CLI reference

The tares package installs four entry points.

command	purpose
`tares up`	start the daemon and console
`tares mcp`	run the MCP server (for remote agents)
`taresd`	the daemon, configured by environment only
`tares-mcp`	the stdio MCP proxy (spawned by an agent client)

tares up

Starts taresd with a persistent data home and prints the console URL.


tares up [--host HOST] [--port PORT] [--data-dir DIR] [--open] [--auth[=TOKEN]]

flag	default	description
`--host`	`127.0.0.1`	bind address; `0.0.0.0` to expose on the network
`--port`	`8787`	bind port
`--data-dir`	`~/.tares`	directory for the DuckDB file and catalog
`--open`	off	open the console in a browser
`--auth[=TOKEN]`	off	require a login. Bare `--auth` generates and persists a root token (printed as a `…/?token=…` login URL each launch); `--auth=TOKEN` uses your own. Omit for an open instance. See Authentication.

tares up sets TARES_DB and TARES_CATALOG under --data-dir unless they are already set in the environment. --auth exports TARES_AUTH_TOKEN, so setting that variable is equivalent.

tares mcp

Runs the MCP server. Use streamable-http to serve a network endpoint for remote agents (stdio is the default and is what an agent client spawns directly, see tares-mcp).


tares mcp [--transport {stdio,sse,streamable-http}] [--host HOST] [--port PORT] [--taresd URL]

flag	default	description
`--transport`	`streamable-http`	`stdio`, `sse`, or `streamable-http`
`--host`	`127.0.0.1`	bind address (HTTP transports)
`--port`	`8788`	bind port (HTTP transports)
`--taresd`	`http://127.0.0.1:8787`	the daemon URL to proxy to


tares mcp --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8788 --taresd http://localhost:8787
# serves http://<host>:8788/mcp

taresd

The daemon itself, with no CLI flags, configured entirely by environment variables (see Configuration). tares up is a thin wrapper over this.


TARES_DB=/data/tares.duckdb TARES_HOST=0.0.0.0 TARES_PORT=8787 taresd

tares-mcp

The stdio MCP proxy, the entry point an agent client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop) spawns. It reads:

variable	default	description
`TARESD_URL`	`http://127.0.0.1:8787`	the daemon to proxy to
`TARES_AUTH_TOKEN`	unset	bearer token, if the daemon requires one
`TARES_MCP_TRANSPORT`	`stdio`	`stdio`, `sse`, or `streamable-http`

See Connecting agents for client configuration.