bely-cli

A command-line client for the BELY logbook. Create log documents, add and update log entries (from files, inline text, an editor, or with attachments), list and fetch entries, and manage local configuration.

The published command is bely-cli.

Installation

From PyPI:

pip install bely-cli

For development, from this directory:

uv sync
uv run bely-cli -h

uv run only works from inside this directory. To get a bely-cli on your $PATH that still tracks your local working-tree edits (no uv run prefix, usable from anywhere), install it as an editable uv tool instead:

uv tool install --editable .
bely-cli -h

Re-run that command (add --force to overwrite without prompting) any time pyproject.toml's dependencies change — code edits alone are picked up immediately, but new/changed dependencies aren't installed into the tool's environment until you reinstall.

For deployment, install the conda package built from conda-recipe/ (see conda-recipe/conda-build.sh):

conda install bely-cli -c <channel>

To view images inline in bely-cli tui (see Images below), install the optional images extra — it pulls in Pillow and textual-image, which the base install skips:

pip install 'bely-cli[images]'                  # from PyPI
uv sync --extra images                        # development, via uv run
uv tool install --force --editable '.[images]'  # development, editable tool install
conda install bely-cli textual-image -c <channel>  # deployment

Getting started

Once installed, the command is on your PATH:

bely-cli -h

Every command and group accepts -h / --help:

bely-cli doc -h
bely-cli entry add -h

Set the server host

The CLI needs to know the BELY server URL. If it is not set, commands exit with an error. The host is resolved in this order:

1. BELY_HOST environment variable
2. host in ~/.config/bely/settings.yaml
3. otherwise → error

Set it once with config set:

bely-cli config set host https://tinkerbox.aps.anl.gov:8181/bely

A convenience wrapper named bely-cli-test ships alongside the source; it presets BELY_HOST to https://tinkerbox.aps.anl.gov:8181/bely before invoking bely-cli. The examples in this README use bely-cli directly, so set the host (or export BELY_HOST) as shown above.

Shell completion

bely-cli supports command, alias, option, and value completion in Bash and Zsh. Initialize completion for the shell detected from $SHELL:

bely-cli shell init

The command previews the marked block and target (~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc) and asks before editing it. Re-running it safely replaces the existing marked block. Override detection or print the setup for manual installation with:

bely-cli shell init --shell bash
bely-cli shell init --shell zsh --print

Restart the shell or source the changed rc file afterward. Completion covers the Click command tree and aliases, native filesystem paths, logbook types, templates, comma-separated systems, and document names and IDs. For commands that target a specific entry—including entry get / show, update, delete, and entry attachment operations—--id completes entry and reply IDs after --doc-id or --doc-name has been supplied. These IDs are fetched live for that document and are not cached.

Dynamic values are stored per BELY host under ~/.config/bely/completion-cache/ (or beside the settings file selected by BELY_SETTINGS_FILE). The cache includes up to 100 recent documents per logbook type. Its lifetime is controlled by completion_cache_ttl, defaulting to 24h; accepted values are non-negative seconds or numbers suffixed with s, m, h, or d (for example 30m or 2d). With caching enabled, pressing Tab never waits for the server or prompts: stale values are returned immediately while one quiet background refresh starts. Creating or deleting a document through bely-cli also updates an existing cache for the current host immediately (without changing its refresh age); if no cache exists, normal refresh behavior applies. If refresh fails, stale values remain available; with no host, network, or cache, static and filesystem completion still work.

Manage the cache explicitly with:

bely-cli shell cache refresh       # synchronous update
bely-cli shell cache status
bely-cli shell cache clear         # current configured host
bely-cli shell cache clear --all-hosts

Change the lifetime with the regular configuration command:

bely-cli config set completion_cache_ttl 12h
bely-cli config set completion_cache_ttl 0   # disable caching; always fetch live

A value of 0 removes cached data on explicit refresh and makes each dynamic completion query the current BELY instance directly. This may make Tab completion slower or unavailable while offline. Entry-ID completion is always live regardless of this setting.

