NeuroSkill Transport & Quick Start

NeuroSkill runs a local server (auto-discovered via mDNS or lsof). All commands work over both transports; the CLI picks the best one automatically.

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WebSocket (ws://127.0.0.1:<port>)

• Full-duplex, low-latency. Best for live data, event streaming, and polling loops.
• Commands are JSON messages sent over the socket; responses arrive as JSON messages.
• Supports real-time broadcast events (EEG packets, scores, label-created, …).
• Used by default when the server is reachable.

# Force WebSocket:
npx neuroskill status --ws

# Direct WebSocket from any language (wscat example):
wscat -c ws://127.0.0.1:8375
> {"command":"status"}
< {"command":"status","ok":true,"device":{...},"scores":{...},...}

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HTTP (http://127.0.0.1:<port>/)

• Request / response only. No live streaming, no broadcast events.
• All commands are POST / with a JSON body; the response is JSON.
• Useful from curl, Python requests, Node fetch, or any HTTP client.
• Automatic fallback when the WebSocket is unreachable.

# Force HTTP:
npx neuroskill status --http

# curl equivalent of every CLI command:
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8375/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"command":"status"}'

# Extract a single field with jq:
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8375/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"command":"status"}' | jq '.scores.focus'

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Auto-transport (default)

When neither --ws nor --http is given, the CLI probes WebSocket first and silently falls back to HTTP. Informational lines are written to stderr (not stdout), so JSON piping is never polluted.

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Port Discovery

The CLI finds the port automatically via:

1. --port <n> flag (explicit, skips all discovery)
2. mDNS (_skill._tcp service advertisement, 5 s timeout)
3. lsof / pgrep fallback (probes each TCP LISTEN port)

npx neuroskill status --port 62853    # skip discovery entirely

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Quick Start

# Prerequisites (run once):
npm install -g neuroskill

# Snapshot of everything:
npx neuroskill status

# Pipe-friendly JSON output:
npx neuroskill status --json | jq '.scores'

# Print full help with examples:
npx neuroskill --help

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Output Modes

Every command has three output modes.

Default (no flag) — human-readable summary only

Colored, structured summary to stdout. Raw JSON is discarded after rendering.

npx neuroskill status        # colored summary, no JSON
npx neuroskill session 0     # trend table, no JSON
npx neuroskill sleep         # stage counts, no JSON

--json — raw JSON only, pipe-safe

print() calls suppressed; only printResult() fires. Plain JSON, no ANSI codes on stdout. Informational lines go to stderr and never pollute the JSON stream.

npx neuroskill status --json                            # full JSON, no summary
npx neuroskill status --json | jq '.scores.focus'       # pipe to jq
npx neuroskill sleep  --json | jq '.summary'
npx neuroskill search --json | jq '.result.results[0].neighbors'
npx neuroskill umap   --json | jq '.result.points | length'

--full — human-readable summary and colorized JSON

Both print() and printResult() fire. Summary prints first, then complete colorized JSON.

npx neuroskill status       --full   # summary + full colorized JSON
npx neuroskill neurological --full   # summary + references object
npx neuroskill session 0    --full   # trend table + raw first/second/trends objects
npx neuroskill sleep        --full   # stage counts + full epochs[] array
npx neuroskill umap         --full   # cluster analysis + full points[] array

Colors: --full uses ANSI-colored JSON. For plain text, pipe through sed 's/\x1b\[[0-9;]*m//g' or use --json.

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Global Options

Flag	Description
--port <n>	Connect to an explicit port (skips mDNS)
--ws	Force WebSocket; error if unreachable
--http	Force HTTP REST; no live-event commands
--json	Raw JSON only — no summary, no colors, pipe-safe
--full	Human-readable summary and colorized full JSON appended below
--no-color	Disable ANSI color output (also honoured via NO_COLOR env var)
--dot	(interactive only) Graphviz DOT to stdout — pipe to dot -Tsvg
--trends	(sessions only) Show first-half → second-half deltas
--mode <m>	(search-labels) text | context | both
--k <n>	Number of nearest neighbors (search, search-labels)
--k-text <n>	(interactive) k for text-label HNSW search (default 5)
--k-eeg <n>	(interactive) k for EEG-similarity HNSW search (default 5)
--k-labels <n>	(interactive) k for label-proximity step (default 3)
--reach <n>	(interactive) temporal window in minutes around each EEG point (default 10)
--ef <n>	HNSW ef parameter (search-labels; default max(k×4, 64))
--seconds <n>	Duration for listen (default 5)
--profile <p>	Profile name or UUID for calibrate
--poll <n>	(status) Re-poll every N seconds; keeps the socket open
--context "..."	(label) Long-form annotation body; used by search-labels --mode context
--at <utc>	(label) Backdate to a specific Unix second (default: now)
--voice <name>	(say) Voice name to use (e.g. Jasper); omits to use the server default
--version	Print CLI version and exit
--help	Show full help and exit

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Polling with status

status is the single fastest call to get a complete system snapshot. Poll it periodically from any script or external tool to react to EEG state changes.

# One-shot snapshot:
npx neuroskill status --json

# Poll every 5 seconds and print focus score:
while true; do
  npx neuroskill status --json | jq '.scores.focus'
  sleep 5
done

# Alert when focus drops below 0.4:
while true; do
  FOCUS=$(npx neuroskill status --json | jq '.scores.focus')
  if (( $(echo "$FOCUS < 0.4" | bc -l) )); then
    npx neuroskill notify "Focus dropped" "Current: $FOCUS"
  fi
  sleep 10
done