What mcue can do

This is the complete feature map for mcue v0.18. It describes the whole product, not only the everyday closeout-and-resume loop. For exact arguments and flags, use the CLI reference or mcue <command> --help.

The local operating-state loop

mcue records the operating state of a project's work: what you intended to do, what happened, the decisions and blockers that matter, and the next concrete action. A closeout writes an immutable checkpoint and refreshes the project's governed state; a resume turns that state into a bounded re-entry packet.

mcue init payments-api --name "Payments API"
mcue closeout payments-api
mcue resume payments-api
mcue index

The state is local by default. It lives as readable Markdown with YAML front matter under $MCUE_HOME (normally ~/.mcue), outside the source repository. mcue does not copy, commit, or modify source code.

Structure and lifecycle

• Projects are the unit of registration, state, and resume. They can be anchored to a work tree with a .mcue footprint, updated, renamed, archived, or deliberately hard-deleted.
• Lanes separate concurrent strands of attention within one project. Every project begins with a default lane; named lanes have their own state, plans, and checkpoint history. A lane is not a Git branch.
• Plans are lane-scoped active sequences. They can be created, viewed, updated, closed into history, listed, or deliberately hard-deleted.
• Portfolio views let you inspect all active projects or explicitly named projects; a named project remains visible even if it is archived or closed.

Trust, recovery, and operator visibility

mcue is designed to make its state inspectable and recoverable rather than magical.

• Checkpoints are immutable and browseable through project history.
• review provides an inspection surface without a new closeout.
• drift reports warning-only changes in the recorded working environment.
• recover turns an interrupted closeout into an explicit degraded checkpoint; it does not silently invent a normal one.
• audit reads the append-only local write log.
• reconcile resolves a lane that contains multiple unreconciled perspectives.
• doctor diagnoses the local installation, while identity shows or overrides the operator and machine identity used in state.
• Migration commands safely bring state written by older mcue releases forward.

Agents and MCP

Agents can use the same governed state rather than maintaining a separate memory file. mcue serve exposes the MCP read/write surface as a local stdio server or authenticated HTTP service. mcue agents-snippet emits the canonical access rules for an AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md; token manages bearer tokens for the authenticated surface.

Pass --agent (or set MCUE_AGENT_MODE=1) to scrub home-directory paths from CLI output before putting it into shared artifacts.

Managed Hub

Hub is optional: local mcue remains fully useful without an account or network. When connected, Hub keeps governed state available while this machine is off.

• OAuth authorization-code login with PKCE; credentials stay in the operating system credential store.
• Publish local projects to create a Hub replica, clone a Hub project onto a machine, and synchronize accepted state in either direction.
• A durable local outbox records linked-project changes immediately, including while offline. sync status reads cursor and pending-operation state without a network request.
• Sync uses cursors and explicit conflicts rather than last-write-wins. It advances the accepted replica and preserves still-pending local intentions for the next attempt.
• unlink removes only this machine's Hub link and outbox; it leaves both local state and the Hub project intact.
• observe collects Git evidence for a linked project's lanes and compares it with the checkpoints Hub has accepted. --upload submits that evidence to Hub; it never syncs pending operating state.

Hub synchronizes only mcue state beneath $MCUE_HOME. It never uploads or mutates the source repository.

BYO-S3 remote

The remote namespace is a separate, account-free cross-machine path for an S3-compatible bucket you control. It can enable or disable a project remote, inspect its status, push and pull perspectives, rotate stored credentials, compare conflicting bytes, and force-push one confirmed perspective. It is independent of the managed Hub.

Complete command coverage

Every v0.18 command belongs to one of these groups. This section is deliberately exhaustive; the CLI reference supplies the per-command purpose and the binary supplies authoritative flags.

What mcue deliberately does not do

mcue is not a project-management suite, a notes archive, a specification library, or a replacement for Git. It owns current operating state and bounded re-entry; source history stays in Git and durable project artifacts stay where the project already keeps them. Read Operating state for that boundary, or Why not a notes file? for when a plain file is the better tool.