Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://septemberai.mintlify.app/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
A growing collection of commands you’ll reach for repeatedly when
developing against a local Engine. Copy-paste-friendly.
All examples assume:
export ENGINE_URL=http://localhost:8000
export ENGINE_KEY=dev-engine-key
Engine lifecycle
Start
Start in background
docker compose up -d engine
Stop
Stop and wipe the brain
docker compose down --volumes
--volumes flag removes the engine_data Docker volume — the
brain SQLite file and everything in it. Use this for a clean slate.
Rebuild after code changes
docker compose build engine && docker compose up engine
Tail logs
docker compose logs -f engine
Brain inspection
List tables
docker compose exec engine sqlite3 /data/brain.sqlite '.tables'
Count rows in a table
docker compose exec engine sqlite3 /data/brain.sqlite \
'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM episodes'
Browse recent episodes
docker compose exec engine sqlite3 -header -column /data/brain.sqlite \
'SELECT id, key, description, created_at FROM episodes
ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 10'
Browse recent trajectories
docker compose exec engine sqlite3 -header -column /data/brain.sqlite \
'SELECT id, thread_id, task_id, created_at FROM trajectories
ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 5'
Reset memory (keep schema)
docker compose exec engine sqlite3 /data/brain.sqlite \
'DELETE FROM episodes; DELETE FROM knowledge_store;
DELETE FROM social_graph_nodes; DELETE FROM working_memory_log;
DELETE FROM trajectories;'
Configuration changes
Edit env, restart
$EDITOR .env
docker compose up -d engine # picks up the new .env
.env), you’ll need
to recreate the container:
ENGINE_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG docker compose up -d engine
Reload the catalog without restart
curl -X POST "$ENGINE_URL/admin/reload-catalog" \
-H "X-Engine-Key: $ENGINE_KEY"
catalog/.
Reload the soul template
curl -X POST "$ENGINE_URL/admin/reload-core-soul" \
-H "X-Engine-Key: $ENGINE_KEY"
Quick API tests
Health check
curl -fsS "$ENGINE_URL/health" | jq
One-shot execute
curl -N -X POST "$ENGINE_URL/execute" \
-H "X-Engine-Key: $ENGINE_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"message":"Say hi.","task_id":"smoke-1"}'
List MCP servers
curl -fsS "$ENGINE_URL/assets/servers" \
-H "X-Engine-Key: $ENGINE_KEY" | jq
Search knowledge
curl -fsS -X POST "$ENGINE_URL/memory/knowledge/search" \
-H "X-Engine-Key: $ENGINE_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"query":"prefer","limit":5}' | jq
Trigger a Learning Centre batch
curl -X POST "$ENGINE_URL/admin/lc/trigger" \
-H "X-Engine-Key: $ENGINE_KEY"
Tests
Run the full test suite
docker compose run --rm test pytest tests/ --tb=short
Run one test file
docker compose run --rm test pytest tests/test_agent_loop.py --tb=short
Run one test by name
docker compose run --rm test pytest -k test_compaction_handles_overflow
Run with verbose output
docker compose run --rm test pytest tests/ -vv
Switching configurations
Switch LLM provider
In .env:
LLM_PROVIDER=openai
LLM_API_KEY=sk-...
LLM_MODEL=gpt-5.4
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
docker compose up -d engine.
Use a smaller model for development
Set in .env:
LLM_MODEL=claude-haiku-4-5-20251001
Disable a feature flag
REACTIVE_COMPACT_ENABLED=false
"true"/"false" strings, not booleans.
Dev shortcuts
Watch logs filtered by task
docker compose logs -f engine | grep task-001
See requests in real time with low log level
ENGINE_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG docker compose up engine
Curl with pretty SSE
curl -N -X POST "$ENGINE_URL/execute" \
-H "X-Engine-Key: $ENGINE_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"message":"hi","task_id":"demo"}' \
| grep -E '^(event|data):' \
| sed 's/^data: //'
See also
