CLI Only

Manage features through your AI agent in the terminal without the web UI.

Install

Or run directly with npx (Node.js 22+ required):

Start the Service

This runs Manifest in the background. Your AI agent connects to it automatically.

Other service commands:

brew services stop manifest    # Stop the service
brew services restart manifest # Restart the service
brew services info manifest    # Check service status

Connect Your AI Agent

Pi

This installs the @manifestdocs/pi extension, giving Pi full access to Manifest tools, skills, and prompts.

Claude Code

This makes Manifest available in every Claude Code session. For per-project config, use --scope project instead.

Other Agents

Any MCP-compatible agent can connect to Manifest. Add the following to your agent's MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "manifest": {
      "command": "manifest",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

This works with Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, Gemini CLI, Copilot, and others. See your agent's docs for the config file location.

Verify

After configuring your agent, verify the connection:

1. Start a new session in your coding agent
2. Ask: "List my Manifest projects"
3. The agent should read your feature tree from Manifest

Troubleshooting

Server not connecting?

• Ensure the service is running: brew services info manifest
• Check that the manifest binary is in your PATH
• Restart your coding agent after config changes

Port conflict?

Manifest uses port 4242 by default. To use a different port:

Then pass the custom URL when connecting your agent:

manifest setup pi --url http://localhost:8080

# For MCP agents, update the args in your config:
# "args": ["mcp", "--url", "http://localhost:8080"]

Permission issues on macOS?

which manifest
# Should return /opt/homebrew/bin/manifest or /usr/local/bin/manifest

Next step

Continue to Initialize a project.