Getting Started

What is the Traverse CLI?

Q: What is the Traverse CLI?

The Traverse CLI (traverse-cli) is the command-line tool for compiling contracts, registering capabilities, running them locally, and inspecting trace artifacts. It is the primary interface for developing with Traverse outside of an IDE.

The Traverse CLI is the traverse command-line tool you use to compile contracts, register capabilities, execute them locally, and inspect results. It is built from the traverse-cli crate and wraps the full runtime in a developer-friendly interface.

What you can do with it

Compile a contract TOML file into a validated contract artifact
Register a capability (contract + WASM binary) into the local registry
Run a capability with a JSON input and see the output and trace
List all registered capabilities and their versions
Start the MCP stdio server for AI agent integration
Inspect trace artifacts from previous executions

Basic usage

# Register a capability
traverse capability register \
  --contract pricing.toml \
  --wasm target/wasm32-wasi/release/pricing.wasm

# Run it
traverse capability run pricing --input '{"quantity":10,"unit_price":5.00}'

# List registered capabilities
traverse registry list

Starting the MCP server

The CLI also starts the MCP stdio server that AI agents use to discover and call capabilities:

traverse mcp serve

This makes your local registry available to any MCP-compatible client, including Claude Desktop. See how the MCP server works for details.

Installation

Install from crates.io with Cargo:

cargo install traverse-cli

You need Rust 1.75 or newer and the wasm32-wasi target installed. See the CLI reference for a full command listing.