The growther command

C5 installs one command: growther. This page lists everything it can do.

To see this list in your terminal at any time:

growther help

Start C5 #

Run the command with nothing after it:

growther

This starts the C5 server and prints the address it is running on — open that address in your browser to use the app. The first time you run it, C5 sets itself up and asks you to activate.

All commands #

Commands in detail #

growther status #

Tells you whether C5 is running right now, and whether it is set to start on its own when your computer boots.

growther status

growther service #

Controls whether C5 starts by itself and stays running.

growther service install     # start C5 automatically from now on
growther service status      # check whether that is set up
growther service uninstall   # stop starting automatically

Use install if you want C5 always ready. Use uninstall to go back to starting it by hand.

growther activate #

Pairs your computer with your license. C5 shows you a short code and opens a page where you confirm it. You only do this once per computer.

growther activate

growther rekey #

Gives this computer a new key while keeping the same license and the same history. Your data, settings and anything you have shared stay exactly where they are — only the key changes.

C5 does this on its own every few months, so most people never type it. Reach for it when C5 says the key it has is not the one your license expects:

growther rekey

If the key on this computer is gone or is no longer the right one — after restoring from a backup, say, or moving to a new disk — add --recover:

growther rekey --recover

Recovery asks you to confirm in your browser, and it asks you to have signed in within the last 15 minutes. If you get "step-up re-authentication is required", sign out of the license portal, sign back in, and run the command again straight away.

Do not run growther activate to fix a key problem. Activate creates a new deployment; rekey keeps the one you already have.

growther update #

Gets the newest version. See Updating C5 for the full story.

growther update            # update now
growther update --check    # only check, do not install
growther update --restart  # update, then restart the service

growther doctor #

Checks your whole setup and tells you what is wrong in plain words. This is the first thing to run when something is not working.

growther doctor

See Running doctor for what it checks.

growther qmd-run #

Runs the engine behind memory search directly, for the two things you might want to do by hand.

growther qmd-run pull     # fetch the language models it needs (about 2 GB)
growther qmd-run doctor   # report on those models and the search index

C5 fetches the models by itself the first time it starts, so most people never need pull. Reach for it when you want them on your own schedule — before taking a laptop somewhere without signal, for instance.

growther qmd-run doctor is not the same as growther doctor. The first reports on memory search; the second checks C5 as a whole.

See Memory search for what these models do and how to install them on a machine with no internet.

growther verify #

Checks that a file really is the one we built, and that nobody has changed it since. Useful if you downloaded C5 somewhere other than our site, or if you simply want to confirm the copy you are running is untouched.

growther verify            # check the copy of C5 you are running
growther verify ./growther # check a specific file you downloaded

It works offline. Nothing is sent anywhere and nothing needs downloading: the key used to check the signature is built into C5 itself.

What the answers mean:

A ? is not a pass. It means the check could not be completed — usually because you are running a development build, because the file has no build record next to it, or because you pointed it at a downloaded .tar.gz/.zip rather than the program itself. Treat it as "unknown", not "fine".

Checking a downloaded archive tells you its build record is genuine but says nothing about the bytes inside it, so extract it first and verify the program:

tar -xzf growther-c5-macos-arm64.tar.gz
growther verify ./growther-c5-macos-arm64

If you are writing a script, the exit codes are 0 verified, 1 failed or altered, and 2 could not be checked.

See Verifying releases for the whole trust story.

growther uninstall #

Removes the C5 program, takes it off your PATH, and turns off automatic starting.

growther uninstall

Your data is kept. Everything in your data folder stays where it is, so you can reinstall later and pick up where you left off.

growther uninstall --purge-data

Getting the version #

growther version

Useful when reporting a problem — see Getting help.

Next steps #

• Environment variables — change ports, folders, and channels.
• Running doctor — check your setup.