tribecode CLI Commands

Complete reference for tribecode CLI commands. Learn how to manage telemetry collection, view analytics, and control your AI coding assistant monitoring.

Overview

tribecode provides simple command-line tools for managing telemetry collection from AI coding assistants like Claude Code. All commands follow a consistent pattern and provide clear feedback.

Installation

First, install the tribecode CLI:

npx @_xtribe/cli

This installs the tribe command with tribecode functionality included.

Authentication

Before using tribecode commands, you need to authenticate:

# Authenticate with GitHub OAuth
tribe login

# Check authentication status
tribe auth-status

# View account information
tribe account-info

# Remove stored credentials
tribe logout

tribecode Commands

All tribecode commands are accessed via the tribe CLI:

| Command | Description | Example | |---------|-------------|---------| | tribe enable | Start collecting analytics | - | | tribe disable | Stop collection | - | | tribe status | Check collection status | - | | tribe logs | View collector logs | --tail 50 |

---

tribe enable

Description: Start telemetry collection from Claude Code and other AI tools.

Prerequisites:

• OAuth authentication required (tribe login)
• Claude Code CLI must be installed and used at least once

Usage:

tribe enable

Expected Output:

🚀 Starting tutor telemetry collector...
✅ tribecode collector started (PID: 12345)
📋 Logs: /Users/username/.tribe/tutor/collector.log

What Happens:

1. Verifies OAuth authentication
2. Checks for existing collector process
3. Starts background daemon for telemetry collection
4. Begins monitoring Claude Code logs in ~/.claude/projects/
5. Starts buffered transmission to analytics server

Troubleshooting:

• "OAuth authentication required": Run tribe login first
• "No Claude logs found": Use Claude Code CLI to generate some logs
• "tribecode collector binary not found": Reinstall with npx @_xtribe/cli --force

---

tribe disable

Description: Stop telemetry collection and terminate the collector daemon.

Usage:

tribe disable

Expected Output:

🛑 Stopping tutor collector (PID: 12345)...
✅ tribecode collector stopped

What Happens:

1. Finds running collector process
2. Sends graceful shutdown signal (SIGTERM)
3. Removes PID file
4. Stops all telemetry collection

Note: This does not delete collected data or remove authentication.

---

tribe status

Description: Check the current status of telemetry collection and authentication.

Usage:

tribe status

Expected Output:

🔍 tribecode Status
==========================
🔐 OAuth: ✅ Authenticated
👤 User: [email protected]
📊 Collector: ✅ Running
🔧 PID: 12345
⏱️  Uptime: 2h30m
📈 Recent: 147 events collected

Status Fields:

• OAuth: Shows authentication status and user email
• Collector: Shows if daemon is running with PID and uptime
• Recent: Shows count of recently collected events

Possible States:

• OAuth: ✅ Authenticated | ❌ Not authenticated
• Collector: ✅ Running | ❌ Stopped

---

tribe logs

Description: View collector logs to monitor telemetry collection activity.

Usage:

# View all logs
tribe logs

# View last 50 lines
tribe logs --tail 50

# Follow logs in real-time
tribe logs --follow

Available Flags:

• --tail N: Show last N lines (default: 50)
• --follow: Follow logs in real-time
• --verbose: Show detailed debug information

Sample Log Output:

2025-10-02 14:30:15 [INFO] tribecode collector started
2025-10-02 14:30:16 [INFO] Discovered 3 Claude projects
2025-10-02 14:30:17 [INFO] Processing 12 new events
2025-10-02 14:30:22 [INFO] Transmitted batch of 12 events
2025-10-02 14:30:45 [INFO] Health check: 147 total events collected

Log Locations:

• Collector Logs: ~/.tribe/tutor/collector.log
• Auth Logs: ~/.tribe/tutor/auth.json
• State File: ~/.tribe/tutor/state.json

Tribal Knowledge Commands

Search your coding history, recall past sessions, and extract specific content. These commands turn your development history into searchable tribal knowledge.

tribe search

Description: Search across all your coding sessions for specific patterns, errors, or implementations.

Usage:

tribe search "authentication middleware"
tribe search "docker compose" --project myapp
tribe search "API error" --time-range 7d

Options:

• --limit N: Limit number of results (default: 10)
• --project NAME: Filter to specific project
• --time-range 7d: Limit to time range (7d, 30d, etc.)
• --tool "Claude Code": Filter by AI tool
• --format json: Output as JSON

Example Output:

🔍 Found 2 sessions matching "authentication middleware":

1. myapp [c5aa183a] Claude Code
   📅 6:06 PM
   → ...implementing JWT authentication middleware for the API...
   → ...OAuth authentication patterns and credential management...

2. backend [30efbc4e] Claude Code
   📅 5:53 PM
   → ...Review system - focus on OAuth authentication...

---

tribe recall

Description: Get a detailed summary of a specific coding session, including files touched, commands run, and tools used.

Usage:

tribe recall c5aa183a
tribe recall c5aa183a --format json

Example Output:

📋 Session Recall: c5aa183a-715
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📁 Project:  myapp
🛠️  Tool:     Claude Code
⏱️  Duration: 21 min (6:06 PM → 6:27 PM)
📊 Events:   125 events, 5.0K tokens

✅ Summary:
   • Worked on 12 files (.ts, .tsx, .json)
   • Executed 5 shell commands
   • Used tools: Bash (66x), Edit (7x), Read (60x)
   • Key areas: api, auth, security

---

tribe extract

Description: Extract specific content types from a session: code snippets, shell commands, or file changes.