Authentication

Mutating operations (creating documents, adding/updating entries) require authentication; lookups (listing types, systems, templates, finding documents) do not.

• Username — from BELY_USER, else user in the settings file, else you are prompted.
• Password — from BELY_PASSWORD (useful for automation), else you are prompted.

On success a token is cached at ~/.config/bely/token (permissions 0600) and reused on later runs. Expired or invalid tokens are discarded and you re-authenticate automatically. Authentication can also be managed explicitly:

bely-cli auth login
bely-cli auth verify
bely-cli auth logout

login resolves and prompts for credentials using the rules above. verify checks the cached token with the server, explains when no token is cached, and removes it if rejected. logout invalidates the token on the server and removes it locally; if no token is cached, it reports Not logged in. and succeeds.

The token location can be changed with the token_path setting; by default it sits beside the settings file (see Configuration & environment).

Output format

A --format option controls output, appended to the command:

bely-cli doc list --format json

Value	Behavior
text	Human-readable tables and messages (default)
json	Structured JSON — for scripting
yaml	Structured YAML — for scripting

--format is given at the end of a command, e.g. bely-cli entry list -n "..." --format yaml.

Commands

Descriptive command names are canonical. These shorter aliases are also available:

Alias	Canonical command
doc ls	doc list
doc add	doc new
entry ls	entry list
entry show	entry get
entry edit	entry update
entry attachment ls	entry attachment list
config ls	config show

Aliases accept the same arguments and produce the same output as their canonical commands.

auth — authentication

• bely-cli auth login authenticates with configured or prompted credentials and caches the token.
• bely-cli auth verify checks whether the cached token is accepted by the server.
• bely-cli auth logout invalidates the current server session and removes the cached token.

All three commands support the shared --format and --no-prompt options.

doc — log documents

bely-cli doc new

Create a new log document (and optionally its first entry).

Option	Description
--type TEXT	Logbook type (e.g. ops, controls). Prompted if omitted.
-n, --name TEXT	Name for the new document. Prompted if omitted.
-f, --file TEXT	Markdown file to use as the first log entry.
--template TEXT	Template name to use for the first entry.
--systems TEXT	Comma-separated system list, e.g. SR,software.
--no-template	Skip template selection. Mutually exclusive with --template.
-o, --output TEXT	Directory to write a template-generated entry into (default: cwd).
--list-options {system,type,template}	List the available values for that option and exit.

bely-cli doc list

List recent log documents you created, newest first.

Option	Description
--limit INTEGER	Maximum documents to return (default: 20).

bely-cli doc delete / rm

Delete a document selected by --doc-name or --doc-id. Confirmation is required unless --yes is supplied. A document containing entries requires --force; --force does not skip confirmation.

bely-cli doc delete --doc-id 99
bely-cli doc rm --doc-name "Disposable Log" --force --yes

tui — interactive terminal UIs

bely-cli tui

Launches the full interactive app, covering the same operations as the flag-driven commands: browsing, creating documents, adding/updating entries, and viewing or editing configuration. There's no separate menu screen — it opens straight on the list of logbooks, the same drill-down tui lookup uses, just not read-only.

bely-cli tui
bely-cli tui --limit 50

Option	Description
--limit INTEGER	Recent documents to load per logbook (default: 100).

Browsing needs no authentication. Enter on an entry just keeps it in the preview instead of exiting, and Esc at the logbook list does nothing (there's nothing above it to pop back to) — press q to quit. A few keys are available once you've drilled in:

Key	Level	Action
d	Logbook, document	Create a new document — see "New document" below. Prefilled with the current logbook if you drilled into one.
n	Document, entry	Add a new entry to the current document.
u	Entry	Update the highlighted entry.

n/u/d all open a mutation flow (the entry composer, or the new-document form below), which is the point where the app authenticates if it hasn't already (see "Authentication" below).

