Cate CLI

cate is available inside Cate terminals and agent shells. It talks to the current workspace and requires the relevant Settings → CLI permission.

Start by listing panels:

cate panel list

When working repeatedly with one panel, select it for the current agent or terminal session:

cate panel set 1a2b3c4d
cate panel current

The selection is isolated by a per-terminal CLI session, so other agents and terminals keep their own targets. Short ids from panel list are accepted. Use --panel <id> only as a one-command override. Clear the selection to return to Cate's automatic focused/grouped resolution:

cate panel clear

Selections can point to any native panel. Browser and terminal commands reject a selected panel of the wrong type instead of silently controlling another panel. If a selected panel was closed, select another panel before continuing.

Browser workflow

Inspect, act, wait, then inspect again:

cate panel set 1a2b3c4d
cate browser open https://example.com
cate browser snapshot -i
cate browser fill @s1e2 user@example.com
cate browser click @s1e3
cate browser wait --url '**/dashboard'
cate browser snapshot -i

Page commands after cate browser use agent-browser's native argv directly:

cate browser snapshot -i --compact
cate browser get text @s1e4
cate browser find role button click
cate browser fill '#email' user@example.com
cate browser press Enter
cate browser scroll down 600
cate browser screenshot --full
cate browser console
cate browser errors

Do not use agent-browser's open semantics by assumption: Cate defines browser open as opening a new tab. Use navigate only when replacing the active tab is intentional:

cate browser open https://second.example
cate browser navigate https://replacement.example
cate browser new-panel https://separate.example

Cate owns browser identity and presentation. Native session/CDP switching, native tab management, upload/download paths, batch, setup, servers, and browser startup flags are unavailable. Use Cate's lifecycle commands:

cate browser tabs
cate browser new-tab [url]
cate browser select-tab <id>
cate browser close-tab <id>
cate browser viewport desktop
cate browser viewport mobile
cate browser viewport 1024 768
cate browser viewport compact
cate browser resize 640 480

The default compact viewport renders at 75% scale. Responsive viewport size and canvas panel size are independent. resize applies only to canvas panels and has a 400×300 minimum.

Snapshots come from agent-browser's accessibility tree. Cate wraps engine refs with an observation revision, for example @s1e4. A new snapshot invalidates older refs; take a fresh snapshot instead of retrying stale-ref.

Agent actions display a persistent cursor/highlight in the browser panel. User input immediately takes control back. Screenshots are saved to a Cate-managed temporary path and the CLI prints that path.

Other surfaces

cate editor open src/app.tsx:42
cate panel create terminal
cate panel create canvas
cate panel set <id>
cate panel current
cate panel clear
cate panel close <id>

Read a terminal before sending input. type does not append Enter:

cate panel set 1a2b3c4d
cate terminal read
cate terminal type npm test
cate terminal press enter

Terminal input goes to whatever currently owns that PTY, including foreground TUIs. Never send keys until the panel id and current screen are verified.

Agent orchestration

Use cate agent when a task benefits from visible, persistent delegation: independent parallel work, cross-provider review, or isolated implementation in a Cate worktree. Keep small, tightly coupled edits in the current agent.

Discover registered runs before acting on an older mission or after context compaction:

cate agent list

Create a worker with a bounded, self-contained prompt and concrete success criteria. Cate chooses the first hook-ready registered agent when --agent is omitted:

cate agent create "Inspect the API boundary and report risks" --title "API scout"
cate agent create "Implement the parser and run its focused tests" \
  --agent codex --title "Parser" --new-worktree agent/parser
cate agent create "Review the current worktree changes" --worktree <worktree-id>

Workers may recursively create and supervise their own workers with the same commands. This naturally forms an agent tree: each terminal owns the workers it creates, and each parent normally communicates with its direct children. Use recursion when another level of decomposition is genuinely useful, not merely to relay a simple instruction.

Supervise workers through the agent lifecycle rather than typing into their terminals:

cate agent wait <run-id> [<run-id>...] --wait-timeout 10000
cate agent inspect <run-id>
cate agent send <run-id> "Please add the missing regression test"
cate agent review <run-id>
cate agent apply <run-id>
cate agent keep <run-id>
cate agent discard <run-id>
cate agent stop <run-id>

Run ids may be the unique short ids printed by cate agent list. wait accepts 5000–60000 milliseconds and may be called with no ids to monitor all live direct children. Call it again while workers remain active. inspect includes recent terminal output; use cate terminal read --panel <panel-id> only as a lower-level diagnostic fallback.

Prefer send for follow-up work on the same responsibility. If followUpSupported is false, create a fresh worker instead. When a worker fails, inspect failureReason; a provider-specific authentication, quota, or service failure can justify retrying with a different registered --agent.

For an isolated worker, ask it to run relevant checks and commit completed work, then use review before choosing apply, keep, or discard. Apply rechecks that the worktree is clean and mergeable. Discard permanently removes a worker-owned worktree and its branch, including uncommitted changes, without an interactive confirmation. Keep records that the worktree should remain for later. Review is read-only: a finished process or successful review does not mean its branch has been integrated. The parent remains responsible for verification and for reporting any uncommitted or unintegrated work.