What does tares status check, and what does it mean when it exits with code 1?

The tares status command in Tares asks the running daemon and prints one line per readiness check, ending with the one thing to do next. Exit code 1 means nothing answers, so no Tares daemon replied at the address the command tried. Add --json to get the same result as a stable object.

How it works

tares status asks the daemon, so it reports what the running Tares sees, not what a config file says. It finds the daemon in this order:

1. the --taresd flag
2. the TARESD_URL environment variable
3. the workspace that tares login saved
4. the local Tares at http://127.0.0.1:8787

It prints one line per check:

• daemon: whether the daemon answers.
• auth: whether a login is required.
• sources: how many are configured and whether they are receiving.
• projects: the projects in this Tares.
• triggers: the triggers in this Tares.
• Tares agents: the agents, and whether an Anthropic key is set.
• MCP endpoint: the endpoint agents connect to.
• agent clients: which clients on this machine have Tares registered. It checks Claude Code, Cursor and Codex, and only reads, so it never changes their config.
• Slack: the Slack check.

The last line is always the one thing to do next, so you can read the output from the bottom up.

When you are signed in with tares login, the first line says which workspace you are talking to.

Exit code 1 means nothing answers. The daemon is not running, or the address you gave, or the one found by the lookup order above, points at nothing that replies.

When auth is on, the command needs the root token to ask the daemon. It reads the token from --data-dir (the directory tares up used) or from the TARES_AUTH_TOKEN environment variable.

Set it up

1. Run the check against the default local Tares:

tares status

2. Read the last line. It names the one thing to do next, so do that first and run the command again.

3. If the exit code is 1, start the daemon with tares up, which serves on 127.0.0.1 port 8787 by default, then run tares status again.

tares up

4. If you started Tares somewhere else, point the command at it with --taresd followed by the daemon URL, or set TARESD_URL. A machine signed in with tares login checks its saved workspace first. To check a local tares up from such a machine, set TARESD_URL to http://127.0.0.1:8787 or run tares logout.

5. If your Tares runs with auth on, give the command the root token. Pass --data-dir with the directory you started Tares with, or export TARES_AUTH_TOKEN. Bare --auth on tares up generates and persists a root token, and --auth=TOKEN uses your own.

6. For scripts and dashboards, use --json. It prints the same checks as a stable object, so you can parse it instead of reading lines.

The full flag list is on the CLI reference.

What you get

• One readiness checklist for the whole setup: daemon, auth, sources, projects, triggers, agents, MCP endpoint, agent clients and Slack.
• A single next step on the last line, so you always know what to do before anything else.
• A quick answer to whether your agents have what they need, because the Tares agents line shows whether an Anthropic key is set.
• A view of which of Claude Code, Cursor and Codex on this machine already have Tares registered, without touching their config.
• A stable --json object you can use in scripts.
• A clear failure signal: exit code 1 tells your script or CI step that nothing answered.

If you run Tares for monitoring and incident response, as described in AI SRE, run tares status after a restart or a config change. It shows whether sources are receiving and whether triggers and agents are in place.

When something else fits

• tares status is a readiness check, not a log viewer. To see what a source receives or what a trigger did, use the console that tares up prints.
• To check what the software factory for Claude Code needs, run tares factory doctor, which checks everything the crew needs.
• To change how a command finds Tares, such as signing in to a workspace or removing the saved login, use tares login and tares logout.

Related