`cortex chat`

Start an interactive streaming chat session with any supported LLM provider. This is the primary interface for interacting with the CortexPrism agent.

Usage

cortex chat [options]
cortex chat --model gpt-4o           # Override model
cortex chat --resume sess_abc123     # Resume an existing session
cortex chat -s sess_abc123           # Resume (short flag)
cortex chat --no-stream              # Disable streaming output
cortex chat --provider anthropic     # Select provider
cortex chat --tools all              # Enable all tools
cortex chat --router cost-optimized  # Use model router

Options

Option	Description
`--model, -m`	Override the default model for this session
`--provider, -p`	Select a specific provider
`--resume, -s`	Resume an existing session by ID
`--no-stream`	Disable streaming output (print complete response at once)
`--tools`	Enable tool access (`all` or comma-separated list)
`--router`	Use the model router with a specific strategy
`--help`	Show help for this command

Slash Commands

Inside the chat session, the following slash commands are available:

Command	Description
`/exit`	Quit the session
`/help`	Show available slash commands
`/clear`	Clear the terminal screen
`/model <name>`	Switch models mid-session
`/tokens`	Show token usage for current session

Tool Integration

When tools are enabled, the agent can:

Read files using file_read tool
Execute shell commands with approval gates
Search the web via DuckDuckGo
Execute code in sandboxed environments

Session Persistence

Each chat session creates a per-session SQLite database (sess_*.db) that stores full message history. Sessions can be resumed later using --resume or the interactive session browser via cortex sessions.

Agent Loop Flow

User types message
  → memory retrieval (FTS5 + vector search)
  → memory injection into system prompt
  → LLM call (stream or complete)
  → parse tool calls from response
  → validate through Parallax security
  → execute approved tools
  → re-prompt LLM with results
  → persist response to session history
  → write episodic memory summary (async)
  → per-turn reflection (async, if enabled)

Examples

# Start a basic chat session with default provider
cortex chat

# Use a specific model
cortex chat --model claude-sonnet-4-20250514

# Resume a previous session
cortex chat --resume sess_a1b2c3d4

# Use the cost-optimized model router
cortex chat --router cost-optimized

# Chat with all tools enabled
cortex chat --tools all