CLI Overview

The Lytos CLI removes friction from adopting the method. One command to install, one command to validate, one command to visualize.

Install

npm install -g lytos-cli

Or use without installing:

npx lytos-cli init

Commands

Command	What it does
lyt init	Scaffold .lytos/ in your project (interactive, detects your stack)
lyt board	Regenerate BOARD.md from issue frontmatter (read-only on the filesystem)
lyt archive	Move completed issues from 5-done/ to archive/<quarter>/ (default: older than 7 days). --all, --older-than, --dry-run
lyt lint	Validate .lytos/ structure and content
lyt doctor	Full diagnostic — missing files, broken links, stale memory, health score
lyt show	Display issue detail with progress bar
lyt start	Start an issue — move to in-progress, create branch, update board
lyt close	Explicitly close a validated issue or batch-close 4-review/ — check the checklist and update the board
lyt claim	Assign an issue to yourself
lyt upgrade	Update method files in .lytos/ from the bundled version
lyt update	Update the Lytos CLI itself to the latest version

Design principles

• Offline-first — no network needed (except lytos init to download templates)
• Zero lock-in — plain markdown files, works with any AI tool
• No telemetry — no tracking, no analytics, ever
• Human-first — the CLI never modifies files without explicit user action

Source code

The CLI is open source: github.com/getlytos/lytos-cli

Built with TypeScript, Commander.js, and zero runtime dependencies beyond Commander.