CLI reference

The navflow package installs four entry points.

command	purpose
`navflow up`	start the daemon and console
`navflow mcp`	run the MCP server (for remote agents)
`navflowd`	the daemon, configured by environment only
`navflow-mcp`	the stdio MCP proxy (spawned by an agent client)

navflow up

Starts navflowd with a persistent data home and prints the console URL.


navflow up [--host HOST] [--port PORT] [--data-dir DIR] [--open]

flag	default	description
`--host`	`127.0.0.1`	bind address; `0.0.0.0` to expose on the network
`--port`	`8787`	bind port
`--data-dir`	`~/.navflow`	directory for the DuckDB file and catalog
`--open`	—	open the console in a browser

navflow up sets NAVFLOW_DB and NAVFLOW_CATALOG under --data-dir unless they are already set in the environment.

navflow mcp

Runs the MCP server. Use streamable-http to serve a network endpoint for remote agents (stdio is the default and is what an agent client spawns directly — see navflow-mcp).


navflow mcp [--transport {stdio,sse,streamable-http}] [--host HOST] [--port PORT] [--navflowd URL]

flag	default	description
`--transport`	`streamable-http`	`stdio`, `sse`, or `streamable-http`
`--host`	`127.0.0.1`	bind address (HTTP transports)
`--port`	`8788`	bind port (HTTP transports)
`--navflowd`	`http://127.0.0.1:8787`	the daemon URL to proxy to


navflow mcp --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8788 --navflowd http://localhost:8787
# serves http://<host>:8788/mcp

navflowd

The daemon itself, with no CLI flags — configured entirely by environment variables (see Configuration). navflow up is a thin wrapper over this.


NAVFLOW_DB=/data/navflow.duckdb NAVFLOW_HOST=0.0.0.0 NAVFLOW_PORT=8787 navflowd

navflow-mcp

The stdio MCP proxy — the entry point an agent client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop) spawns. It reads:

variable	default	description
`NAVFLOWD_URL`	`http://127.0.0.1:8787`	the daemon to proxy to
`NAVFLOW_AUTH_TOKEN`	unset	bearer token, if the daemon requires one
`NAVFLOW_MCP_TRANSPORT`	`stdio`	`stdio`, `sse`, or `streamable-http`

See Connecting agents for client configuration.