI hides too much detail.

All three paths reach the same daemon, so they should agree on memory state when setup is healthy.

Updates and Uninstall

Refresh Wenlan's local runtime, verify version health, restart MCP clients, and remove the service without losing data by accident.