Terminal Commands
Terminal commands provide an interactive interface within the Robo.js development server, with built-in and plugin-provided commands.
When running robo dev or robo start in a TTY environment, Robo.js launches an interactive terminal. Type / followed by a command name to interact with your project at runtime — inspect state, manage data, check plugin status, and more.
Terminal commands are available to both humans typing in the console and AI tools reasoning about your project's runtime state.
Built-in commands
These commands are hardcoded into the interactive terminal and always available:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
/help | List all available commands |
/clear | Clear the log output |
/output | Toggle shell output drawer |
/restart | Full rebuild and restart (dev mode only) |
/state | Inspect and modify runtime state |
/flashcore | Inspect and modify Flashcore storage |
/env | Show loaded environment variables |
/status | Show system status and info |
/plugins | List installed plugins |
The core robo.js package also ships file-based terminal commands that are always present:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
/skills | Manage AI coding skills |
/skills list | List installed and available skills |
/skills install | Install skills from plugins |
Plugin-provided commands
Plugins can ship their own terminal commands. Here are some examples from official plugins:
| Plugin | Commands |
|---|---|
@robojs/discordjs | /discord, /discord status, /discord commands, /discord events, /discord guilds, /discord intents |
@robojs/server | /server status, /server routes, /server curl, /server openapi, /open, /tunnel start, /tunnel stop, /tunnel list |
@robojs/analytics | /analytics, /analytics status, /analytics fire, /analytics test |
@robojs/ai | /ai, /ai status, /ai usage |
@robojs/mock | /mock, /mock status, /mock command, /mock actions, /mock sessions, /mock stage, /mock use, /mock reset |
@robojs/cli | /cli, /cli link, /cli list, /cli run |
Creating custom commands
Plugins define terminal commands by placing files in src/robo/terminal/commands/. The file name becomes the command name, and subdirectories create subcommands.
Each file exports a config and a default handler function:
import { createTerminalCommandConfig } from 'robo.js'
import type { TerminalContext } from 'robo.js'
export const config = createTerminalCommandConfig({
description: 'Show plugin status',
options: [
{ alias: '-v', name: '--verbose', description: 'Show detailed info', type: 'boolean' }
]
} as const)
export default async (context: TerminalContext<typeof config>) => {
const { verbose } = context.options
context.write('Plugin status: active\n')
if (verbose) {
context.write('Connections: 42\n')
context.write('Uptime: 3h 15m\n')
}
}TerminalContext fields
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
args | string[] | Positional arguments |
options | Typed from config | Parsed option flags |
config | Config | Project configuration |
runtime | RuntimeProvider? | Runtime provider for state/flashcore access |
write | (text: string) => void | Write output to the terminal |
drawer | object? | Persistent drawer UI (show, hide, isOpen) |
Features
The interactive terminal includes several quality-of-life features:
- Command history -- Use arrow keys to navigate previous commands
- Autocomplete -- Tab completion for command names
- Status indicator -- Shows system status below the input prompt
- Drawer UI -- Commands can display persistent information below the prompt using
context.drawer
Activation conditions
The interactive terminal activates when all of these conditions are met:
stdoutandstdinare TTY (not piped or redirected)- Terminal is at least 10 rows by 40 columns
- Not running in CI (no
CIenvironment variable) ROBO_NON_INTERACTIVEenvironment variable is not set
For the full terminal command reference, see Interactive Terminal.