Elide for AI Agents

Elide runs, builds, tests and formats JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Java and Kotlin projects. When Elide detects an agent harness, its output is plain and non-interactive; ELIDE_AGENT=1 forces this.

Invocation

NO_COLOR=1 ELIDE_LOG=warn ELIDE_ERROR_FORMAT=plain CI=1 \
  elide --ignore-version --timeout=120s <command>

--ignore-version ignores a project .elideversion pin. ELIDE_ERROR_FORMAT=plain sends program output to stdout and uncaught errors to stderr. --quiet silences progress only.

Commands that need a terminal

Interactive	Use instead
`elide repl`, bare `elide python`	`elide run <file>`, `elide python <file>`, or an inline `-s` snippet
`elide init`	`elide init --plain --skip-defaults --template <id>`; ids from `elide init --templates --json`
`elide adopt`	`elide adopt --non-interactive --build <strategy> --harness <harness> --approval <mode>`
`elide serve`, `elide dev`	Add `--no-tui`.
`elide help`	`elide help <topic> --format=markdown`

elide adopt launches codex, claude or omp, and upgrade, setup and use change the installation; run them only when asked. --approval must be auto-approve or yolo.

Exit 0 with no work done

elide test with no tests prints No tests found.
Plain elide install installs Maven only; use --workspace or --ecosystems=npm for package.json.
--workspace skips dependencies.pypi; --verbose reports the skip on stderr.
Without a terminal, elide repl and bare elide python read stdin; empty stdin runs nothing.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
`0`	Success, help, or version output.
`1`	The command or guest program ran and failed.
`2`	Invalid CLI usage or an unresolved run target.
`3`	`--heap-dump-on-oom` wrote a heap dump after an out-of-memory error.
`124`	`--timeout` expired.
other	The guest program or tool chose its own code.

Commands

Command	Use
`elide run <file>`	Run a program; script arguments follow `--`.
`elide python <file>`	Run with Python-style arguments.
`elide build --inspect`	List project task names.
`elide test <path>`	Run tests; raise `--concurrency` to parallelize.
`elide project export`	Print the manifest as JSON; `--format=pom` or `--format=intellij` for other tools.
`elide classpath <sourceSet>:<usage>`	Print a resolved classpath, e.g. `test:runtime`.
`elide install`	Install Maven dependencies; `--ecosystems=npm` for npm, `--workspace` for all.
`elide format --list-files -- --dry-run <path>`	Name files that need formatting; exit `1` if any.

elide install accepts --with=sources and --with sources; --with:sources is not accepted. elide format has no --check; --set-exit-if-changed is accepted but not required. In a project, prefer elide run and elide build to java, javac, kotlinc and jar.

Running a script

elide run <script> resolves <script> in this order:

An inline snippet, when -s, --snippet or --code is present.
A file that exists. .java and .kt compile first.
A named script: scripts in elide.pkl, a package.json script, a pyproject.toml entry point, then a node_modules/.bin binary.
For a bare elide run: entrypoint from elide.pkl, then jvm.main.

Anything else exits 2 and lists every location searched.

Diagnostics and bug reports

elide agent diagnostics --json reports the version, platform, and crash-report directory (crash_root). elide agent bug prints a report body and issue URL; it submits nothing. --kind bug|perf|expectation|feature --json prints an elide.report/1 skeleton instead. elide agent perf [--runs 10] [--warmup 3] [--baseline "<command>"] [--against <version>] [--json] -- <command> times a command locally; --baseline measures another command the same way and --against an installed Elide version. It never downloads. For servers, measure with wrk or oha.

The docs MCP server at https://elide.help/mcp searches the documentation and samples, and accepts these reports: bugs, slow runs, missed expectations, and missing features. For immediate help, ask on Discord at https://elide.dev/discord.