CLI reference

Inspect the CLI

spec prints command metadata. info reports the resolved support directory and database paths. --help lists options for a command.

Run the PATH setup in the quickstart if muesli-cli is not on your shell’s PATH.

muesli-cli spec
muesli-cli info
muesli-cli transcribe --help

Meetings

Replace example IDs with values returned by list. A full meeting record includes rawTranscript, formattedNotes, notesState, and audio paths when available.

update-notes replaces formattedNotes. Choose either --file or --stdin. It does not change rawTranscript.

muesli-cli meetings list --limit 10
muesli-cli meetings list --folder-id 2
muesli-cli meetings get 42
muesli-cli meetings update-notes 42 --file notes.md
cat notes.md | muesli-cli meetings update-notes 42 --stdin

Dictations

Use a dictation ID returned by list. Details include rawText, timestamp, durationSeconds, and appContext when available.

muesli-cli dictations list --limit 10
muesli-cli dictations get 7

Audio-file transcription

Supported input extensions are .mp3, .mp4, .m4a, and .wav. Default stdout is plain transcript text; --format json produces structured output and --format markdown produces Markdown.

--output writes the selected format to a file instead of stdout. --save-meeting stores the transcript as an imported meeting. --title sets a title for saved meetings and Markdown output.

--model selects a local speech model. Check transcribe --help for model names and the default in your version. --dictionary accepts a dictionary JSON file in versions that support it.

--summarize requests notes from your configured Muesli summary backend. This is separate from asking your coding agent to analyze a transcript. If summary generation fails, the transcript is retained with a warning. Headless CLI mode does not use the app’s ChatGPT session backend.

muesli-cli transcribe interview.mp3
muesli-cli transcribe interview.m4a --format json
muesli-cli transcribe interview.wav --save-meeting --title "Customer interview"
muesli-cli transcribe interview.mp4 --format markdown --output transcript.md

JSON and errors

Data commands return JSON on stdout. Successful responses contain ok, command, data, and meta. Metadata includes schemaVersion, generatedAt, dbPath, and warnings.

Handled command failures return ok: false with error.code, error.message, and an optional error.fix. Argument parsing failures can instead print usage errors to stderr. Check the process exit status before parsing stdout.

For transcribe, request --format json when you need structured output. Progress and model logs go to stderr. Check warnings even when the command succeeds.

# Keep transcript JSON separate from progress logs
muesli-cli transcribe interview.m4a --format json > transcript.json 2> progress.log

Custom data locations

The default Mac app data directory is ~/Library/Application Support/Muesli/. Use --support-dir or --db-path when you deliberately need a different installation’s data.

MUESLI_SUPPORT_DIR and MUESLI_DB_PATH are also supported. Explicit CLI options take precedence over environment defaults.

muesli-cli info --support-dir "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Muesli"