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The shtap command-line tool is the entry point to ShoulderTap. shtap serve runs the engine; every other command is a thin HTTP client that talks to a running server. Every command accepts --config (default shouldertap.yaml).

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init

Generate a starter configuration.
Writes shouldertap.yaml and .env.example to the current directory. Prompts for the organization name if --org-name isn’t given. See Install.

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serve

Run the engine, HTTP API, and approval UI.
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--transport
console | slack
default:"console"
How experts are reached. See Run the server.
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--host
string
default:"0.0.0.0"
Host interface to bind to. The port comes from server.port (default 8776).

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ask

Submit a question as the cli consumer, then poll until it’s answered.
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--topic
string
required
The routing topic to match against experts.
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--kind
string
default:"freeform.answer"
The question kind, which determines the answer’s capture schema.
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--poll-interval
float
default:"3.0"
Seconds between status checks while waiting for an answer.
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--timeout
float
default:"300.0"
Seconds to wait before giving up on the poll. The request itself keeps living on the server.
The first line of output is Submitted <request_id> ...; once a reviewer accepts the answer, ask prints it attributed to the expert.

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queue

List proposals pending human review.
Prints each pending proposal with its id, question, and answer, or Nothing pending. See Approvals.

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accept

Accept a pending proposal, delivering it to subscribed consumers.
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--decided-by
string
Who approved it. Defaults to your OS username.

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reject

Reject a pending proposal.
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--reason
string
required
Why it was rejected. Delivered to the consumer with the rejection event.
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--decided-by
string
Who rejected it. Defaults to your OS username.

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experts

List the expert registry with each expert’s live state (muted, open asks, asks today).
See Experts and routing.

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audit

Print the full audit trail for one request.
Shows every event a request went through — received, routed, asked, escalated, replied, decided. Prints No audit events for an unknown id.

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mcp

Run the MCP server over stdio, exposing ask_expert and check_answer.
Intended to be spawned by an MCP client, not run interactively. See MCP integration.