NAME

harvey

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

harvey is a tool for scholarly work using natural language programming. It was inspired by Claude Code but designed for local language model systems running on small computers like a Raspberry Pi. Language model systems are commonly called “AI models” or “AI”; harvey treats them as a programmable interface for deliberate, documented work. harvey supports language model systems via llamafile (self-contained executables from Mozilla) and Ollama, and scales from resource-constrained hardware to more capable computers. harvey can be compiled to run on any system supported by Go. The project distributes executables for Linux, macOS, and Windows on x86_64 and aarch64.

harvey looks for HARVEY.md in the current directory and uses it as a system prompt. It connects to a local language model system — llamafile or Ollama — and opens an interactive natural language programming session. Cloud providers (Anthropic, DeepSeek, Gemini, Mistral, OpenAI) can be added as named routes via /route add.

All file I/O is constrained to the workspace directory (–workdir or “.”). A knowledge base is stored at /agents/knowledge.db and is created automatically on first run. Session recordings (.spmd files) are stored in /agents/sessions/. Both paths can be overridden in agents/harvey.yaml.

Type /help inside the session for available slash commands.

OPTIONS

-h, –help: display this help message
-v, –version: display version information
-l, –license: display license information
-m, –model: MODEL Ollama model to use on startup
–ollama URL: Ollama base URL (default: http://localhost:11434) -w, –workdir DIR; workspace directory (default: current directory)
-r, –record: start a Fountain recording automatically at startup
–record-file FILE: path for the auto-recording file (implies –record)
–resume: resume the most recent session automatically (no argument needed)
–continue FILE: load conversation history from a Fountain recording and open the REPL
–replay FILE: re-send every user turn from FILE to the current model and record fresh responses
–replay-output FILE: write replay responses to FILE (default: auto-named timestamped file; implies –replay)
–debug: enable diagnostic mode: sets OLLAMA_DEBUG=1 in the Ollama subprocess and writes a JSONL event log to agents/logs/harvey-TIMESTAMP.jsonl covering every LLM request/response, RAG injection, tool call, and skill dispatch. Use “harvey –help status” to see the log path during a session.

ENVIRONMENT

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY API key for Anthropic Claude (optional, for /route add NAME anthropic://) DEEPSEEK_API_KEY API key for DeepSeek (optional, for /route add NAME deepseek://) GEMINI_API_KEY API key for Google Gemini (optional; GOOGLE_API_KEY also accepted) MISTRAL_API_KEY API key for Mistral (optional, for /route add NAME mistral://) OPENAI_API_KEY API key for OpenAI (optional, for /route add NAME openai://)

All of the above API key variables are filtered out of every child process environment — they are never passed to commands run via ! or /run.

COMMANDS

Type /help TOPIC inside Harvey for the full guide on any topic. All topics are also available from the shell: harvey –help TOPIC.

Workspace

/files [PATH]: list directory contents inside the workspace
/read FILE [FILE…]: inject file contents into the conversation as context
/attach FILE: attach a file (image, PDF, or text) to the next turn; chooses best representation for the active route
/read-pdf FILE [PAGES]: extract text from a PDF and inject it into context (requires poppler; PAGES e.g. 1-10)
/write PATH: save the last assistant reply (or its first code block) to a file
/read-dir [PATH] [–depth N]: read all eligible files in a directory tree into context
/file-tree [PATH]: display a recursive directory tree
/search PATTERN [PATH]: regex search across workspace files (Go regexp syntax)
/run COMMAND [ARGS…]: run a shell command; subject to Safe Mode and timeout
/git <status|diff|log|show|blame> [ARGS…]: read-only git commands in the workspace
/format FILE [FILE…]: detect and apply language-appropriate formatters to workspace source files

