Version 0.9.6

🛣️ PaveDB CLI Reference

Command reference for pavecli, the local PaveDB administration and data-loading tool.

Generated from pave.cli.build_parser. Regenerate with make docs-refresh.

Common Flow

pavecli init
pavecli create-collection demo books
pavecli ingest demo books ./book.txt --docid book-1
pavecli search demo books "captain nemo" -k 3

Usage

pavecli [-h] [--compact] [--version] [--home HOME]
        [--config CONFIG]
        [--tenants TENANTS] [--data-dir DATA_DIR] <command> ...

Pre-1.0 Note

Runtime selectors (–home, –config, –tenants, –data-dir) are global options. Pass them before the command, e.g. pavecli –home ./instance list-tenants. Store commands open the local data directory directly. They refuse to run while another PaveDB process owns it.

Legal Notice

Global Options

--compact (optional): Emit compact JSON for scripting
--version (optional): Print version, copyright, and license information
--home (optional): Instance home directory; omitted siblings default under it; defaults to ~/pavedb
--config (optional): Explicit config.yml path; default comes from PAVEDB_CONFIG/config search
--tenants (optional): Explicit tenants.yml path; default comes from PAVEDB_AUTH__TENANTS_FILE/config
--data-dir (optional): Explicit data directory; default comes from PAVEDB_DATA_DIR/config

Commands

Command	Description
`init`	Create a PaveDB instance config and data directory.
`admin`	Manage the local admin key.
`create-collection`	Create a collection.
`ingest`	Index a file into a collection.
`ingest-batch`	Index raw-text documents into a collection.
`ingest-text`	Index raw text into a collection.
`search`	Search a collection.
`list-queries`	List logged query IDs.
`get-query`	Fetch a logged query by ID.
`replay-query`	Replay a logged query by ID.
`list-documents`	List documents in a collection.
`get-document`	Fetch one document by ID.
`list-chunks`	List chunks for a document.
`get-chunk`	Fetch chunk metadata.
`get-chunk-content`	Print raw chunk text.
`delete-collection`	Delete a collection.
`move-collection`	Move a collection to a new name.
`update-collection`	Update collection metadata.
`delete-document`	Delete a document by ID.
`dump-archive`	Export the instance data archive.
`restore-archive`	Restore an instance data archive.
`reset-metrics`	Reset persisted metrics.
`list-tenants`	List tenants with cataloged collections.
`list-embedders`	List configured embedder instances.
`list-collections`	List collections for a tenant.
`get-collection`	Fetch collection details.

`init`

Create config.yml, tenants.yml, and the data directory for an instance.

Usage

pavecli init [-h] [--force] [root]

Examples

pavecli init
pavecli init ~/pavedb-staging
pavecli --config /etc/pavedb/config.yml \
  --tenants /var/pavedb/tenants.yml \
  --data-dir /var/pavedb/data init

Arguments And Options

root (optional): Instance home directory
--force (optional): Overwrite config and tenants files if they already exist

`admin`

Show or rotate the local instance admin key.

Usage

pavecli admin [-h] {show-key,rotate-key} ...

Examples

pavecli admin show-key
pavecli admin rotate-key

Arguments And Options

admin_cmd (required): (choices: show-key, rotate-key)

`create-collection`

Create a collection, optionally with display and embedder configuration.

Usage

pavecli create-collection [-h] [--display-name DISPLAY_NAME]
                                 [--embedder-type EMBEDDER_TYPE]
                                 [--embed-model EMBED_MODEL]
                                 [--embedder-config EMBEDDER_CONFIG]
                                 tenant collection

Example

pavecli create-collection demo books --display-name "Books"

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection slug: lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens; must start with a letter or digit; max 63 chars
--display-name (optional): Human-readable collection label
--embedder-type (optional): Embedder type, such as sbert, openai, or ollama
--embed-model (optional): Embedding model name
--embedder-config (optional): JSON object with embedder-specific config

`ingest`

Preprocess and index a TXT, CSV, or PDF file into a collection.

Usage

pavecli ingest [-h] [--docid DOCID] [--metadata METADATA]
                      [--csv-has-header {auto,yes,no}]
                      [--csv-meta-cols CSV_META_COLS]
                      [--csv-include-cols CSV_INCLUDE_COLS]
                      tenant collection file

Example

pavecli ingest demo books ./book.txt --docid book-1 --metadata '{"lang":"en"}'

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name
file (required): Path to TXT, CSV, or PDF input
--docid (optional): Stable document ID; defaults from filename when omitted
--metadata (optional): JSON object attached to the document
--csv-has-header (optional): CSV header handling: auto, yes, or no (choices: auto, yes, no)
--csv-meta-cols (optional): CSV columns for metadata only (not indexed). Names or 1-based indices, comma-separated
--csv-include-cols (optional): CSV columns to index. Names or 1-based indices, comma-separated. Defaults to all non-meta columns

`ingest-batch`

Index a JSON batch of raw-text documents.

Usage

pavecli ingest-batch [-h] tenant collection file

Example

pavecli ingest-batch demo books ./documents.json

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name
file (required): JSON batch input file

`ingest-text`

Index one raw-text document.