Command palette

Press ctrl+p for everything that isn't tied to the current logbook/document — the equivalent of Home's old menu items, plus what Textual provides by default:

Command	Action
Configuration	Opens the configuration dialog — equivalent of config show / config set / config edit.
My documents	Opens a browse starting at your recently modified documents — equivalent of doc list. Esc pops back to wherever you opened it from.
Log in / Log out	Authenticate now instead of waiting for the first mutation, or end the current authenticated session and remove its cached token.
Refresh cache	Discard all cached logbook data so the next view re-fetches from the server.
Theme	Built-in: change the app's color theme; the choice is saved as the theme setting and reused on the next launch.
Quit	Built-in: exit the app.

Entry composer

A Markdown-aware TextArea for the entry body, an optional attachment path, and three buttons (Tab/arrows move focus between the fields and buttons; Enter presses the focused button):

Button	Action
Save ^S	Save (and upload the attachment, if a path was entered). Also ctrl+s from anywhere in the dialog.
Edit in $EDITOR	Suspend the TUI and open the buffer in $EDITOR; the edited text comes back into the TextArea.
Cancel Esc	Cancel; asks for confirmation first if the buffer or attachment has unsaved changes. Also Esc from anywhere in the dialog.

An empty new entry is skipped rather than saved, matching entry add's behavior.

New document

Mirrors doc new: a name field, plus buttons that open pickers for type, systems, and template:

Button	Action
Type…	Pick the logbook type.
Systems…	Pick systems (multi-select — space toggles, Enter/Confirm button confirms).
Template…	Pick a template, or "(no template)" to skip.
Create ^S	Create the document. Also ctrl+s from anywhere in the dialog.
Cancel Esc	Cancel. Also Esc from anywhere in the dialog.

After creating, it reproduces doc new's post-create prompts: if the template already generated an entry it offers to edit it, otherwise it offers to create one — both open the same entry composer.

Configuration

Opened from the command palette. Mirrors config show / config set / config edit: one field per setting (a dropdown for images, a text input for everything else), prefilled from settings.yaml, alongside a summary of the current settings and any environment-variable overrides.

Button	Action
Save ^S	Save changed fields (same effect as config set FIELD VALUE). Also ctrl+s from anywhere in the dialog.
Edit file	Suspend the TUI and open the settings file in $EDITOR, then reload.
Reload	Reload from disk, discarding unsaved edits in the form.
Close Esc	Close the dialog. Also Esc from anywhere in the dialog.

A field whose effective value comes from an environment variable (BELY_HOST, BELY_USER, EDITOR) shows that in its placeholder, and saving it warns that the env var will keep overriding it.

Authentication

Browsing needs no login. The first time you add or update an entry, create a document, or save a config change, the app looks for the token the CLI already caches (see Authentication above) and reuses it silently if it's valid — so if you've already run an authenticated bely-cli command, or a previous tui session, you won't be prompted again. Otherwise a login modal appears (username, password, and Log in/Cancel buttons — ctrl+s also submits, Esc also cancels); a successful login is cached the same way the CLI caches it, shared by later bely-cli commands and TUI sessions alike. Once logged in, the command palette offers Log out, which invalidates the server session, removes the cached token, and returns the TUI to its unauthenticated state.

bely-cli tui lookup

Interactively browse to find a log entry when you don't already know its document. The TUI (built on Textual) drills down through three levels — logbook → recent documents → entries. Browsing is read-only and needs no authentication.

All three levels render as full-width, aligned tables (rows stay in API order, not sorted):

Level	Columns
Logbook	Display, Description
Document	Name, Systems, Owner, Modified
Entry	Date, Author, Entry (a snippet of the first line) — replies render as indented rows beneath their parent, expanded by default

Logbook types render as an indented hierarchy in API order. Grouping parents are informational; select a leaf to browse or create documents. Filtering includes hierarchy labels and type metadata.

