Skip to main content
rkat is the command-line interface for Meerkat. It lets you run AI agents from your terminal with support for multiple providers, MCP tools, session management, and streaming output.

​
Common commands

CommandExamplePurpose
runrkat run "prompt"Execute an agent with a prompt
resumerkat resume <ID> "prompt"Continue a previous session
sessions listrkat sessions listList stored sessions
sessions showrkat sessions show <ID>View session details
mcp addrkat mcp add name -- cmdAdd an MCP tool server
mcp listrkat mcp listList configured MCP servers
configrkat config getGet, set, or patch configuration
rpcrkat rpcStart the JSON-RPC stdio server

​
run

Execute an agent with a prompt. 
rkat run [OPTIONS] <PROMPT>
​
PROMPT
string
required
The prompt to execute.

​
Model selection

​
--model
string
default:"claude-opus-4-6"
Model to use.
​
-p, --provider
string
LLM provider: anthropic, openai, or gemini. Auto-detected from the model name if omitted.

​
Output

​
--output
string
default:"text"
Output format: text or json.
​
--stream
boolean
default:"false"
Stream response tokens as they arrive.
​
--max-tokens
integer
default:"4096"
Maximum tokens per turn.
​
--max-total-tokens
integer
Maximum total tokens for the run. Unlimited by default.
​
--max-duration
string
Maximum duration (e.g., 5m, 1h30m, 30s). Unlimited by default.
​
--max-tool-calls
integer
Maximum number of tool calls. Unlimited by default.
​
--param
string
Provider-specific parameter as KEY=VALUE. Can be repeated. See provider parameters for details.
​
--comms-name
string
Agent name for inter-agent communication. Enables comms if set.
​
--comms-listen-tcp
string
TCP address to listen on (e.g., 0.0.0.0:4200).
​
--no-comms
boolean
Disable inter-agent communication entirely.

​
Examples

rkat run "What is the capital of France?"
rkat run --model claude-opus-4-6 "Explain quantum computing"
rkat run --model gpt-5.2 "Write a haiku about Rust"
rkat run --model gemini-3-flash-preview "What are the benefits of async/await?"

​
resume

Resume a previous session with a new prompt. 
rkat resume <SESSION_ID> <PROMPT>
​
SESSION_ID
string
required
Session ID to resume.
​
PROMPT
string
required
The prompt to continue with.
rkat run "Let's discuss Rust error handling"
# Note the session ID from output
rkat resume 01936f8a-... "What about the ? operator?"

​
sessions

Manage stored sessions.

​
list

rkat sessions list [--limit N]

$ rkat sessions list
ID                                       MESSAGES     CREATED              UPDATED
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01936f8a-7b2c-7000-8000-000000000001     8            2025-01-22 14:30     2025-01-22 15:45
01936f8a-7b2c-7000-8000-000000000002     3            2025-01-21 09:15     2025-01-21 09:20

​
show

rkat sessions show <ID>
Displays all messages in the session with their types (USER, ASSISTANT, SYSTEM, TOOL RESULTS).

​
delete

rkat sessions delete <SESSION_ID>

​
mcp

Manage MCP (Model Context Protocol) server configuration.

​
add

rkat mcp add [OPTIONS] <NAME> [-- <COMMAND>...]

rkat mcp add my-tools -- npx -y @example/mcp-server
rkat mcp add api-tools -e API_KEY=secret123 -- python mcp_server.py
rkat mcp add global-tools --user -- /usr/local/bin/mcp-server

​
list

rkat mcp list [--scope user|project] [--json]

​
get

rkat mcp get [--scope user|project] [--json] <NAME>

​
remove

rkat mcp remove [--scope user|project] <NAME>
If the server exists in multiple scopes and --scope is not specified, the command will error.

​
rpc

Start the JSON-RPC stdio server for IDE and desktop app integration. 
rkat rpc
The server reads/writes newline-delimited JSON-RPC 2.0 on stdin/stdout. Unlike run/resume, it keeps agents alive between turns. See the RPC reference for the full protocol specification.

​
Examples

1

Set up a filesystem tool

rkat mcp add fs -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /home/user/projects
2

Run with tools available

rkat run "List all Rust files in the projects directory"
1

Start a conversation

rkat run "I want to learn about Rust iterators"
2

Continue the conversation

rkat resume 01936f8a-... "What about the collect() method?"
3

Review and clean up

rkat sessions show 01936f8a-...
rkat sessions delete 01936f8a-...

#!/bin/bash
prompts=("What is Rust?" "What is Go?" "What is Python?")

for prompt in "${prompts[@]}"; do
    result=$(rkat run --output json "$prompt")
    text=$(echo "$result" | jq -r '.text')
    tokens=$(echo "$result" | jq -r '.usage.input_tokens + .usage.output_tokens')
    echo "Q: $prompt"
    echo "A: $text"
    echo "Tokens: $tokens"
    echo "---"
done

​
See also