Command reference
This page is the short list. It covers the commands most people use, grouped the way the in-app
help groups them. The full command reference has every registered command with
its options and examples, and each command below links to its entry there.
The node explains itself too. help shows the getting-started set, help all lists every
everyday command, help debug lists the diagnostic @ commands, and help <command> explains one
of them. In the Urchin client, /help client lists the client's own / commands.
Over SSH, and in the Urchin client's command mode, you type a command as it appears here. In the
client's chat mode you put / in front of it, as in /look.
Checked against the node's verb table on 2026-09-30.
Account and session
| Command |
What it does |
whoami |
Show your name, where you are and what you carry |
passwd <old> <new> |
Change your password. In the Urchin client, /passwd asks for both in a form |
who |
Show who is in the room with you, and everyone signed in on this node |
quit |
Disconnect |
Moving and looking
| Command |
What it does |
look or l |
Describe where you are. look <thing> inspects one thing |
go <exit> |
Move through an exit. north, south, east, west, up and down also work on their own, as do n, s, e and w. The diagonals (northeast and the rest) have no short form |
home |
Return to your home |
place |
Describe where you are as structured data. It does not move you |
peer <capsule> or inspect |
List what a capsule in this place holds |
Talking
| Command |
What it does |
say <message> |
Speak to everyone in the room. "<message> is the short form |
chat <message> |
Send to the channel you are in. The whole line is the message |
chat !<channel> <message> |
Send to another channel you are in, named with !. Naming a channel never creates it and never moves you into it |
tell <person> [message] |
Send one person a private message, kept in a history that survives a restart. With no message it shows your last 20 messages with them. whisper is the same command |
outbox / outbox flush |
Show messages waiting for people who were offline, or retry them now |
People
| Command |
What it does |
friend <identity> |
Add someone this node has already seen to your contacts. Nothing is sent to them |
unfriend <identity> |
Drop someone from your contacts |
friends / friends online |
List your contacts, or check whether each one is reachable now |
contacts |
Your contacts as a plain list |
finger <identity> |
Show what this node knows about one person. Nothing is sent over the network |
petname <identity> <name> |
Give someone a private name that only you see. petnames lists them, and petname <name> --clear removes one |
block <identity> / unblock <identity> |
Refuse a person, or lift the refusal. A block keys on the identifier the person proved, so it covers every record this node holds for them. When the node cannot tell who a name belongs to, it says so and blocks nothing |
blocked |
List who you have blocked |
Objects
Rooms, zones and room sharing are left out of this page
while they change. help create, help exits and help share describe the forms the node
accepts today.
Halls and standing
| Command |
What it does |
found hall <name> [--no-harbor] |
Found a Hall. You become its Steward. Other accounts on this node see it in the Harbor unless you pass --no-harbor |
describe hall <text> |
Set the description of the Hall you are in. Stewards only |
set hall <field> <value> |
Change a Hall's settings from inside it. Stewards only. The fields include threshold (open, knock, invite_only, members_only), atmosphere (Supportive, Focused, Playful, Intellectual), harbor (public, private), voice and pose (on, off). A newly founded Hall has voice and pose on. Live voice is not end-to-end encrypted |
halls |
List the Halls you hold standing in |
standing / standing <user> <tier> |
Show your standing in this Hall. A Steward's grant (newcomer, familiar, trusted, steward, visitor to clear) does not take effect in this build (known issue) |
knocks |
List the people waiting to enter Halls you steward |
accept <user> / reject <user> |
Admit a knocker as a Newcomer, or turn them down, from inside the Hall. No command clears a rejection yet, so a rejected person cannot knock again. See Your first Hall |
vouch <user> |
Vouch for a knocker at a members_only Hall. You need Trusted standing there. Two vouches admit the person as a Newcomer |
manifest realm <name#tag> |
Open a portal to the Halls that another account on this node has published |
leave hall <name> |
Remove your link to a Hall on another node |
Capsules, grants and services
Owner rights
These grants are not on a capsule. They are create_user, node_admin and the delegate: rights
to pass them on. Each one lapses 90 days after it is granted unless the person who granted it
renews it. Nothing renews by itself, and the grants the node itself made do not lapse.
| Command |
What it does |
delegations |
List the grants you gave or hold, with their ids and expiry. The node's owner sees every one on the node |
undelegate <id> |
Revoke a grant and what was passed on from it |
renew <name> |
Renew every expiring grant you gave that person |
renew all, then yes |
List what would be renewed, signing nothing. yes then renews exactly that list, once, within 10 minutes |
Invites and joining
| Command |
What it does |
invite [presence] |
Make an invite to a presence, or to the one you are in. It prints a short code such as tiger-castle-7 and a QR code. -noshort leaves out the short code |
join <code> |
Join a presence with a short code |
join <seed> |
Connect in person with a kunul1… seed from meet |
door <presence> open / door <presence> invite |
Let anyone who knows its name join a presence you made with create ~presence, or make it invite-only. A presence is open until you change it, and the lobby is always open |
door <presence> invite <person> / uninvite <person> |
Invite a person to an invite-only presence, or take the invitation back |
leave [presence] |
Leave a presence. If it was your only one, you go back to the lobby |
meet |
Show your seed and a QR code for an in-person connection on the same local network |
meet guest |
Show this node's address as a QR code, so a phone running Urchin can sign in to it |
ping <user> |
Check whether a peer is connected, and over which transports |
Identity
| Command |
What it does |
export-identity <path> <passphrase> |
Write an encrypted backup of your identity to a path on the node's machine. The passphrase is base64-encoded, and it must be at least 12 characters before encoding. In the Urchin client, export-identity on its own opens a form that handles the passphrase |
import-identity <file> <passphrase> [--overwrite] |
Restore a backup. The file must be in the node's imports folder. Restart and sign in afterwards |
The backup file and its passphrase together give complete control of the identity. There is no
command to rotate an identity's key.
Connectivity, diagnostics and reporting
| Command |
What it does |
transport |
Show which transports are running and whether each can carry connections. transport enable, disable and force change the whole node and are the owner's alone |
bug <description> |
Save a snapshot of the node's state as a JSON file in the node's bugs folder. Nothing is uploaded. See Reporting issues |
@version |
Show the node's build version and commit |
debug |
Diagnostic output. The node's owner only |
help debug lists the other diagnostic commands, such as peer lists and network checks. They help
when you are troubleshooting or filing a report.
Urchin client commands
These run in the Urchin client and never reach the node. You always type the /. The manual's
Urchin client commands section and /help client list every one.
| Command |
What it does |
/chat · /cmd · /defaultmode |
Switch between chat and command mode, and set the mode you start in |
/network · /netdetail · /refresh |
The network view, with IPFS peers shown or hidden, and a refresh now |
/services |
The node services view |
/a11y |
Accessibility settings (scanlines, glow, motion) |
/check-updates · /update · /reinstall |
Check for updates, install them, or reinstall every component. /update on its own updates everything, and /update client, server, veilid, tor or ipfs updates one |
/restart · /reconnect |
Restart Urchin, or reconnect without restarting |
/found-wiz · /join-wiz |
A guided Hall founding, and a guided join by invite code or identity |
/bug <description> |
Capture a bug report. The client writes one file and the node writes another with the same id |
/passwd · /clear · /debug on · /debug off |
Change your password, clear the terminal, and turn debug logging to a file on or off |
/about |
The client's version and credits |
/quit · /exit · /help |
Disconnect, close Urchin, or open help |