Press i at the logbook/document levels to open a side info panel with a few extra fields for the highlighted row (it splits the table's width; i again closes it). Entries always show a preview pane alongside the table — the entry body rendered as markdown (headings, lists, tables, and syntax-highlighted code), since the row itself is just a one-line snippet.

bely-cli tui lookup
bely-cli tui lookup --limit 50

Option	Description
--limit INTEGER	Recent documents to load per logbook (default: 100).

The info panel (i, logbook/document levels only) shows, depending on the level: for a logbook, its name, display name(s), and description; for a document, its description, logbook types, systems, owner, and creation/modification info. The entry preview (always shown at that level) has author and modification info, reply/reaction counts, and attachments (fetched lazily as you highlight each entry) — and, for a reply, which entry it's a reply to.

Keys:

The footer at the bottom of the screen only ever shows the keys that apply to the level you're on — i disappears once you drill into entries, and s / y / e / f / t only appear there.

Key	Action
Up / Down, PgUp / PgDn	Move the highlight; the preview/info panel follows.
/	Reveal and focus the filter box; incrementally filters the current table (case-insensitive substring, matched against the entry text — not the reply tree's glyphs or reply count).
Enter	In the filter box, return focus to the table. Elsewhere, drill into the highlighted row, or select the entry at the entries level.
Esc / Backspace	Go back one level (from the table); does nothing at the logbook list — press q to quit. In the filter box, Esc returns focus to the table.
d	Logbook/document levels only: create a new document (see bely-cli tui's "New document" above) — a mutation, so this is where the app authenticates if it hasn't already.
s	Entries level only: save the highlighted entry's markdown to a file in the current directory.
y	Entries level only: copy a bely-cli entry get reference for the highlighted entry to the clipboard.
e	Entries level only: open the highlighted entry in $EDITOR; if you change it, offers to save the result back to the server (a mutation, so this is where the app authenticates if it hasn't already).
p	Entries level only: reply to the highlighted entry's top-level thread. Attachments are supported.
t	Entries level only: collapse/expand the reply thread under the highlighted entry (or its parent, if the highlight is on a reply). Replies start expanded.
Shift+A	Entries level only: open the highlighted entry's attachment browser.
x	Document/entry levels only: delete the highlighted document, entry, or reply after destructive confirmation. Documents containing entries require a second confirmation by typing the document name exactly.
i	Logbook/document levels only: toggle the side info panel.
f	Entries level only: toggle the table to widen the preview pane.
r	Refresh the current level, bypassing the in-session cache. Entry selection, preview scroll, filters, and collapsed threads are preserved when possible.
q	Quit without selecting.

Replies only nest one level deep. Pressing p on either a top-level entry or one of its replies targets the top-level thread; n still adds a separate top-level entry.

Attachment browser

Press Shift+A on an entry to list its attachments and preview the highlighted item. Images render inline when image support is available; UTF-8 text and Markdown render as text; PDFs and other binary formats show their metadata and download path. Press u to choose a local file with the filesystem browser and upload it (its Markdown reference is appended to the entry). The browser's path field supports shell-like completion with Tab or Right Arrow; Ctrl+U clears the entire field, Ctrl+Shift+A selects it, and entering a directory changes the tree root. With the tree focused, / filters filenames in the displayed directories and p toggles a local-file preview while choosing an upload. Press y to copy the highlighted attachment's Markdown reference, x to delete the highlighted attachment after confirmation, and Esc to close the browser.

On selecting an entry the TUI exits and prints its doc-id / log-id, plus a ready-to-run bely-cli entry get command so you can fetch it:

doc-id: 99
log-id: 42
# fetch with: bely-cli entry get -d 99 --id 42

With --format json / --format yaml the selected reference is printed as structured data instead.

Images

When an entry's markdown references an image attachment, the preview (in both tui and tui lookup) renders it inline as an actual picture if your terminal and the images setting support it, instead of a plain link.

