CLI Overview

The pioneer CLI manages the gateway service and provides maintenance commands for its secrets and runtime state. Use it to:

install the gateway on a server
check gateway health
start or stop the service
update gateway binaries
create a device activation code for a client
check keystore status and permissions
clean orphan MCP secret values
scan task runtime invariants in a gateway database
debug a desktop connection problem

Common commands

pioneer status
pioneer start
pioneer stop
pioneer update
pioneer device create
pioneer secrets status
pioneer secrets garbage-collection --dry-run
pioneer task-invariants --db ~/.pioneer/gateway.db
pioneer version
pioneer help

JSON output

Several commands support --json:

pioneer status --json
pioneer start --json
pioneer device create --json
pioneer secrets status --json
pioneer secrets garbage-collection --json
pioneer task-invariants --db ~/.pioneer/gateway.db --json
pioneer version --json

Use JSON output for scripts, health checks, or automation.

Production and development binaries

Production binary:

pioneer

Development binary:

pioneer-dev

The development binary is built with:

cargo run -p pioneer-cli --features dev --bin pioneer-dev -- help

Development uses separate config, service name, runtime home, install paths, and default port.

Service behavior

pioneer start registers and starts a current-user service. pioneer stop stops and unregisters the service. The service runs as the current OS user.

Platform	Service mode	Notes
Linux	`systemd --user` service	Server/headless installs require systemd linger. If automatic setup is denied, run `sudo loginctl enable-linger "$USER"` and start again.
macOS	per-user LaunchAgent	Starts after user login. It is not a boot-time LaunchDaemon.
Windows	current-user Scheduled Task	Starts at user logon. It is not a boot-time Windows Service.

Tool runs execute as the user account running the gateway service.

CLI Commands

See command syntax, flags, and examples.

Getting Started

Desktop App

Mobile App

Providers

Skills

MCP Servers

Tasks & Automation

Configuration

CLI

Common commands

JSON output

Production and development binaries

Service behavior

CLI Commands

Further reading

​Common commands

​JSON output

​Production and development binaries

​Service behavior

​Related

CLI Commands

​Further reading

Common commands

JSON output

Production and development binaries

Service behavior

Related

Further reading