CLI model

Every Elegant Git command line has the same shape:

[binary] [object] [action] [argument]... [modifier]...

Knowing the five parts is enough to read any command in these docs, to guess a command you have not seen yet, and to script the tool without surprises. So, one part at a time.

Binary

The binary is the program itself, and it is called git-elegant. Help and docs write it as git elegant … because Git resolves git <subcommand> by looking for a git-<subcommand> program on your PATH — the two forms are the same program.

Object

An object is the thing you are talking to. There are seven of them: memory, git, workspace, repo, hook, work, and release.

version and completion sit on the binary itself, without an object, because they are about the program rather than about anything it manages. The hidden legacy flat names — start-work and its siblings — also live at that level, as deprecated aliases.

Action

An action is what you do to an object. Together they are named {object}.{action} — for example work.start. That dotted form is what you pass to hook new and what appears in per-command state, so it is worth recognizing.

Argument

An argument is a positional input to an action, required or optional. An action can have anywhere from zero to several of them, and they are all resolved before the action starts to work. If something is an input to the action, it is positional — you will not see a flag for it.

Modifier

A modifier changes how an action runs without changing what it does. There are three, and they are global: --no-workflows, --non-interactive, and --interactive. They may appear anywhere on the command line, so git elegant --no-workflows work save and git elegant work save --no-workflows are equivalent. What each one means is on the interaction page, and the full list is in the commands reference.