Navigation
/
Learn
QuickstartInstall cairnYour first cairn sessionPlan and resume
ConceptsWhat cairn isThe task graphTasks, observations, and handoffsPlans, phases, and the frontierThe current-task pointerEvents, projection, and reconcileReads, writes, and capabilitiesThe cairn-method
Reference
Tools & Query LanguageMCP toolsThe TQ query languageBuilt-in and user-defined viewsEdges, statuses, and fields
Commands & ServingSlash commandsServing over MCP

Commands & Serving

cairn's command-line surface: the six slash commands you type under a kli host, and serving cairn to any MCP client over stdio with kli mcp-serve.

cairn reaches the world outside the MCP tools through two surfaces, one for each reader: the slash commands a person types at a kli prompt, and the kli mcp-serve cairn server that carries the tools to any MCP client an agent runs in.

Pages

  • Slash commands — the six commands cairn registers under a kli host (/observe, /handoff, /task, /tasks, /workon, /where), with syntax, model visibility, and how each relates to the MCP tools (/workon and /where have none).
  • Serving over MCP — kli mcp-serve cairn, the stdio invocation, the mcpServers block clients read, and the tools, prompts, and resources it carries.

The two surfaces share one task graph and read back identically; they differ only in the conveniences the kli host adds on top. Both sit behind one capability boundary; see Reads, writes, and capabilities.