CLI reference

taiku

Start a new collaborative terminal session.

taiku [OPTIONS]

Option	Description
--shell <SHELL>	Shell to use (default: $SHELL)
--name <NAME>	Session display name (default: user@hostname)
--no-app	Don’t open the desktop app, CLI-only mode
--app	Force open the desktop app with the session URL
--enable-readers	Generate separate read-only and write URLs
--no-viewer-auth	Allow anonymous viewers without the encryption key (Pro)
--token <TOKEN>	Use a specific API token
--tunnel <PORTS>	Expose local ports as HTTP tunnels (comma-separated)
--open-tunnel	Auto-approve all tunnel port requests

Examples

# Basic session
taiku

# With tunnels for a web dev server
taiku --tunnel 3000,5173

# Read-only sharing (separate write link)
taiku --enable-readers

# Headless server, no desktop app
taiku --no-app --shell /bin/bash

taiku login

Authenticate with your taiku account.

taiku login

Opens a browser for OAuth (Google or GitHub). On headless machines, prints a URL and code to enter manually. Credentials saved to ~/.config/taiku/credentials.

taiku tunnel

Expose a local port through an HTTP tunnel within an active session.

taiku tunnel <PORT>

Token resolution order

When starting a session, credentials are resolved in this order:

1. --token flag
2. TAIKU_TOKEN environment variable
3. ~/.config/taiku/credentials (if server URL matches)
4. Anonymous (no auth)

Credentials file

{
  "server": "https://taiku.live",
  "api_key": "...",
  "email": "user@example.com"
}

Environment variables

Variable	Description
SHELL	Default shell for new sessions
TAIKU_TOKEN	API token (alternative to --token or credentials file)
TAIKU_SERVER	Override the server URL