CLI reference

The renart binary contains the workspace and its command-line workflows. Run renart --help or renart <command> --help for the exact reference shipped with your installed version.

Commands

Command	Purpose
renart	Start the desktop app; fall back to the browser when the native helper is unavailable.
renart web	Start the browser-based IDE.
renart standalone	Start the desktop app explicitly.
renart mcp	Serve workspace-scoped notebook tools to a local coding agent over stdio.
renart run	Execute a pipeline or asset.
renart plan	Review readiness, selection, and planned operations without executing.
renart render	Preview the saved operations for one asset without executing.
renart ls	List pipelines or assets.
renart type-check	Validate a pipeline’s saved assets and custom SQL checks.
renart deploy	Snapshot a pipeline for scheduled execution.
renart init	Scaffold a project.
renart telemetry	Inspect or change application usage analytics for your operating-system user.
renart secrets	Manage write-only connection credentials and scoped child-process access.

Pipeline commands walk up from the current directory to find the project. Use --workspace on commands that support it to select another project explicitly.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	The command completed successfully.
1	Execution, planning, rendering, or validation completed with a blocking failure.
2	The arguments or selected target are invalid.

renart web

renart web [options] [workspace root]

Flag	Default	Meaning
--static-dir	web/dist	Override the directory containing static web assets.
--watch-mode	auto	Workspace watcher: auto, fsnotify, or poll.
--watch-poll-interval	2s	Poll interval used by poll and by the polling fallback in auto.
--scheduler	on	Run the local in-process scheduler; use --scheduler=false to disable it.
--scheduler-state	.renart/state.db	Scheduler SQLite state path.
--notebook-snapshot-max-bytes	2147483648	Maximum staged size for one notebook source snapshot.
--notebook-snapshot-timeout	30m	Maximum runtime for one notebook source snapshot.
--host	127.0.0.1	Interface to bind. A non-loopback host requires --unsafe-allow-remote.
--port	8080	HTTP port; Renart selects the next free port when it is occupied.
--unsafe-allow-remote	off	Allow an unauthenticated non-loopback listener. Prefer a local tunnel.
--tls-cert		TLS certificate path; use with --tls-key.
--tls-key		TLS private-key path; use with --tls-cert.
--no-open	off	Do not open the default browser after startup.

renart standalone

renart standalone [options] [workspace root]

renart standalone starts the same embedded server as renart web and opens it with the optional renart-gui helper installed beside the CLI. If the platform webview is unavailable, it opens the browser instead.

Flag	Default	Meaning
--static-dir	web/dist	Override the directory containing static web assets.
--watch-mode	auto	Workspace watcher: auto, fsnotify, or poll.
--watch-poll-interval	2s	Poll interval used by poll and by the polling fallback in auto.
--scheduler	on	Run the local in-process scheduler; use --scheduler=false to disable it.
--scheduler-state	.renart/state.db	Scheduler SQLite state path.
--notebook-snapshot-max-bytes	2147483648	Maximum staged size for one notebook source snapshot.
--notebook-snapshot-timeout	30m	Maximum runtime for one notebook source snapshot.
--port	0	Loopback port; 0 selects a free port.
--gui-binary	beside renart	Override the native-helper path. The RENART_GUI_BINARY environment variable provides the same override.

renart mcp

renart mcp [--workspace <project root>]

renart mcp is a stdio protocol process intended to be launched by a local MCP client. It discovers the Renart server that owns the workspace and otherwise starts the notebook service in-process. Standard output is reserved for MCP JSON-RPC; diagnostics use standard error.

The command exposes bounded notebook reads, reviewed semantic change sets, and explicit run/cancel/status tools. It does not expose generic filesystem, shell, Git, secret, SQL, HTTP, or REST forwarding. See Notebook agents for setup examples and the complete authority boundary.

Flag	Default	Meaning
--workspace	discovered	Pin the stdio server to one Git-backed project root.

renart run

renart run [options] [pipeline, asset name, or path]

Without a target, the command runs the pipeline enclosing the current directory. When the IDE already has the same project open, the command delegates to that local server; --local bypasses it.

renart run
renart run retail
renart run analytics.daily_revenue
renart run analytics.customer_orders --downstream

