Useful commands
| I want to… | Command |
|---|---|
| Set up Mash | mash init |
| Set up without interactive prompts | mash init --yes |
| Find a conversation | mash search 'a word you remember' |
| Find a chat by title | mash list-chats --title-contains 'part of the title' |
| Read a matching message | mash view MESSAGE_ID --context 3 |
| Open the dashboard | mash dash |
| Refresh recent history | mash index |
| Include older history | mash index --all-history |
| Read every chat again after an upgrade | mash index --reread |
| Keep watching for changes | mash index --watch |
| Check setup | mash status --installation |
| Check search readiness | mash status |
| Download optional search models | mash models install |
| Back up my history | mash export /path/to/new-backup |
Replace MESSAGE_ID with lookup.view.id from a search result or a
list-chats row; view does not accept chat IDs.
Terminal results are JSON; use the dashboard or a
connected agent if you prefer reading conversations directly.
mash init uses an interactive wizard when stdin and stderr are terminals;
its prompts go to stderr and its final result remains JSON on stdout.
Run mash --help or mash COMMAND --help for available options.
Help and version output are JSON too. To display the help text with line breaks:
mash --help | python3 -c 'import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)["help"])'In PowerShell, use (mash --help | ConvertFrom-Json).help.
Use --config PATH, --db PATH, or --models-dir PATH when your files
are outside their default locations.
See search filters, backup and restore, removing a chat, and multi-machine setup for complete examples.