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Read project context from the CLI

Map what an Ideate project holds and read only the parts you need, from a terminal or from a coding agent that is about to build from it. Every command prints plain text for people and, with --json, the underlying resource for scripts.

Prerequisites

  • alis installed and signed in (Install the CLI).
  • The right account selected: alis accounts list, then alis accounts select accounts/<id>. find searches the selected account only.

Find the project

If you hold a reference such as ideas/<id> (from a support ticket, a link or a colleague), skip to the next section; <id> and ideas/<id> both work everywhere.

Otherwise:

alis ideate list

lists the projects you can see, most recently updated first. --archived includes archived ones; --limit caps the count. Or describe the topic:

alis ideate find "how advisers onboard new clients" --dimension current-process

Map the project

alis ideate context <project>

The map is the entry point. It prints:

  • the project's title, id, state, account and last activity;
  • a Still settling note when contributions are still processing or outputs are stale;
  • People: everyone with access, and whether each has contributed;
  • every artifact written for the project, with a line on what each covers;
  • Contributions: every note, memo, recording, upload and completed interview, with who added it and a summary;
  • the commands that read any one of them in full.

Nothing is printed in full here. Compare last activity across runs to notice new material.

Read the parts

To read Command
One synthesised document alis ideate artifacts read <artifact> --project <project>
One contribution and the map of its files alis ideate contribution <contribution> --project <project>
One file's text, or a slice of it the same with --file <n>, and --lines <a-b>
Who contributed what alis ideate graph <project>
Only the contributions alis ideate contributions <project>

Contribution ids need --project. An artifact id stands alone, but pass --project anyway: it is checked, so an id from the wrong project fails instead of printing another project's document.

Check before you build

Before a coding agent, or you, builds from a project, look at three things the map and the outputs tell you:

  1. Still settling. More context may land while you build. Prefer a settled project; otherwise say what was still in flight.
  2. The gap analysis. Conflicts, missing voices, open questions and unvalidated assumptions. A gap that blocks the build is a question for the humans, not something to invent an answer to.
  3. Who has contributed nothing. An owner who has put nothing in is a perspective nobody has heard.

A contribution with no summary is usually still transcribing, not empty; its state says which.

Add what you learn

When your work produces context the project should hold, add it back:

alis ideate add note --project <project> --file findings.md

See Add notes and contributions and Upload recordings and documents.

For coding agents

alis docs ideate prints the same loop as an operating manual for agents: start with the map, then open only the sources that matter.