CLI reference

The quorum CLI treats the current directory as the org home, unless --dir says otherwise. Running with no subcommand starts the org, initializing it on first run.

quorum [command] [options]

quorum start — the default command

Initialize the org if needed, then run it. This is what a bare quorum (or npx @meffecta/quorum) does.

quorum                                          # boot the org in this directory
quorum --mission "Launch a tiny SaaS" --budget 20  # seed a new org with a mission + cap
quorum --dir ~/orgs/acme --port 3001            # another org, on another port

Options

flag	meaning
--dir <path>	org home directory (default: current directory)
--mission <text>	the org’s mission — provide it here or in QUORUM.md’s ## Mission, not both; seeds a new org
--mission-file <file>	file containing the mission text (mutually exclusive with --mission)
--budget <usd>	lifetime spend cap in USD — the org halts at the cap
--port <n>	dashboard port (default 3000, or $PORT)
--host <host>	dashboard bind host (default 127.0.0.1; 0.0.0.0 exposes an unauthenticated control plane)
--tick <ms>	autonomous cycle interval in ms (default 10000)
--concurrency <n>	max concurrent tasks per cycle
--no-eval	don’t evaluate completed work
--eval-threshold <n>	minimum evaluation score to accept work
--claude-bin <path>	path to the claude binary (default: claude on PATH)
--headless	run without the dashboard server
--force	scaffold even into a non-empty directory

--mission only seeds a new org. On a restart the org runs on its already-saved goal board, so a --mission passed to an existing org is ignored (with a warning). A brand-new org with no mission from any source prompts for one at the terminal, and is refused rather than started idle when there’s no TTY.

quorum init — scaffold without starting

Prepare an org home so you can review and edit its definition before spending a token. init never starts the org.

quorum init                                        # write a starter QUORUM.md
quorum init --prompt "a newsletter studio: an editor, a writer, a researcher"
quorum init --dir ~/orgs/acme --mission "Ship v1"

Options

flag	meaning
--dir <path>	org home directory (default: current directory)
--mission <text>	seed the starter file’s mission
--mission-file <file>	file containing the mission text
--prompt <text>	describe the org in plain words — Claude drafts its QUORUM.md for review (one call; conflicts with --mission/--mission-file)
--claude-bin <path>	path to the claude binary
--force	scaffold into a non-empty directory / draft over an existing QUORUM.md

• Bare init writes a minimal starter QUORUM.md (a solo CEO with a budget) and prepares the runtime dirs — fully offline.
• init --prompt spends one claude call to draft the file, validated against the real parser. Booting it never calls the LLM again.
• An existing QUORUM.md is left untouched (pass --force to draft over it).

Environment variables

Flags win over env vars, which win over file defaults. The variables the CLI and runtime read:

variable	equivalent	meaning
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	—	key the claude binary authenticates with
CLAUDE_BIN	--claude-bin	path to the claude binary
PORT	--port	dashboard port
HOST	--host	dashboard bind host
TICK_MS	--tick	cycle interval in ms
TASK_CONCURRENCY	--concurrency	max concurrent tasks per cycle
EVAL	--no-eval (EVAL=off)	disable the quality gate
EVAL_THRESHOLD	--eval-threshold	minimum passing score
BUDGET_TOTAL_USD	--budget	lifetime cap (halt for good)
BUDGET_DAILY_USD	—	daily cap (skip cycles until rollover)
BUDGET_MONTHLY_USD	—	monthly cap
BUDGET_PER_CYCLE_USD	—	per-cycle warning/halt cap

TASK_CONCURRENCY=6 EVAL_THRESHOLD=70 quorum
BUDGET_DAILY_USD=5 BUDGET_MONTHLY_USD=100 quorum

Every other runtime tunable is in Configuration.

--version / --help

quorum --version    # prints the CLI version
quorum --help       # the command tree
quorum start --help # options for a specific command