Requires the optional images extra (see Installation) and a terminal with a graphics protocol. Controlled by the images setting, one of:

Mode	Renders via
auto (default)	Autodetects the terminal's protocol — recommended.
off	No images; the old link-text preview.
tgp	Kitty Graphics Protocol (kitty, Ghostty, WezTerm, Konsole, ...).
sixel	Sixel (xterm, foot, iTerm2, WezTerm, Windows Terminal ≥1.22, ...).
halfcell	Block-art fallback (higher resolution), no graphics protocol needed.
unicode	Block-art fallback (lowest resolution), works in any terminal.

bely-cli config set images sixel

or from the TUI's Configuration dialog (ctrl+p → Configuration) — the images field is a dropdown listing all six modes with a short description of each. A mode change there takes effect on the very next entry you preview, no restart needed — unless the TUI was launched with images: off (which skips the terminal graphics probe at startup entirely), in which case it warns that a restart is required.

If the extra isn't installed, entries with images show a one-time notice suggesting pip install 'bely-cli[images]'; the link-text preview otherwise behaves exactly as before. Only BELY attachment images (![...](/log/attachments/...)) are ever fetched — external http(s):// image URLs in entry markdown are left as plain links, never downloaded.

tmux: tgp does not work through tmux — textual-image writes Kitty's raw escape sequences directly to the terminal without tmux's DCS passthrough wrapping, so tmux can't forward them regardless of configuration. sixel does work, but needs tmux ≥3.3 with:

set -g allow-passthrough on
set -ga terminal-features ',*:RGB:sixel'

halfcell needs no tmux configuration at all and is the more reliable choice inside tmux.

entry — log entries

All entry commands identify the target document with either -n/--doc-name or -d/--doc-id (provide one).

bely-cli entry add

Add a new entry to an existing document. If none of --file, --text, or --add-attachment is given, your $EDITOR opens for the entry text.

Option	Description
-n, --doc-name TEXT	Document name.
-d, --doc-id INTEGER	Document ID.
-f, --file TEXT	Markdown file with the entry content.
-t, --text TEXT	Inline text for the entry.
--add-attachment TEXT	File to attach to the entry.

bely-cli entry attachment add

Upload a file to a specific existing entry. The attachment's Markdown reference is appended to the entry. The existing --add-attachment options on entry add and entry update remain supported.

bely-cli entry attachment add -d 99 --id 42 --file plot.png

bely-cli entry attachment list / ls

List an entry's attachments, including the attachment ID, original and stored filenames, and download path. ls is an alias for list.

bely-cli entry attachment list -d 99 --id 42
bely-cli entry attachment ls -n "Shift Report" --id 42 --format json

bely-cli entry attachment delete / rm

Delete an attachment using its numeric ID from attachment list:

bely-cli entry attachment delete -d 99 --id 42 --attachment-id 7

bely-cli entry update

Update an existing entry. With no --id, your most recent entry in the document is updated. If none of --file, --text, or --add-attachment is given, your $EDITOR opens. --file and --text are mutually exclusive.

Option	Description
-n, --doc-name TEXT	Document name.
-d, --doc-id INTEGER	Document ID.
--id INTEGER	Specific entry ID to update (default: your most recent entry).
-f, --file TEXT	Markdown file with the updated content.
-t, --text TEXT	Inline text for the entry.
--add-attachment TEXT	File to attach to the entry.

bely-cli entry list

List the entries in a document (Log ID, date, author, and a snippet of the first line).

Option	Description
-n, --doc-name TEXT	Document name.
-d, --doc-id INTEGER	Document ID.
--replies	Include replies and a Parent ID column.

bely-cli entry ls -d 99 --replies

bely-cli entry delete / rm

Delete a top-level entry or reply by log ID, with confirmation by default:

bely-cli entry delete -d 99 --id 42
bely-cli entry rm -n "Shift Report" --id 42 --yes

All delete commands support structured JSON/YAML output. Declining confirmation returns status: cancelled; successful deletion returns status: deleted. In --no-prompt mode, --yes is required.

bely-cli entry get

Write the markdown of an entry to a file named <doc_name>_entry_<log_id>.md.

