Command line (CLI)

brainitive is a small program for your terminal. It captures thoughts into your inbox, creates issues (with a screenshot, if you like), tasks, snippets and bookmarks, reads boards and docs, searches everything, and can set up whole projects. It also lets AI tools on your machine use your Brainitive account. One file, nothing else to install — for Brainitive Cloud and self-hosted servers alike.

Install

macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://github.com/armendzekjiri/brainitive/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

Windows

irm https://github.com/armendzekjiri/brainitive/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 | iex

The script downloads the latest release for your machine from GitHub, checks its checksum and puts brainitive on your PATH. Prefer to do it yourself? Download brainitive_<os>_<arch>.tar.gz (or .zip) from the latest release. Later, brainitive update upgrades in place.

The installer also adds bi as a short command when that name is available, so bi login and brainitive login do the same thing. It never replaces an existing bi command. Use bi -s "search words" to search or bi -c "a quick note" to capture.

Quick shortcuts

Command	Action
bi -s "search words"	Search everything you can access
bi -c "a quick note"	Capture a note in your inbox
bi -W	List workspaces
bi -P	List projects in the current workspace
bi -B	List boards in the current project
bi -i	List issues on the current board
bi -t	List open tasks in the current task list
bi -s "search words" -j	Return JSON, also available as --json

Use -w, -p and -b to choose a workspace, project and board, or set defaults with bi use. Each quick action runs separately; use the full commands for more options.

Sign in

brainitive login                                   # Brainitive Cloud
brainitive login --server brainitive.example.com   # your own server

Your browser opens on your Brainitive instance. Approve the access and go back to the terminal — nothing to copy. The CLI appears under your avatar → Profile settings → Connected apps, where you can revoke it; changing your password disconnects it too.

For scripts and CI, skip the browser and set two environment variables: BRAINITIVE_SERVER and BRAINITIVE_TOKEN (a token from Connected apps, or php artisan mcp:get-token <email> on a self-hosted server).

Set your defaults once

brainitive workspaces
brainitive use acme/shop/main-board

With that, the commands below know which workspace, project and board you mean. You can always override with --workspace, --project and --board, and if you only have one workspace or project, nothing is needed.

Everyday commands

You want to…	Command
Jot something down to sort later	brainitive capture "Ask Dana about Q4" · pbpaste | brainitive capture
Create an issue	brainitive issue create Checkout misaligned --type Bug --priority High --label ui --assignee me
…with a screenshot	brainitive issue create "Crash on save" -f crash.md --screenshot shot.png
See the board	brainitive issues · brainitive issue show SHOP-12
Move, comment, change	brainitive issue move SHOP-12 --to Done · brainitive issue comment SHOP-12 "Fixed" · brainitive issue update SHOP-12 --priority Highest
Tasks	brainitive task add Renew the domain --due 2026-12-01 · brainitive tasks · brainitive task done 3
Snippets	brainitive snippet add "Reset sequence" -f reset.sql · brainitive snippets
Bookmarks	brainitive bookmark add https://go.dev --title Go · brainitive bookmark note "remember this"
Docs	brainitive pages · brainitive page get <uuid> · brainitive page create "Notes" -f notes.md --publish
Search	brainitive search "payment failed" --type issues --mine
Project setup	brainitive project config · brainitive project create "Shop" --key SHOP --columns "Backlog,Doing,Done"

Every command prints a readable table. Add --json to get the raw result for scripts.

Everything the server can do: brainitive tool

The CLI talks to the same MCP server that Claude and ChatGPT use, so every one of its tools is available — including the ones that set up a project (statuses, labels, types, priorities, custom fields, members) and create cards in bulk:

brainitive tools                                     # the catalogue
brainitive tool create-item-field --describe         # arguments of one tool
brainitive tool create-label name=urgent color=#ef4444
brainitive tool create-board-items --args '{"items":[{"title":"A","column":"Done","labels":["urgent"]}]}'

AI tools on your computer: brainitive mcp

Some AI tools only know local MCP servers, or can't sign in to a remote one by themselves. Run the CLI as that local server and it forwards everything to Brainitive with your login:

claude mcp add brainitive -- brainitive mcp          # Claude Code

{ "mcpServers": { "brainitive": { "command": "brainitive", "args": ["mcp"] } } }

The second form is what Cursor, VS Code, Codex and similar tools read from their mcp.json.

Self-hosting

Nothing to switch on: the CLI signs in through the same OAuth server as the connectors (/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server), registering itself with a loopback redirect (http://127.0.0.1:<port>/callback), which is always allowed. The installers and the binaries both come from the GitHub release; every instance's /install.sh and /install.ps1 forward there, so you can also point people at your own address.