Overview
cognee-cli is an open-source workflow skill for Claude Code and compatible agents, published by topoteretes. Its author describes it as: “Use when the user wants to drive cognee from the terminal with cognee-cli — remember/recall/forget/improve memory commands, managing datasets and config, or database migrations.”. The project has 30k stars on GitHub and is available under the Apache-2.0 license. Add it to your setup with `git clone https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee ~/.claude/skills/cognee-cli`.
What cognee-cli does
`cognee-cli` ships with the package (entry point in `cognee/cli/_cognee.py`; each command lives in `cognee/cli/commands/`). Every command has `--help` with examples — prefer that over guessing flags. Needs `LLM_API_KEY` configured, same as the SDK.
Best for
What’s inside
The SKILL.md for cognee-cli is organised into these sections:
- Core flow
- Session memory and enrichment
- Legacy / lower-level commands
- Management
- Relational DB migrations (Alembic)
- Gotchas
Installation
Add cognee-cli to your agent with:
git clone https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee ~/.claude/skills/cognee-cliReview a skill’s source before installing it — skills can instruct your agent to run commands. This command comes from the skill’s public repository, which is the source of truth for setup steps. New to skills? Read how to install Claude Code skills.
Supported agents
Neither the skill nor its repository names a specific agent. It uses the SKILL.md format, which several agents can load — check the repository for any agent-specific requirements.
License
cognee-cli is published under the Apache-2.0 license.
Strengths
- Clear Apache-2.0 license — safe to read and adapt within its terms
- Ships in topoteretes/cognee, an established project with 30,102 GitHub stars
- Actively maintained — repository updated in the last 90 days
Author
Topics
Frequently asked questions
- What does cognee-cli do?
- Use when the user wants to drive cognee from the terminal with cognee-cli — remember/recall/forget/improve memory commands, managing datasets and config, or database migrations.
- How do I install cognee-cli?
- Run git clone https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee ~/.claude/skills/cognee-cli in your agent, then reload your skills. Review the source at https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee before installing.
- Is cognee-cli free to use?
- Yes. cognee-cli is free and open source under the Apache-2.0 license, so you can read, run, and adapt it within that license's terms.
- Where does cognee-cli come from?
- cognee-cli ships inside topoteretes/cognee, a repository that contains 11 catalogued skills in total. The repository's 30,102 GitHub stars apply to that whole collection, not to this skill on its own.