Standalone vs Connected Mode

Terso works in two modes. Standalone is free, offline, and gets you the AGENTS.md compiler immediately. Connected adds richer project memory backed by Omnus.

No Omnus account, no network, no auth. Free, open source.

npm install -g terso-cli
cd ~/projects/my-app
terso init
# edit AGENTS.md
terso emit

What works in standalone:

  • terso emit — compile AGENTS.md to CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, .github/copilot-instructions.md
  • emit --watch — live re-compile on save
  • emit --check — CI gate to prevent drift
  • terso mcp — MCP server exposes AGENTS.md to any agent via MCP
  • terso compile — combine .terso/-tracked source docs into a single context artifact

What's missing without Omnus:

  • No captured decisions from the terminal
  • No cross-project search
  • No shared operational knowledge across projects
  • No nightly state consolidation
  • No portfolio health monitoring

Connected mode

Add an Omnus account to unlock the capture/sync/search pipeline.

terso auth set <your-api-token>
terso capture "switched auth to Supabase — RLS was the dealbreaker"
terso sync

What's added:

  • Capture from CLI, web, email, or webhooks
  • LLM classification and dedup
  • Cross-project knowledge search
  • Shared ops compiled across all your projects
  • Nightly state consolidation
  • Review queue for uncertain items
  • Portfolio health monitoring

Switching modes

You don't have to choose. Connected mode is purely additive — emit keeps working regardless.

Check connection status:

terso doctor

Clear the API token to fall back to standalone:

terso auth clear
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