Command-Line Interface Reference

Complete reference for all CLI commands.

Note: All commands shown below should be prefixed with uv run when running from the project directory, or you can activate the virtual environment first with source .venv/bin/activate.

Global Options

All commands support these global options:

--help: Show help message and exit
--version: Show version information

Commands

download

Download NeurIPS papers from OpenReview API.

Usage:

abstracts-explorer download [OPTIONS]

Options:

--year INTEGER: Conference year to download (required)
--db-path TEXT: Path to SQLite database file (required)
--force: Force re-download even if papers exist
--cache/--no-cache: Enable/disable caching (default: enabled)

Examples:

# Download 2025 papers
uv run abstracts-explorer download --year 2025

# Force re-download
uv run abstracts-explorer download --year 2025 --force

# Disable caching
uv run abstracts-explorer download --year 2025 --no-cache

create-embeddings

Create vector embeddings for semantic search.

Usage:

abstracts-explorer create-embeddings [OPTIONS]

Options:

--db-path TEXT: Path to SQLite database with papers (required)
--collection-name TEXT: Collection name in ChromaDB (default: from config)
--model TEXT: Embedding model to use (default: from config)
--force: Recreate embeddings even if they exist

Examples:

# Create embeddings with defaults (uses EMBEDDING_DB from config)
uv run abstracts-explorer create-embeddings

# Use custom collection name
uv run abstracts-explorer create-embeddings \
    \
    --collection-name my_papers

# Force recreation
uv run abstracts-explorer create-embeddings --force

search

Search papers by keywords or semantic similarity.

Usage:

abstracts-explorer search QUERY [OPTIONS]

Arguments:

QUERY: Search query string (required)

Options:

--db-path TEXT: Path to SQLite database (required)
--limit INTEGER: Maximum number of results (default: 10)
--year INTEGER: Filter by conference year
--use-embeddings: Use semantic search (requires embeddings)
--title-only: Search only in paper titles
--abstract-only: Search only in abstracts

Examples:

# Basic search
uv run abstracts-explorer search "transformer"

# Limit results
uv run abstracts-explorer search "deep learning" --limit 20

# Filter by year
uv run abstracts-explorer search "neural network" --year 2025

# Semantic search using embeddings
uv run abstracts-explorer search "attention mechanism" --use-embeddings

# Search only titles
uv run abstracts-explorer search "BERT" --title-only

chat

Interactive RAG-powered chat interface.

Usage:

abstracts-explorer chat [OPTIONS]

Options:

--db-path TEXT: Path to SQLite database (required)
--model TEXT: LLM model to use (default: from config)
--temperature FLOAT: Temperature for responses (default: from config)
--max-tokens INTEGER: Maximum tokens in response (default: from config)
--n-papers INTEGER: Number of papers for context (default: from config)

Interactive Commands:

While in the chat session:

Type your question and press Enter to get a response
exit or quit: Exit the chat session
reset: Reset the conversation history
export [filename]: Export conversation to JSON file

Examples:

# Start chat with defaults (uses EMBEDDING_DB from config)
uv run abstracts-explorer chat

# Use custom model
uv run abstracts-explorer chat --model llama-3.2-3b-instruct

# Adjust response parameters
uv run abstracts-explorer chat \
    --temperature 0.9 \
    --max-tokens 2000 \
    --n-papers 10

info

Show database information and statistics.

Usage:

abstracts-explorer info [OPTIONS]

Options:

--db-path TEXT: Path to SQLite database (required)
--show-embeddings: Also show embedding statistics

Examples:

# Basic info
uv run abstracts-explorer info

# Include embedding info
uv run abstracts-explorer info --show-embeddings

Environment Variables

All CLI commands respect configuration from environment variables and .env files. See the Configuration page for details.

Exit Codes

0: Success
1: General error
2: Invalid arguments or options