REPL

In addition to being a CLI, Loki also has a built-in REPL (Read-Execute-Print-Loop). This enables users to quickly try out prompts, commands, configurations, and everything in between without having to modify the same command every time.

You can enter the REPL by simply typing loki without any follow-up flags or arguments.

---

Features

The REPL has features that are intended to make your Loki experience as easy and as enjoyable as possible! This includes things like

• Tab Autocompletion: Every command in the REPL (i.e. everything that starts with a .) has fuzzy search auto completions.
  • .<tab> to complete REPL commands
  • .model <tab> to complete chat models
  • .set <tab> to complete configuration keys
  • .set key <tab> to complete configuration values
• Multi-Line Prompts: You can also type prompts that span more than one line to help organize your thoughts. This can be done in the following ways:
  • Ctrl-o to open the current input buffer in your preferred editor (either the value of editor or $EDITOR)
  • You can paste multi-line text
  • You can type ::: to start multi-line editing, and use ::: to finish it.
  • And finally, you can use hotkeys like {ctrl/shift/alt}+enter or ctrl-j to insert a new line directly in the REPL.
• History Search Press ctrl+r to search the REPL history, and navigate it with ↑↓
• Configurable Keybindings: You can switch between emacs style keybindings or vi style keybindings
• Custom REPL Prompt: You can even customize the REPL prompt to display information about the current context in the prompt
• Built-in user interaction tools: When function calling is enabled in the REPL, the user__ask, user__confirm, user__input, and user__checkbox tools are always available for interactive prompts. These are not injected in the one-shot CLI mode.

---

REPL Commands

All REPL commands begin with a . to indicate that they're not part of a prompt. The following list details the commands available in Loki:

.model - Change the current LLM

When browsing models in the REPL, use the following legend to understand the purpose of each column in the model table:

openai:gpt-4o     128000 /     4096  |       5 /     15    👁 ⚒ 
|                 |            |             |       |     |  └─ supports function calling
|                 |            |             |       |     └─ support vision (multi-modal)
|                 |            |             |       └─ output price ($/1M)
|                 |            |             └─ input price ($/1M)
|                 |            |
|                 |            └─ max output tokens
|                 └─ max input tokens
└─ model id

For more information about how to add models to Loki, refer to the clients documentation.

.role - Role management

Loki offers the following commands to manage your roles:

Command	Description
.role	Create or switch to a role
.info role	Show information about the active role
.edit role	Open the active role's configuration file in your preferred text editor
.save role	Save the active role and its configurations to a configuration file
.exit role	Exit the active role

For more information about roles in Loki and how to build them, refer to the roles documentation.

.prompt - Set a temporary role using a prompt

If you need to create a temporary role that you want to discard after use, you use .prompt. .prompt-based roles cannot be persisted to a file and saved.

.session - Session management

Use the following commands to manage sessions in Loki:

Command	Description
.session	Start or switch to a session
.empty session	Clear all messages for the active session
.compress session	Compress the session messages using the summarization_prompt setting in the global config
.info session	Display information about the active session
.edit session	Open the active session's configuration in your preferred text editor
.save session	Save the active session to a session configuration file
.exit session	Exit the active session

For more information on sessions and how to use them in Loki, refer to the sessions documentation.

.agent - Chat with an AI agent

Loki lets you build OpenAI GPT-style agents. The following commands let you interact with and manage your agents in Loki:

Command	Description
.agent	Use an agent
.starter	Display and use conversation starters for the active agent
.edit agent-config	Open the agent configuration in your preferred text editor
.info agent	Display information about the active agent
.exit agent	Leave the active agent

For more information on agents in Loki and how to create them, refer to the agents documentation.

.clear todo - Clear the todo list

Clears the todo list and stops auto-continuation. This command is available in any context (agents, sessions, roles, or bare mode) as long as auto_continue is enabled.

This is useful when:

• You gave a custom response that changes or cancels the current task
• The model is stuck in auto-continuation with stale todos
• You want to start fresh

For more information, see the Todo System documentation.

.rag - Chat with documents

RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) enables you to load documents into the LLM so you can ask questions about it or complete tasks using the documents as additional context.

Command	Description
.rag	Initialize or access a RAG
.edit rag-docs	Add or remove documents from the active RAG using your preferred text editor
.rebuild rag	Rebuild the active RAG to accommodate document changes
.sources rag	Show a works-cited of the sources used in the last query
.info rag	Display information about the active RAG
.exit rag	Exit the active RAG

For more information about RAG in Loki and how to utilize it, refer to the rag documentation.

.macro - Execute a macro

Macros in Loki are like "scripts" of commands that can be run in isolated environments; that means they do not use any active settings and use the same settings they had when written. They are created/executed using the .macro <name> command.

For more information on macros in Loki and how to create them, refer to the macros documentation.

.file - Read files and use them as input

Loki lets you specify any number of documents that you can load and use as ephemeral RAG to chat with the LLM. To see what files or values you can pass to it, simply run the command .file with no arguments:

openai:gpt-4o)> .file
Usage: .file <file|dir|url|%%|cmd>... [-- <text>...]