Usage:

tribe extract c5aa183a --type commands
tribe extract c5aa183a --type files
tribe extract c5aa183a --type code --limit 5

Content Types:

• --type code: Extract code snippets (default)
• --type commands: Extract shell commands
• --type files: List files modified
• --type edits: Extract file edits

Example Output:

💻 Extracted 3 commands from session c5aa183a:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[1] $ npm test

[2] $ npm run build

[3] $ git status --short

---

tribe query

Description: Query sessions, insights, or raw events with flexible filtering options.

Usage:

tribe query sessions
tribe query sessions --all --time-range 30d
tribe query insights --limit 5
tribe query events --session c5aa183a

Query Types:

• tribe query sessions: List coding sessions
• tribe query insights: View AI-generated insights
• tribe query events --session ID: View raw events

Options:

• --all: Show all projects (not just current)
• --time-range 7d: Filter by time range
• --limit N: Limit results
• --format json: Output as JSON

Example Output:

📋 Found 3 sessions (showing 2):

1. myapp [c5aa183a] Claude Code
   97 events · 1h 13m · 6.4K tokens
   5:14 PM → 6:27 PM

2. backend [30efbc4e] Claude Code
   729 events · 1h 13m · 47K tokens
   5:14 PM → 6:26 PM

---

Using TRIBE with AI Coding Agents

Your AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, etc.) can use the TRIBE CLI directly to search your coding history and leverage tribal knowledge while working on your codebase.

Example Prompts for Your AI Agent

Tell your AI coding assistant to use TRIBE commands:

• Finding past implementations: "Use tribe search to find how we handled authentication before"
• Debugging similar errors: "Search tribe for similar errors we've seen and how they were fixed"
• Reviewing recent work: "Use tribe query sessions to see what we worked on this week"
• Finding patterns: "Search tribe for API endpoint patterns in this project"

Agent-Specific Usage

| Agent | How to Use TRIBE | |-------|------------------| | Claude Code | Claude can run tribe search directly via bash | | Cursor | Use terminal within Cursor to run tribe commands | | GitHub Copilot | Pipe tribe output to context files: tribe recall abc123 > context.md | | Any Agent | Use --format json for structured output |

Pro tip: Your coding agents can search tribal knowledge to avoid re-solving problems you've already solved. Stop reinventing the wheel - search tribe first.

---

Common Usage Patterns

First-Time Setup

# 1. Install tribecode CLI
npx @_xtribe/cli

# 2. Authenticate
tribe login

# 3. Start collecting telemetry
tribe enable

# 4. Verify everything is working
tribe status

Daily Usage

# Check if collector is running
tribe status

# View recent activity
tribe logs --tail 20

# View analytics dashboard
open https://tribecode.ai/tribe/analytics

Troubleshooting

# Check authentication
tribe auth-status

# View collector status
tribe status

# Check logs for errors
tribe logs --tail 100

# Restart collector
tribe disable
tribe enable

Stopping Collection

# Temporarily stop collection
tribe disable

# Check that it stopped
tribe status

# Restart when needed
tribe enable

Configuration

Environment Variables

You can customize collector behavior with environment variables:

# Set custom server URL
export TRIBE_TUTOR_SERVER=https://tutor.company.com

# Set team ID for multi-tenant setup
export TRIBE_TEAM_ID=engineering

# Enable verbose logging
export TUTOR_COLLECTOR_FLAGS="-verbose -buffer 100"

Configuration Files

• Auth: ~/.tribe/tutor/auth.json - OAuth tokens and user info
• State: ~/.tribe/tutor/state.json - Last processed log positions
• Logs: ~/.tribe/tutor/collector.log - Collector activity logs

Advanced Usage

Scripting with JSON Output

Some commands support JSON output for scripting:

# Get status as JSON
tribe status --output json

# Example output:
{
  "authenticated": true,
  "user": "[email protected]",
  "collector_running": true,
  "pid": 12345,
  "uptime_seconds": 9000,
  "recent_events": 147
}

Integration with CI/CD

# Check if authentication is valid
if tribe auth-status --quiet; then
  echo "Authenticated, starting collector"
  tribe enable
else
  echo "Not authenticated, skipping telemetry"
fi

Team Management

# Set team ID for shared analytics
export TRIBE_TEAM_ID=frontend-team
tribe enable

# Each team member uses same team ID
# Analytics will be aggregated by team

Error Handling

Common error messages and solutions:

"OAuth authentication required"

Cause: Not authenticated or token expired Solution: Run tribe login to re-authenticate

"tribecode collector binary not found"

Cause: Installation incomplete or corrupted Solution: Reinstall with npx @_xtribe/cli --force

"No Claude logs found"

Cause: Claude Code CLI hasn't been used yet Solution: Use Claude Code CLI first to generate logs

"Permission denied"

Cause: Incorrect file permissions on collector binary Solution: Fix permissions or reinstall CLI

"Server connection failed"

Cause: Network issues or server unavailable Solution: Check internet connection and retry

Next Steps

Once you have tribecode commands working:

1. View Analytics: Open https://tribecode.ai/tribe/analytics
2. Explore Dashboard: Learn about usage patterns and insights
3. Team Setup: Configure shared analytics for your team
4. Troubleshooting: Check our troubleshooting guide for common issues

Support

If you encounter issues with CLI commands:

1. Check tribe status for current state
2. Review tribe logs for error messages
3. Verify authentication with tribe auth-status
4. Consult the troubleshooting guide
5. Join our community Discord for help