Flag	Default	Meaning
--workspace	discovered	Select a project root.
--env	selected environment	Environment to execute against.
--start-date	schedule window	RFC 3339 start timestamp for the execution window.
--end-date	schedule window	RFC 3339 end timestamp for the execution window.
--downstream	off	Asset targets only: include every downstream asset.
--refresh-upstreams	off	Asset targets only: build stale transitive upstreams first.
--full-refresh	off	Rebuild from scratch instead of using the saved incremental strategy.
--sensor-mode	once	Sensor behavior: once, wait, or skip.
--confirm-environment		Supply the environment name when its policy requires explicit confirmation.
--local	off	Execute in-process even when the IDE is open. RENART_NO_SERVER provides the same override.
--json	off	Emit JSON Lines events.
--quiet, -q	off	Suppress streamed output and print only the final status.

renart plan

renart plan [options] [pipeline, asset name, or path]

The default selection contains assets that need work. Pass an asset to plan its closure, --all for the whole pipeline, or --selector for an expression.

renart plan retail
renart plan retail --all
renart plan retail --selector 'tag:daily,+analytics.daily_revenue'
renart plan analytics.daily_revenue --upstream

Flag	Default	Meaning
--workspace	discovered	Select a project root.
--env	selected environment	Environment whose configuration and policy to use.
--start-date	schedule window	RFC 3339 start timestamp for the planned window.
--end-date	schedule window	RFC 3339 end timestamp for the planned window.
--execution-time	now	RFC 3339 timestamp used by templates.
--source	working tree	Saved source: working-tree or snapshot.
--snapshot		Exact deployment version; implies --source snapshot.
--all	off	Plan every asset instead of only assets that need work.
--selector		Pipeline targets only: select assets with an expression.
--selector-needed	off	With --selector, retain only matching assets that need work.
--upstream	off	Asset targets only: include upstream dependencies.
--downstream	off	Asset targets only: include downstream dependents.
--full-refresh	off	Preview the effective full-refresh form.
--backfill	off	Mark an explicit single-asset window as a backfill.
--sensor-mode	once	Sensor behavior: once, wait, or skip.
--include-stage-content	off	Include rendered operation bodies in human output.
--local	off	Plan in-process even when the IDE is open. RENART_NO_SERVER provides the same override.
--json	off	Emit the structured plan response as JSON.

renart render

renart render [options] <asset name or path>

The preview distinguishes compiled SQL, execution SQL, semantic operations, and runtime-only stages. It lists column and custom quality checks as named stages. Interactive output highlights structured stage bodies; redirected output and --json contain no ANSI formatting. Set NO_COLOR=1 to disable color.

renart render analytics.daily_revenue
renart render analytics.daily_revenue --source snapshot --snapshot deployment-id
renart render raw.customers --json

Flag	Default	Meaning
--workspace	discovered	Select a project root.
--env	selected environment	Environment whose render context to use.
--start-date	schedule window	RFC 3339 start timestamp for the preview window.
--end-date	schedule window	RFC 3339 end timestamp for the preview window.
--execution-time	now	RFC 3339 timestamp used by templates.
--full-refresh	off	Preview the full-refresh form when policy permits it.
--source	working tree	Saved source: working-tree or snapshot.
--snapshot		Exact deployment version; implies --source snapshot.
--local	off	Render in-process even when the IDE is open. RENART_NO_SERVER provides the same override.
--json	off	Emit the structured render response as JSON.

renart ls

renart ls [options] [pipelines|assets] [pipeline]

renart ls
renart ls assets
renart ls assets retail

Flag	Default	Meaning
--workspace	discovered	Select a project root.
--json	off	Emit JSON instead of a table.

renart type-check

renart type-check [options] [pipeline name or directory]

Type-check validates dependencies, SQL columns and types, declared output schemas, materialization configuration, required declarations, and custom SQL checks. It exits with code 1 on errors.

Flag	Default	Meaning
--workspace	discovered	Select a project root.
--start-date	schedule window	RFC 3339 start timestamp for the template context.
--end-date	schedule window	RFC 3339 end timestamp for the template context.
--json	off	Emit the full report as JSON.
--strict	off	Also exit with code 1 when the report contains warnings.

renart deploy

renart deploy [options] [pipeline name or directory]

Creates the same immutable schedule snapshot as Deploy in Schedules.

Flag	Default	Meaning
--workspace	discovered	Select a project root.

renart init

renart init [options] [directory]

The directory defaults to the current directory. Renart initializes a Git repository when no repository encloses it.

Flag	Default	Meaning
--template	empty	Project template; renart init --help lists them.

