Overview

Use arkoren when you need to inspect an application from your terminal or prepare local files before deployment. Remote inspection calls the application’s MCP endpoint; project, key, certificate, and bundled-skill commands do not need a running application.

Remote Tools

A remote command comes from the endpoint’s current tool catalog. Each invocation negotiates MCP and reads tools/list; there is no saved catalog or separate inspection protocol or Arkoren core-version handshake. The advertised schema supplies input flags and help. Optional CLI metadata supplies names such as public:routes; exact MCP names remain callable without that metadata.

Discovery and execution are separate. arkoren tools lists available tools, and remote --help describes them without invoking a handler. Calling a discovered command sends tools/call. The server authenticates the caller and authorizes the operation; a catalog entry is not permission to execute it.

arkoren status goes beyond discovery: it invokes uniquely advertised identity and health roles. Those roles do not guarantee read-only handlers, and the report is not a readiness gate. Review an endpoint’s contracts before calling its tools.

Local Tasks

Use project creation to prepare a starter application, or install the bundled skill for an agent working in an existing project. These commands use local assets, not MCP discovery.

Key Commands provision application keys without printing private material unless you explicitly request an export. Certificate Commands generate local TLS identities without installing trust. Root trust installation and removal are separate, explicitly approved operations that change a system store; they are not part of ordinary file generation.

Installing Arkoren

With Go 1.27 or later, install the executable:

go install arkoren.dev/cmd/arkoren@latest

Go places arkoren in GOBIN, or its default binary directory. Add that directory to PATH. Check which CLI is installed without reading endpoint configuration or connecting to a server:

arkoren --version

The result is JSON containing version. To read the local command help, run:

arkoren --help

Help is text. Bare arkoren prints the same offline root help. To track the CLI as a module tool instead of installing it on PATH, run go get -tool arkoren.dev/cmd/arkoren@latest in your application module and invoke it as go tool arkoren.

Connecting Next

If you already have a trusted endpoint and an accepted credential, continue with Connecting, then Calling Tools. If your application does not expose diagnostics yet, start with Capture Setup. The CLI Reference owns command and flag lookup.