Model and backend

/ollama <start [debug]|stop|status|list|ps|pull MODEL|push MODEL|show MODEL|create NAME|cp SRC DEST|rm MODEL|probe [MODEL]|logs|use MODEL|env|alias NAME FULLNAME>: manage the local Ollama server and installed models
/inspect [MODEL]: show detailed model information (Ollama only)
/route <add NAME URL [MODEL]|remove NAME|use NAME|list|on|off|status>: manage named remote LLM endpoints (@mention routing)
/llamafile <add [PATH] NAME|use NAME|show NAME|list|start NAME|status|remove NAME|download>: manage local llamafile model backends

Context and history

/context <show|add TEXT…|clear>: manage pinned context that survives /clear
/clear: reset conversation history (system prompt and pinned context survive)
/summarize: condense history to a summary, freeing context window space (/compact is an alias)
/status: show active backend, token usage, routing, recording, and debug state
/hint: show actionable suggestions for improving results (RAG, memory, KB)

Sessions

/record <start [FILE]|stop|status>: start or stop Fountain session recording
/rename NAME: rename the active session file without interrupting recording
/session <list|show [FILE]|use FILE|continue FILE|replay FILE [OUTPUT]>: list, inspect, load, or replay recorded sessions

Knowledge base

/kb <status|search TEXT|inject TEXT|project [ID]|observe KIND BODY|concept NAME>: query and update the SQLite knowledge base
/rag <list|new NAME|use NAME|drop NAME|setup|ingest PATH|status|query TEXT|on|off>: manage retrieval-augmented generation stores
/memory <mine|list|show|forget|status|recall|profile> [args…]: manage the session-experience memory store; mine and recall typed patterns
/recall QUERY: search all knowledge silos (alias for /memory recall)
/profile <list|show|edit|use|rename> [args…]: manage the workspace profile (alias for /memory profile)

Skills

/skill <list|load NAME|info NAME|status|new|run NAME>: discover, load, and run agent skills
/skill-set <list|load NAME|info NAME|create NAME|status|unload>: manage named bundles of skills

Pipelines and automation

/pipeline <CONFIDENCE%> FILE [FILE …]: chain Markdown prompt files as discrete steps with confidence gating
/plan <TASK | next | status | show | clear>: generate a GFM checklist plan and execute each step with bounded context
/loop INTERVAL [–count N] PROMPT|/COMMAND: run a prompt or command repeatedly on a fixed interval

Security

/safemode <on|off|status|allow CMD|deny CMD|reset>: restrict which commands the model may execute
/permissions <list [PATH]|set PATH PERMS|reset>: fine-grained read/write/exec/delete control per path prefix
/audit <show [N]|clear|status>: review the in-memory command and file-access audit log
/security status: unified security posture overview

SECURITY

Harvey includes several features for controlling what it can do on your system. All settings survive restart when persisted via the commands below.

Safe mode (/safemode, /safe): Restricts which commands may be executed via ! and /run to an explicit allowlist. Default allowlist: ls, cat, grep, head, tail, wc, find, stat, jq, htmlq, bat, batcat. /safe is an exact alias for /safemode. Subcommands: on, off, status, allow CMD, deny CMD, reset.
Workspace permissions (/permissions): Fine-grained read/write/exec/delete control per path prefix. Persisted in agents/harvey.yaml under the permissions: key. Subcommands: list [PATH], set PATH PERMS, reset.
Audit log (/audit): In-memory ring buffer (1000 events) recording every command, file read, file write, and skill invocation. Subcommands: show [N], clear, status.
Security overview (/security): Displays safe mode state, workspace permissions, and audit buffer status in a single view.

LINE EDITING

Harvey’s prompt supports readline-style editing. All key bindings apply while typing at the “harvey >” prompt.

Navigation:

Left / Right arrows move cursor one character Home / Ctrl+A jump to beginning of line End / Ctrl+E jump to end of line Up / Down arrows cycle through command history

Editing:

Backspace delete character before cursor Ctrl+D delete character under cursor (EOF on empty line) Ctrl+K delete from cursor to end of line

Actions:

Ctrl+C cancel current input and return to prompt Ctrl+X Ctrl+E open $EDITOR (then $VISUAL, then vi) to compose a multi-line prompt; content is submitted when the editor exits