Usage

pavecli ingest-text [-h] [--docid DOCID] [--metadata METADATA]
                           tenant collection text

Example

pavecli ingest-text demo books "Captain Nemo" --docid note-1

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name
text (required): Raw text to index
--docid (optional): Stable document ID; generated when omitted
--metadata (optional): JSON object attached to the document

`search`

Run semantic search over a collection and print the response envelope.

Usage

pavecli search [-h] [-k K] [--include-common] [--filters FILTERS]
                      tenant collection query

Example

pavecli search demo books "captain nemo" -k 3

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name
query (required): Natural-language search query
-k (optional): Number of matches to return (default: 5)
--include-common (optional): Include configured common collection results
--filters (optional): JSON object, e.g. {“docid”:“DOC-1”}

`list-queries`

List logged query IDs, optionally scoped to a tenant or collection.

Usage

pavecli list-queries [-h] [--tenant TENANT] [--collection COLLECTION]
                            [--limit LIMIT] [--offset OFFSET]

Example

pavecli list-queries --tenant demo --collection books --limit 20

Arguments And Options

--tenant (optional): Filter by tenant
--collection (optional): Filter by collection
--limit (optional): Maximum entries to return (default: 50)
--offset (optional): Entries to skip

`get-query`

Resolve a query_id through the catalog and print the stored query log entry.

Usage

pavecli get-query [-h] query_id

Example

pavecli get-query 6f7cfd26-7d7f-4e5d-942b-f2a516f515a6

Arguments And Options

query_id (required): Query ID to fetch

`replay-query`

Resolve a query_id through the catalog and run the stored query again.

Usage

pavecli replay-query [-h] query_id

Example

pavecli replay-query 6f7cfd26-7d7f-4e5d-942b-f2a516f515a6

Arguments And Options

query_id (required): Query ID to replay

`list-documents`

Print indexed documents and their collection metadata.

Usage

pavecli list-documents [-h] tenant collection

Example

pavecli list-documents demo books

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name

`get-document`

Print document metadata and chunk summary for one document.

Usage

pavecli get-document [-h] tenant collection docid

Example

pavecli get-document demo books book-1

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name
docid (required): Document ID

`list-chunks`

Print chunk metadata for a document without chunk text content.

Usage

pavecli list-chunks [-h] tenant collection docid

Example

pavecli list-chunks demo books book-1

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name
docid (required): Document ID

`get-chunk`

Print metadata for one chunk by record ID.

Usage

pavecli get-chunk [-h] tenant collection rid

Example

pavecli get-chunk demo books book-1::chunk_0

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name
rid (required): Chunk record ID

`get-chunk-content`

Write one chunk’s text content to stdout.

Usage

pavecli get-chunk-content [-h] tenant collection rid

Example

pavecli get-chunk-content demo books book-1::chunk_0

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name
rid (required): Chunk record ID

`delete-collection`

Remove a collection, including its local metadata and vector index.

Usage

pavecli delete-collection [-h] tenant collection

Example

pavecli delete-collection demo books

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name

`move-collection`

Rename the collection slug and move its catalog/query-home records.

Usage

pavecli move-collection [-h] tenant old_name new_name

Example

pavecli move-collection demo old-books books

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
old_name (required): Current collection name
new_name (required): New collection slug: lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens; must start with a letter or digit; max 63 chars

`update-collection`

Update collection metadata such as the display name, without re-indexing.

Usage

pavecli update-collection [-h] --display-name DISPLAY_NAME
                                 tenant collection

Example

pavecli update-collection demo books --display-name "Books"

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name
--display-name (required): New human-readable collection label

`delete-document`

Remove one document and its chunks from a collection.

Usage

pavecli delete-document [-h] tenant collection docid

Example

pavecli delete-document demo books book-1

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name
docid (required): Document ID

`dump-archive`

Offline only; stop the server before reading its data directory.

Usage

pavecli dump-archive [-h] [--output OUTPUT]

Example

pavecli dump-archive --output pavedb-data.zip

Arguments And Options

--output (optional): Destination ZIP file path

`restore-archive`

Offline only; stop the server before replacing its data directory.

Usage

pavecli restore-archive [-h] file

Example

pavecli restore-archive pavedb-data.zip

Arguments And Options

file (required): Archive zip file path

`reset-metrics`

Clear the shared runtime metrics in the configured catalog database.

Usage

pavecli reset-metrics [-h]

Example

pavecli reset-metrics

`list-tenants`

Print tenants currently present in the collection catalog.

Usage

pavecli list-tenants [-h]

Example

pavecli list-tenants

`list-embedders`

Print configured embedder instances and the resolved default routing pool.

Usage

pavecli list-embedders [-h] [--tenant TENANT]

Examples

pavecli list-embedders
pavecli list-embedders --tenant demo

Arguments And Options

--tenant (optional): Tenant namespace to echo in the response

`list-collections`

Print collection names, display labels, and embedder labels for a tenant.

Usage

pavecli list-collections [-h] tenant

Example

pavecli list-collections demo

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace

`get-collection`

Print catalog, embedder, vector-space, document, and chunk details for a collection.

Usage

pavecli get-collection [-h] tenant collection

Example

pavecli get-collection demo books

Arguments And Options

tenant (required): Tenant namespace
collection (required): Collection name