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Kapi CLI or Kapi Desktop?

Both run the same engine on the same kapi projects, flows, and tools: a project you set up in one opens in the other, and you can switch any time. They share one place for a project's context, so a rule you confirm on the command line is in force in the app, and the other way round. Pick the one that suits how you work, or use both.

Kapi CLI, the command-line tool​

A single binary that operates directly on your files. Reach for it when you want to:

  • automate: scripts, make targets, CI gates that fail a PR on a bad check;
  • stay in the terminal: flags, pipes, --json output you can feed to other tools;
  • work offline over many files: batch a whole directory, no server, no GUI;
  • drive it from your AI assistant: over MCP or the Agent Skills, Claude calls kapi to read, check, and fix your content.

Start with the Kapi CLI guides.

Kapi Desktop, the visual app​

A native app where you read the rules your projects keep and decide about what your assistants noticed, with no YAML and no flags. Reach for it when you want to:

  • see what is new: what your assistants noticed since you last looked, in every project, with the sentence behind each suggestion, and keep, change or drop it with one key; choose a side or apply a rule more widely;
  • ask what applies: by file or by word, and read the brief an assistant gets for a file;
  • connect an assistant without a terminal: Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Codex or Claude Desktop, and the rules files kapi writes for them;
  • go back: History shows every session, and a reset returns the context to how it stood before one;
  • share the context: see whether a project's context stays on this Mac or is shared with your team, set up a place, and sync;
  • work the project: where it stands, its collections and formats, the Checks and Review surfaces, and the Toolbox, with plugins and AI models managed through a UI.

Start with the Kapi Desktop overview.

Which should I pick?​

If you…Reach for
live in a terminal and want to script or gate thingsKapi CLI
write with Claude and want it to check and translate for youKapi CLI over MCP; Claude drives it
prefer clicking to typing, and want to see what governs a fileKapi Desktop
want to see what your assistant noticed, and keep the right onesKapi Desktop (review what your assistant noticed)
want your team on the same contextKapi Desktop's Share, or kapi context sync (sharing context)
are setting up a repo's governance and gates once, to commit and shareKapi CLI (your first project)
are editing the voice and terms, or reviewing translations, day to dayKapi Desktop

You don't have to choose once and for all. The kapi.yaml recipe a teammate writes on the command line opens in Desktop, and the other way round.

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