vivadicta cli usage

Use this skill when you need to run or design a vivadicta command. Covers canonical flags, output formats, env vars, exit codes, and the full subcommand map.

Preconditions

• VivaDicta.app installed at /Applications/VivaDicta.app.
• vivadicta on $PATH (install via brew install n0an/tap/vivadicta).
• UI app running is only required for write commands (rewrite, transcribe, job). Reads work standalone.

Command discovery

Prefer --help over guessing:

vivadicta --help
vivadicta search --help
vivadicta transcribe --help

--help is authoritative. This skill lists the common shape; anything finer-grained lives behind --help.

Subcommand map

All 11 subcommands, one line each.

Reads (no UI app required):

• vivadicta recent [N] - last N transcriptions, newest first. Default N=10, capped at 50.
• vivadicta search <query> - full-text search. Filters: --since, --from/--to, --tag, --source, --mode, --limit (default 20, max 100), --full.
• vivadicta get <id-or-query> - one transcription. Accepts raw UUID, keyword (latest, last, most recent, newest, current), or natural-language query ("yesterday's call with sam"). Flags: --format plain|markdown (in-summary text), --all-variations.
• vivadicta presets [--all] - list AI rewrite presets. --all includes hidden.
• vivadicta tags - list user tags + source tags with counts.
• vivadicta modes [--all] - list Viva Modes (app-/URL-aware profiles). --all includes disabled.
• vivadicta vocab - list custom vocabulary words.
• vivadicta replacements [--all] - list post-transcription find-and-replace rules.

Writes (UI app must be running):

• vivadicta rewrite <id-or-query> --preset <alias> - rewrite with an AI preset. Blocking. --dry-run prints plan without hitting the UI app.
• vivadicta transcribe <file-or-url> [--async] - transcribe an audio file or YouTube URL. Auto-routes: http(s):// → URL, file:// / path / ~/ / ./ / bare filename that resolves → file. Blocking default polls every 2 s until done; --async returns a job UUID.
• vivadicta job <uuid> - single-shot status check for a job from transcribe --async.

Modes is read-only in v1 - create or edit Viva Modes from the UI app, then vivadicta modes surfaces them.

Global flags

Apply to every subcommand:

• --output <text|table|json|markdown> - output format. markdown is supported only by get. Default is TTY-aware (see next section).
• --pretty - pretty-print JSON. Only valid when the effective format is json.
• --quiet / -q - suppress stderr chrome (progress phases, hints).
• --verbose / -v - include extra fields in human output.
• --help / -h - per-subcommand help.
• --version - print CFBundleShortVersionString from the installed app.

Output format resolution (TTY-aware)

1. Explicit --output <fmt> wins.
2. Otherwise VIVADICTA_OUTPUT=<fmt> env var.
3. Otherwise stdout TTY detection:
   • TTY → text
   • Pipe / redirect → json
4. Override detection with VIVADICTA_FORCE_TTY=1 or VIVADICTA_FORCE_NON_TTY=1 (CI determinism).

JSON shape matches the matching MCP tool's response. One value differs: ref carries a raw UUID from the CLI (vs a session handle like t1 in MCP). Follow-up vivadicta commands accept either.

Env vars

Var	Purpose
VIVADICTA_OUTPUT	Default --output format. Overrides TTY detection.
VIVADICTA_FORCE_TTY=1	Force text/table output even when piped.
VIVADICTA_FORCE_NON_TTY=1	Force JSON output even on a TTY.
VIVADICTA_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	Blocking-write poll timeout (default 600).
NO_COLOR=1	Standard convention, disables ANSI (v1 ships no color anyway).

Exit codes

For scripting:

Exit	Meaning
0	Success
1	Generic internal failure
2	invalid_arguments (malformed arg, unsupported flag combination, validation failure)
3	preset_not_found / preset_ambiguous (fuzzy match failed or returned multiple candidates)
4	transcription_not_found / transcription_ambiguous (resolver failed)
5	vivadicta_not_running (write command with UI app stopped)
6	daily_limit_reached (write only)
10	storage_unavailable (launch the UI app at least once before using reads)
64	Usage error (unknown subcommand, bad enum value, --pretty without --output json)

Branch on these in scripts:

vivadicta get "$QUERY" --output json > /tmp/out.json
case $? in
  0)  jq '.title' /tmp/out.json ;;
  4)  echo "no match, retry with a UUID" >&2 ;;
  5)  echo "open VivaDicta first" >&2; exit 1 ;;
  10) echo "launch the app at least once" >&2; exit 1 ;;
  *)  echo "unexpected exit" >&2; exit 1 ;;
esac

Output piping

The TTY-aware default makes pipes ergonomic out of the box:

vivadicta recent 5 | jq '.transcriptions[].title'
vivadicta search "sprint" --since yesterday --output json | jq '.count'
vivadicta get latest --output markdown > ~/notes/today.md

In a TTY the same commands produce aligned tables.

Error output

Errors print to stderr with vivadicta: <message> + optional hint: line. When --output json is active, errors become a structured payload for jq:

{"status":"error","code":4,"error":"transcription_not_found","message":"No transcription matches '...'","hint":"did you mean ...","candidates":[...]}

Guardrails

• For writes, check that the UI app is running first (pgrep -f VivaDicta.app is enough). Otherwise exit 5 is the expected failure; don't retry.
• For reads right after a UI-side edit, expect up to a few seconds of CloudKit sync lag before the new record appears in CLI output.
• If asked to create or edit presets / tags / modes / vocab / replacements: v1 doesn't support this from the CLI. Point the user to the UI app.
• For long-running tasks (transcribe, rewrite), default to blocking so the user's next step has the result. Pass --async only when the user explicitly wants to background the job.