Scripting

Use print mode to run one prompt and exit, without opening the terminal interface.

tatu -p "Explain the purpose of this project."

The final answer goes to stdout; tool progress and errors go to stderr. Add -q to hide progress, not errors. Tatu still runs tools with your permissions: print mode is not a read-only mode.

Read from stdin

Use -p - to read the whole prompt from stdin. For example, pipe a diff into a review prompt:

{ printf 'Review this diff for bugs:\n\n'; git diff; } | tatu -p - -q

You can also redirect a file:

tatu -p - < prompt.txt

Attach images

Add -image for each image you want to send with the prompt:

tatu -p "Explain this error screen." -image error.png

See Images for model support and image handling.

Use a shell script

Print mode saves the conversation by default. Add -no-session when you do not want a saved conversation:

#!/bin/sh
if tatu -p "Summarize the changes in this project." -q -no-session > summary.md; then
  printf 'Saved summary.md\n'
else
  code=$?
  printf 'Tatu failed with exit code %s\n' "$code" >&2
  exit "$code"
fi

Exit code 0 means the run finished, not that an answer passed your own checks. Code 1 means an error or the model-call limit, 2 means invalid command-line usage, and 130 means interrupted. An interrupt aborts the run; a second interrupt exits immediately.

JSON output

Add -json with -p to write one JSON object per line instead of the final answer:

tatu -p "Explain main.go." -json

The first line describes the session state; later lines report events. One event line is:

{"type":"agent_start"}

-rpc serves a session over stdin and stdout for programs that control it.

See also

• Flags and exit codes
• Environment variables
• Security and trust