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CLI reference

Audience: intermediate (operators)

The modelvault CLI inspects, verifies, checkpoints, compacts, and migrates .modelvault files you ship with desktop, CLI, or server apps — built for support and ops, not application hot paths.

Backups and recovery: Operations runbook

Install / run

cargo run -p modelvault-cli -- inspect ./app.modelvault
cargo build -p modelvault-cli
./target/debug/modelvault inspect ./app.modelvault

Commands

inspect <path>

Human-readable summary:

  • Format major/minor
  • Superblock generation
  • Manifest and checkpoint offsets
  • Catalog summary (collections, schema versions, index counts)

Use when: confirming format minor, checkpoint presence, or “what collections exist?”

verify <path>

Read-only integrity scan — segment framing, checksums, catalog decode. Exits non-zero on failure.

Use when: validating backups before restore, or checking suspicious files before recovery open.

dump-catalog <path> --json

Schema catalog as JSON.

Use when: attaching catalog state to issues, confirming PKs/constraints/indexes.

checkpoint <path>

Write a durable checkpoint.

Use when: creating a stable marker before filesystem backup, or reducing replay time on open.

compact <path>

Flag Action
--in-place Crash-safe atomic replace of live file
--to <dest> Write compacted copy to destination

backup <path> --to <dest> [--verify]

Checkpoint + copy. With --verify, runs verify on the snapshot.

migrate plan / migrate apply

Schema migration helpers for deployment pipelines.

modelvault migrate plan ./app.modelvault --collection books --schema-json schema.json
modelvault migrate apply ./app.modelvault --collection books --schema-json schema.json [--force]

plan — JSON describing whether a schema update is safe and required steps.

apply — register new schema version using engine helpers. If classification is NeedsMigration, perform required backfill/rebuild steps, then use --force.