Byterover Headless

ByteRover Knowledge Management

Use the brv CLI to manage your own knowledgebase. ByteRover maintains a context tree that stores patterns, decisions, and implementation details about a project.

IMPORTANT: For headless/automated use, always add --headless --format json flags to get machine-parseable JSON output.

Setup (Headless)

• ByteRover can be fully set up in headless mode. If user has not logged in or initialized .brv/ in the current working directory (check via projectInitialized and and authStatus in brv status --headless --format json response), ask them to provide:

1. API key - for authentication (obtain from https://app.byterover.dev/settings/keys)
2. Team and space - names or IDs for project initialization

Login with API Key

Authenticate using an API key:

brv login --api-key <key>

Outputs text: Logged in as <email> on success.

Initialize Project

Initialize ByteRover for a project (requires team and space for headless mode - can use either ID or name):

# Using names
brv init --headless --team my-team --space my-space --format json

# Using IDs
brv init --headless --team team-abc123 --space space-xyz789 --format json

Force re-initialization:

brv init --headless --team my-team --space my-space --force --format json

Example response:

{
  "success": true,
  "command": "init",
  "data": {
    "status": "success",
    "teamName": "MyTeam",
    "spaceName": "MySpace",
    "configPath": "/path/to/project/.brv/config.json"
  }
}

Note: You can use either team/space names or IDs. Names are matched case-insensitively.

Check Status

Check the current status of ByteRover and the project:

brv status --headless --format json

Example response:

{
  "success": true,
  "command": "status",
  "data": {
    "cliVersion": "1.0.0",
    "authStatus": "logged_in",
    "userEmail": "user@example.com",
    "projectInitialized": true,
    "teamName": "MyTeam",
    "spaceName": "MySpace",
    "mcpStatus": "connected",
    "contextTreeStatus": "has_changes"
  }
}

Query Knowledge

Ask questions to retrieve relevant knowledge:

brv query "How is authentication implemented?" --headless --format json

Example response:

{
  "success": true,
  "command": "query",
  "data": {
    "status": "completed",
    "result": "Authentication uses JWT tokens...",
    "toolCalls": [{"tool": "search_knowledge", "status": "success", "summary": "5 matches"}]
  }
}

Curate Context

Add new knowledge or context to the project's context tree:

brv curate "Auth uses JWT with 24h expiry. Tokens stored in httpOnly cookies via authMiddleware.ts" --headless --format json

Include specific files for comprehensive context (max 5 files):

brv curate "Authentication middleware validates JWT tokens" --files src/middleware/auth.ts --headless --format json

Example response:

{
  "success": true,
  "command": "curate",
  "data": {
    "status": "queued",
    "taskId": "abc123",
    "message": "Context queued for processing"
  }
}

Push Context Tree

Push local context tree changes to ByteRover cloud storage:

brv push --headless --format json -y

The -y flag skips confirmation prompt (required for headless mode).

Push to a specific branch:

brv push --branch feature-branch --headless --format json -y

Example response:

{
  "success": true,
  "command": "push",
  "data": {
    "status": "success",
    "added": 3,
    "edited": 1,
    "deleted": 0,
    "branch": "main",
    "url": "https://app.byterover.com/team/space"
  }
}

Possible statuses:

• success - Push completed
• no_changes - No context changes to push
• cancelled - Push was cancelled
• error - Push failed

Pull Context Tree

Pull context tree from ByteRover cloud storage:

brv pull --headless --format json

Pull from a specific branch:

brv pull --branch feature-branch --headless --format json

Example response:

{
  "success": true,
  "command": "pull",
  "data": {
    "status": "success",
    "added": 5,
    "edited": 2,
    "deleted": 1,
    "branch": "main",
    "commitSha": "abc123def"
  }
}

Possible statuses:

• success - Pull completed
• local_changes - Local changes exist, push first
• error - Pull failed

Error Handling

Always check the success field in JSON responses:

• success: true - Operation completed successfully
• success: false - Operation failed, check data.error or data.message for details

Common error scenarios:

• Not authenticated: Run brv login --api-key <key>
• Project not initialized: Run brv init --headless --team <team> --space <space> --format json
• Local changes exist: Push local changes before pulling

Tips

1. For pull and push operations, you should ask for user permission first.
2. Always use --headless --format json for automation (except brv login which outputs text).
3. Check brv status --headless --format json first to verify auth and project state.
4. For curate operations, include relevant files with --files for better context.
5. Query responses may include tool call details showing what knowledge was searched.
6. For push operations, always use -y to skip confirmation in headless mode. For re-initialization, use -f to force re-initialization.
7. Pull will fail if there are unpushed local changes - push first.