multica/CLI_AND_DAEMON.md

CLI and Agent Daemon Guide

The multica CLI connects your local machine to Multica. It handles authentication, workspace management, issue tracking, and runs the agent daemon that executes AI tasks locally.

Installation

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew tap multica-ai/tap
brew install multica

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/multica-ai/multica.git
cd multica
make build
cp server/bin/multica /usr/local/bin/multica

Update

multica update

This auto-detects your installation method (Homebrew or manual) and upgrades accordingly.

Quick Start

# One-command setup: configure, authenticate, and start the daemon
multica setup

# For self-hosted (local) deployments:
multica setup --local

Or step by step:

# 1. Authenticate (opens browser for login)
multica login

# 2. Start the agent daemon
multica daemon start

# 3. Done — agents in your watched workspaces can now execute tasks on your machine

multica login automatically discovers all workspaces you belong to and adds them to the daemon watch list.

Authentication

Browser Login

multica login

Opens your browser for OAuth authentication, creates a 90-day personal access token, and auto-configures your workspaces.

Token Login

multica login --token

Authenticate by pasting a personal access token directly. Useful for headless environments.

Check Status

multica auth status

Shows your current server, user, and token validity.

Logout

multica auth logout

Removes the stored authentication token.

Agent Daemon

The daemon is the local agent runtime. It detects available AI CLIs on your machine, registers them with the Multica server, and executes tasks when agents are assigned work.

Start

multica daemon start

By default, the daemon runs in the background and logs to ~/.multica/daemon.log.

To run in the foreground (useful for debugging):

multica daemon start --foreground

Stop

multica daemon stop

Status

multica daemon status
multica daemon status --output json

Shows PID, uptime, detected agents, and watched workspaces.

Logs

multica daemon logs              # Last 50 lines
multica daemon logs -f           # Follow (tail -f)
multica daemon logs -n 100       # Last 100 lines

Supported Agents

The daemon auto-detects these AI CLIs on your PATH:

CLI	Command	Description
Claude Code	claude	Anthropic's coding agent
Codex	codex	OpenAI's coding agent

You need at least one installed. The daemon registers each detected CLI as an available runtime.

How It Works

1. On start, the daemon detects installed agent CLIs and registers a runtime for each agent in each watched workspace
2. It polls the server at a configurable interval (default: 3s) for claimed tasks
3. When a task arrives, it creates an isolated workspace directory, spawns the agent CLI, and streams results back
4. Heartbeats are sent periodically (default: 15s) so the server knows the daemon is alive
5. On shutdown, all runtimes are deregistered

Configuration

Daemon behavior is configured via flags or environment variables:

Setting	Flag	Env Variable	Default
Poll interval	--poll-interval	MULTICA_DAEMON_POLL_INTERVAL	3s
Heartbeat interval	--heartbeat-interval	MULTICA_DAEMON_HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL	15s
Agent timeout	--agent-timeout	MULTICA_AGENT_TIMEOUT	2h
Max concurrent tasks	--max-concurrent-tasks	MULTICA_DAEMON_MAX_CONCURRENT_TASKS	20
Daemon ID	--daemon-id	MULTICA_DAEMON_ID	hostname
Device name	--device-name	MULTICA_DAEMON_DEVICE_NAME	hostname
Runtime name	--runtime-name	MULTICA_AGENT_RUNTIME_NAME	Local Agent
Workspaces root	—	MULTICA_WORKSPACES_ROOT	~/multica_workspaces

Agent-specific overrides:

Variable	Description
MULTICA_CLAUDE_PATH	Custom path to the claude binary
MULTICA_CLAUDE_MODEL	Override the Claude model used
MULTICA_CODEX_PATH	Custom path to the codex binary
MULTICA_CODEX_MODEL	Override the Codex model used

Self-Hosted Server

When connecting to a self-hosted Multica instance, the easiest approach is:

# One command — auto-detects local server, configures, authenticates, starts daemon
multica setup --local

Or configure manually:

# Configure for local Docker Compose (default ports)
multica config local

# Or set URLs individually:
# multica config set app_url http://localhost:3000
# multica config set server_url http://localhost:8080

# For production with TLS:
# multica config set app_url https://app.example.com
# multica config set server_url https://api.example.com

multica login
multica daemon start

Profiles

Profiles let you run multiple daemons on the same machine — for example, one for production and one for a staging server.

# Start a daemon for the staging server
multica --profile staging login
multica --profile staging daemon start

# Default profile runs separately
multica daemon start

Each profile gets its own config directory (~/.multica/profiles/<name>/), daemon state, health port, and workspace root.

Workspaces

List Workspaces

multica workspace list

Watched workspaces are marked with *. The daemon only processes tasks for watched workspaces.

Watch / Unwatch

multica workspace watch <workspace-id>
multica workspace unwatch <workspace-id>

Get Details

multica workspace get <workspace-id>
multica workspace get <workspace-id> --output json

List Members

multica workspace members <workspace-id>

Issues

List Issues

multica issue list
multica issue list --status in_progress
multica issue list --priority urgent --assignee "Agent Name"
multica issue list --limit 20 --output json

Available filters: --status, --priority, --assignee, --limit.

Get Issue

multica issue get <id>
multica issue get <id> --output json

Create Issue

multica issue create --title "Fix login bug" --description "..." --priority high --assignee "Lambda"

Flags: --title (required), --description, --status, --priority, --assignee, --parent, --due-date.

Update Issue

multica issue update <id> --title "New title" --priority urgent

Assign Issue

multica issue assign <id> --to "Lambda"
multica issue assign <id> --unassign

Change Status

multica issue status <id> in_progress

Valid statuses: backlog, todo, in_progress, in_review, done, blocked, cancelled.

Comments

# List comments
multica issue comment list <issue-id>

# Add a comment
multica issue comment add <issue-id> --content "Looks good, merging now"

# Reply to a specific comment
multica issue comment add <issue-id> --parent <comment-id> --content "Thanks!"

# Delete a comment
multica issue comment delete <comment-id>

Execution History

# List all execution runs for an issue
multica issue runs <issue-id>
multica issue runs <issue-id> --output json

# View messages for a specific execution run
multica issue run-messages <task-id>
multica issue run-messages <task-id> --output json

# Incremental fetch (only messages after a given sequence number)
multica issue run-messages <task-id> --since 42 --output json

The runs command shows all past and current executions for an issue, including running tasks. The run-messages command shows the detailed message log (tool calls, thinking, text, errors) for a single run. Use --since for efficient polling of in-progress runs.

Setup

# One-command setup: configure, authenticate, and start the daemon
multica setup

# For local self-hosted deployments (auto-detects or forces local mode)
multica setup --local

# Custom ports
multica setup --local --port 9090 --frontend-port 4000

multica setup detects whether a local Multica server is running, configures the CLI, opens your browser for authentication, and starts the daemon — all in one step.

Configuration

View Config

multica config show

Shows config file path, server URL, app URL, and default workspace.

Configure for Local Self-Hosted

multica config local                                      # Uses default ports (8080/3000)
multica config local --port 9090 --frontend-port 4000     # Custom ports

Sets server_url and app_url for a local Docker Compose deployment in one command.

Set Values

multica config set server_url https://api.example.com
multica config set app_url https://app.example.com
multica config set workspace_id <workspace-id>

Other Commands

multica version              # Show CLI version and commit hash
multica update               # Update to latest version
multica agent list           # List agents in the current workspace

Output Formats

Most commands support --output with two formats:

• table — human-readable table (default for list commands)
• json — structured JSON (useful for scripting and automation)

multica issue list --output json
multica daemon status --output json