The templates are the demos offered on the welcome screen:

Template	Contents
product	Product analytics: synthetic events modelled into journeys, a funnel and daily activity in local DuckDB.
operations	Operations monitoring: a query sensor gating device-health models in local DuckDB.
earthquakes	Earthquake monitoring: USGS events over HTTP with several materialization strategies.
python	Python risk scoring: SQL features scored in Python and aggregated back in SQL.
jinja	Jinja workshop: variables, date windows, conditionals and generated SQL in local DuckDB.
chess	Chess performance: player games and openings from the public Chess.com API.
retail	Retail analytics: bundled CSV seeds loaded through Sling, which the first run downloads.
empty	A minimal pipeline with one example SQL asset.

renart secrets

Connection secret values are write-only. The CLI can replace a value, bind a field to an existing environment variable, inspect safe provider metadata, or remove a binding; it never prints or reveals the current value.

renart secrets status [options] [connection] [field]
renart secrets set [options] <connection> <field>
renart secrets remove [options] <connection> <field>
renart secrets exec [options] <command> [args...]
renart secrets vault <status|init|unlock|lock|change-passphrase>

Command	Purpose
status [connection] [field]	Show provider, reference, and configured/missing/locked status without resolving or printing values.
set <connection> <field>	Replace a value through a hidden prompt or standard input.
remove <connection> <field>	Remove the binding and any value Renart owns in its selected local store.
exec <command> [args...]	Resolve the selected environment for one child process.
vault status	Show whether the project vault is uninitialized, locked, unlocked, or unavailable.
vault init	Create the per-project encrypted vault.
vault unlock	Unlock the vault inside the running Renart server.
vault lock	Lock the vault inside the running Renart server.
vault change-passphrase	Replace the passphrase of an unlocked vault.

Store a replacement in the operating system’s credential store. An interactive terminal shows a hidden prompt; automation can pipe the value through stdin:

renart secrets set warehouse password
printf '%s' "$NEW_PASSWORD" | renart secrets set warehouse password

Use the encrypted local vault when the operating-system credential service is unavailable. init prompts twice and creates a per-project encrypted file outside the repository. If a Renart server is running, initialization leaves its vault session unlocked; otherwise the new vault is locked when the command finishes.

renart secrets vault init
renart secrets vault unlock
renart secrets set --store vault warehouse password
renart secrets vault lock

unlock, lock, and change-passphrase manage the session in a running Renart web or standalone process. Other CLI commands use an isolated session and prompt when they need to open the vault. Hidden passphrase prompts require an interactive terminal. Automation can set RENART_VAULT_PASSPHRASE for one command; Renart removes that variable from children started by secrets exec. Unattended runs are usually better served by an environment binding. Restarting Renart locks the vault.

For CI or a headless machine, bind the field to an environment variable without sending its value to Renart:

renart secrets set warehouse password --from-env WAREHOUSE_PASSWORD
renart secrets status warehouse password

exec resolves all managed connection secrets in the selected environment and adds their symbolic names only to one child process. Put the environment and workspace flags before the command:

renart secrets exec --env production -- your-command --flag

The child can read the configured symbols; the parent environment, command arguments, and project files do not receive resolved values. Like any process given credentials, the child itself can read or print them, so use this only with commands you trust.

Subcommand flag	Default	Meaning
--workspace	discovered	Select a project root.
--env, --environment	selected environment	Select the connection environment.
status --json	off	Emit provider/reference metadata as JSON. Values remain excluded.
set --store	credential-store	Store a replacement in credential-store or vault.
set --from-env NAME	unset	Record an environment-variable binding instead of reading a replacement.
remove --yes	interactive confirmation	Confirm removal; required in non-interactive sessions.
vault status --json	off	Emit vault state and secret count as JSON. Values remain excluded.

For the end-to-end UI workflow and source-selection guidance, see Manage connection credentials.

renart telemetry

These commands apply across projects, store preferences outside your repository, and print JSON. They do not require an open workspace.

Command	Purpose
renart telemetry status	Show the saved preference and effective collection status, including environment overrides.
renart telemetry disable	Disable collection and discard the local installation ID, if any.
renart telemetry enable	Allow collection and acknowledge its explanation; environment opt-outs still take priority.
renart telemetry sample	Print a synthetic payload without creating an identifier or sending an event.
renart telemetry reset	Discard a local installation ID, if any; does not delete previously received data.

The current default uses no persistent installation ID and has no configured receiver. Enabling the preference alone does not activate collection. See Security and privacy for the payload and opt-out behavior.

Related

• Work from the terminal
• Installation
• Runs and history