For more information about ephemeral RAG, refer to the ephemeral RAG documentation.

.vault - Manage the Loki vault

The Loki vault lets users store sensitive secrets and credentials securely so that there's no plaintext secrets anywhere in your configurations.

For more information about the Loki vault, refer to the vault documentation.

.continue - Continue the previous response

When you have a response that exceeds the context length, you can use the .continue command to continue the generation of the last response.

.regenerate - Regenerate the last response

If ever your response is interrupted, or you want to try generating it again, you can use the .regenerate command to do this without having to retype your query:

.copy - Copy the last response to your clipboard

If you're trying to copy the last response (like copying some code), you can use the .copy command to copy the entire last response to your system clipboard:

.set - Adjust runtime settings

You can use .set to adjust select settings at runtime. This is useful when you're experimenting with settings and want to know how they'll affect Loki. To persist the changes you make, be sure to update them in the global configuration file.

The following settings can be adjusted at runtime:

Setting	Type	Description
auto_continue	boolean	Enable/disable the Todo System auto-continuation
max_auto_continues	integer	Maximum number of automatic continuations
inject_todo_instructions	boolean	Inject default todo instructions into the system prompt
continuation_prompt	string	Custom continuation prompt (supports multi-word values; null to reset)
temperature	float	Model temperature parameter
top_p	float	Model top-p parameter
enabled_tools	string	Comma-separated list of enabled tools
enabled_mcp_servers	string	Comma-separated list of enabled MCP servers
save_session	boolean	Whether to auto-save sessions
compression_threshold	integer	Token threshold for session compression
max_output_tokens	integer	Maximum output tokens for the current model
dry_run	boolean	Enable/disable dry run mode
function_calling_support	boolean	Enable/disable function calling
mcp_server_support	boolean	Enable/disable MCP server support
stream	boolean	Enable/disable streaming
save	boolean	Enable/disable saving responses
highlight	boolean	Enable/disable syntax highlighting

.edit - Modify configuration files

The .edit command lets you modify configuration files for the current mode of the REPL. It will open the selected configuration in your preferred text editor. It lets you modify the following configurations:

• .edit config - Modify the global configuration
• .edit role - Modify the active role's configuration
• .edit session - Modify the active session's configuration
• .edit agent-config - Modify the active agent's configuration
• .edit rag-docs - Add or remove documents from the active RAG

.delete - Delete configurations from Loki

The .delete command allows you to delete entities in Loki without having to directly run rm -rf on the configuration directory or file corresponding to the target entity. You can use it to delete the following entities:

• .delete role - Delete select roles
• .delete session - Delete select sessions
• .delete macro - Delete select macros
• .delete rag - Delete select RAGs
• .delete agent-data - Delete select agent's configurations and all tools

.install - Reinstall bundled assets

Loki's built-in agents, macros, and tool functions (and an MCP config template) are written to your configuration directory on first run and are not overwritten afterward, so your local edits survive Loki updates. The .install command force-overwrites a category of bundled assets with the versions packaged in the current Loki build. This is useful when an update ships improved built-ins you want to adopt.

Command	Description
.install agents	Reinstall the built-in agents
.install macros	Reinstall the built-in macros
.install functions	Reinstall the built-in tool functions (leaves your mcp.json alone)
.install mcp_config	Replace mcp.json with the bundled template (see warning below)

The same operation is available from the command line: loki --install <category> (e.g. loki --install agents).

.install prompts for confirmation before overwriting anything. Assets you created yourself are never touched. Only Loki's own bundled assets are replaced.

Warning: .install mcp_config is destructive in a way the others are not. It replaces your entire mcp.json (your configured MCP servers and any secret references in them) with Loki's bundled template. The other categories only overwrite Loki's built-in assets and leave your custom ones alone.

.info - Display information about the current mode

The .info command provides useful information about different modes that Loki may be operating in. It's helpful if you want a quick understanding of the system info, a role's configuration, an agent's configuration, etc.

The following entities are supported:

Command	Description
.info	Display system information (identical to the --info flag)
.info role	Display information about the active role
.info session	Display information about the active session
.info agent	Display information about the active agent
.info rag	Display information about the active RAG

.authenticate - Authenticate the current model client via OAuth

The .authenticate command will start the OAuth flow for the current model client if

• The client supports OAuth (See the clients documentation for supported clients)
• The client is configured in your Loki configuration to use OAuth via the auth: oauth property

.exit - Exit an agent/role/session/rag or the Loki REPL itself

The .exit command is used to move between modes in the Loki REPL.

Command	Description
.exit role	Exit the active role
.exit session	Exit the active session
.exit agent	Exit the active agent
.exit rag	Exit the active RAG
.exit	Exit the Loki REPL

.help - Show the help guide

Just like with any shell or REPL, you sometimes need a little help and want to know what commands are available to you. That's when you use the .help command.