Option	Description
-n, --doc-name TEXT	Document name.
-d, --doc-id INTEGER	Document ID.
--id INTEGER	Specific entry ID (default: latest).
-o, --output TEXT	Directory to write the file into (default: cwd).

config — local configuration

bely-cli config show

Show the current configuration: values from the settings file and the relevant environment variables (BELY_PASSWORD is masked).

bely-cli config edit

Open the settings file in your editor. The editor is resolved from EDITOR, then the editor setting, then vi. The file and directory are created if needed.

bely-cli config set FIELD VALUE

Set a single configuration field. FIELD is one of host, user, editor, token_path, theme, or images.

bely-cli config set user alice
bely-cli config set host https://tinkerbox.aps.anl.gov:8181/bely
bely-cli config set editor nano
bely-cli config set token_path ~/.secrets/bely-token
bely-cli config set theme nord
bely-cli config set images sixel

Configuration & environment

Location / variable	Purpose
~/.config/bely/settings.yaml	Persistent settings (host, user, editor, token_path, theme, images); permissions 0600.
~/.config/bely/token	Cached auth token; permissions 0600. Override with the token_path setting.
BELY_SETTINGS_FILE	Path to the settings file (overrides the default location). The default token sits beside it.
BELY_HOST	Server URL (overrides the settings file).
BELY_USER	Username (overrides the settings file).
BELY_PASSWORD	Password for non-interactive authentication.
EDITOR	Editor for interactive entries and config edit. Falls back to the editor setting, then vi.

Settings that hold paths (token_path, setting_override_path) and the BELY_SETTINGS_FILE env var expand ~ and $VARS.

Shared settings with per-user overrides

When the settings file lives in a shared, read-only location, add a setting_override_path key pointing to a file the user owns. Keys in that file are merged on top of the shared settings, so each user can override individual values (e.g. user or token_path) without write access to the shared file. The override file is plain YAML and is hand-edited — setting_override_path is not set via the CLI, and a setting_override_path key inside the override file itself is ignored (no chaining).

Shared settings.yaml (read-only). It can still hold per-user paths like token_path because ~ expands to each user's own home directory:

host: https://tinkerbox.aps.anl.gov:8181/bely
token_path: ~/.config/bely/token
setting_override_path: ~/.config/bely/overrides.yaml

User-owned ~/.config/bely/overrides.yaml — only the keys that differ per user:

user: alice

Examples

# One-time setup
bely-cli config set host https://tinkerbox.aps.anl.gov:8181/bely
bely-cli config set user alice

# Discover available values
bely-cli doc new --list-options type
bely-cli doc new --list-options system
bely-cli doc new --list-options template

# Create a document interactively (prompts for type and name)
bely-cli doc new

# Create a document with everything specified, plus a first entry from a file
bely-cli doc new --type ops --name "Shift Report" --systems SR,software --file entry.md

# List your recent documents
bely-cli doc list --limit 50

# Add an entry — inline text, from a file, or via your editor
bely-cli entry add -n "Shift Report" -t "Beam restored after RF trip."
bely-cli entry add -n "Shift Report" -f entry.md
bely-cli entry add -n "Shift Report"                 # opens $EDITOR

# Attach a file while adding an entry, or to an existing entry
bely-cli entry add -n "Shift Report" --add-attachment plot.png
bely-cli entry attachment add -n "Shift Report" --id 42 --file plot.png
bely-cli entry attachment ls -n "Shift Report" --id 42

# Update your most recent entry, or a specific one
bely-cli entry update -n "Shift Report" -t "Corrected: trip was on RF2."
bely-cli entry update -n "Shift Report" --id 42 -f revised.md

# List and fetch entries
bely-cli entry list -n "Shift Report"
bely-cli entry get -n "Shift Report"                 # latest, to cwd
bely-cli entry get -d 99 --id 42 -o ~/logs/

# Structured output for scripting
bely-cli doc list --format json
bely-cli entry list -n "Shift Report" --format yaml