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PostgresAI CLI

Command-line interface for PostgresAI monitoring and database management.

Installation

From npm

npm install -g postgresai

Or install the latest beta release explicitly:

npm install -g postgresai@beta

Note: in this repository, cli/package.json uses a placeholder version (0.0.0-dev.0). The real published version is set by the git tag in CI when publishing to npm.

From Homebrew (macOS)

# Add the PostgresAI tap
brew tap postgres-ai/tap https://gitlab.com/postgres-ai/homebrew-tap.git

# Install postgresai
brew install postgresai

Usage

The postgresai package provides two command aliases:

postgresai --help   # Canonical, discoverable
pgai --help         # Short and convenient

You can also run it without installing via npx:

npx postgresai --help

Optional shorthand: pgai

If you want npx pgai ... as a shorthand for npx postgresai ..., install the separate pgai wrapper package:

npx pgai --help

prepare-db (create monitoring user in Postgres)

This command creates (or updates) the postgres_ai_mon user, creates the required view(s), and grants the permissions described in the root README.md (it is idempotent). Where supported, it also enables observability extensions described there.

Run without installing (positional connection string):

npx postgresai prepare-db postgresql://admin@host:5432/dbname

It also accepts libpq "conninfo" syntax:

npx postgresai prepare-db "dbname=dbname host=host user=admin"

And psql-like options:

npx postgresai prepare-db -h host -p 5432 -U admin -d dbname

Password input options (in priority order):

  • --password <password>
  • PGAI_MON_PASSWORD environment variable
  • if not provided: a strong password is generated automatically

By default, the generated password is printed only in interactive (TTY) mode. In non-interactive mode, you must either provide the password explicitly, or opt-in to printing it:

  • --print-password (dangerous in CI logs)

Optional permissions (RDS/self-managed extras from the root README.md) are enabled by default. To skip them:

npx postgresai prepare-db postgresql://admin@host:5432/dbname --skip-optional-permissions

Print SQL / dry run

To see what SQL would be executed (passwords redacted by default):

npx postgresai prepare-db postgresql://admin@host:5432/dbname --print-sql

Verify and password reset

Verify that everything is configured as expected (no changes):

npx postgresai prepare-db postgresql://admin@host:5432/dbname --verify

Reset monitoring user password only (no other changes):

npx postgresai prepare-db postgresql://admin@host:5432/dbname --reset-password --password 'new_password'

Quick start

Authentication

Authenticate via browser to obtain API key:

postgresai auth

This will:

  • Open your browser for authentication
  • Prompt you to select an organization
  • Automatically save your API key to ~/.config/postgresai/config.json

Start monitoring

Start monitoring with demo database:

postgresai mon local-install --demo

Start monitoring with your own database:

postgresai mon local-install --db-url postgresql://user:pass@host:5432/db

Complete automated setup with API key and database:

postgresai mon local-install --api-key your_key --db-url postgresql://user:pass@host:5432/db -y

This will:

  • Configure API key for automated report uploads (if provided)
  • Add PostgreSQL instance to monitor (if provided)
  • Generate secure Grafana password
  • Start all monitoring services
  • Open Grafana at http://localhost:3000

Commands

Monitoring services management (mon group)

Service lifecycle

# Complete setup with various options
postgresai mon local-install                                  # Interactive setup for production
postgresai mon local-install --demo                           # Demo mode with sample database
postgresai mon local-install --api-key <key>                  # Setup with API key
postgresai mon local-install --db-url <url>                   # Setup with database URL
postgresai mon local-install --api-key <key> --db-url <url>   # Complete automated setup
postgresai mon local-install -y                               # Auto-accept all defaults

# Service management
postgresai mon start                  # Start monitoring services
postgresai mon stop                   # Stop monitoring services
postgresai mon restart [service]      # Restart all or specific monitoring service
postgresai mon status                 # Show monitoring services status
postgresai mon health [--wait <sec>]  # Check monitoring services health
local-install options
  • --demo - Demo mode with sample database (testing only, cannot use with --api-key)
  • --api-key <key> - Postgres AI API key for automated report uploads
  • --db-url <url> - PostgreSQL connection URL to monitor (format: postgresql://user:pass@host:port/db)
  • -y, --yes - Accept all defaults and skip interactive prompts

Monitoring target databases (mon targets subgroup)

postgresai mon targets list                       # List databases to monitor
postgresai mon targets add <conn-string> <name>   # Add database to monitor
postgresai mon targets remove <name>              # Remove monitoring target
postgresai mon targets test <name>                # Test target connectivity

Configuration and maintenance

postgresai mon config                         # Show monitoring configuration
postgresai mon update-config                  # Apply configuration changes
postgresai mon update                         # Update monitoring stack
postgresai mon reset [service]                # Reset service data
postgresai mon clean                          # Cleanup artifacts
postgresai mon check                          # System readiness check
postgresai mon shell <service>                # Open shell to monitoring service

MCP server (mcp group)

postgresai mcp start                 # Start MCP stdio server exposing tools

Cursor configuration example (Settings → MCP):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "PostgresAI": {
      "command": "postgresai",
      "args": ["mcp", "start"],
      "env": {
        "PGAI_API_BASE_URL": "https://postgres.ai/api/general/"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools exposed:

  • list_issues: returns the same JSON as postgresai issues list.
  • view_issue: view a single issue with its comments (args: { issue_id, debug? })
  • post_issue_comment: post a comment (args: { issue_id, content, parent_comment_id?, debug? })

Issues management (issues group)

postgresai issues list                                  # List issues (shows: id, title, status, created_at)
postgresai issues view <issueId>                        # View issue details and comments
postgresai issues post_comment <issueId> <content>      # Post a comment to an issue
# Options:
#   --parent <uuid>  Parent comment ID (for replies)
#   --debug          Enable debug output
#   --json           Output raw JSON (overrides default YAML)

Output format for issues commands

By default, issues commands print human-friendly YAML when writing to a terminal. For scripting, you can:

  • Use --json to force JSON output:
postgresai issues list --json | jq '.[] | {id, title}'
  • Rely on auto-detection: when stdout is not a TTY (e.g., piped or redirected), output is JSON automatically:
postgresai issues view <issueId> > issue.json

Grafana management

postgresai mon generate-grafana-password      # Generate new Grafana password
postgresai mon show-grafana-credentials       # Show Grafana credentials

Authentication and API key management

postgresai auth                    # Authenticate via browser (OAuth)
postgresai auth --set-key <key>    # Store API key directly
postgresai show-key                # Show stored key (masked)
postgresai remove-key              # Remove stored key

Configuration

The CLI stores configuration in ~/.config/postgresai/config.json including:

  • API key
  • Base URL
  • Organization ID

Configuration priority

API key resolution order:

  1. Command line option (--api-key)
  2. Environment variable (PGAI_API_KEY)
  3. User config file (~/.config/postgresai/config.json)
  4. Legacy project config (.pgwatch-config)

Base URL resolution order:

  • API base URL (apiBaseUrl):
    1. Command line option (--api-base-url)
    2. Environment variable (PGAI_API_BASE_URL)
    3. User config file baseUrl (~/.config/postgresai/config.json)
    4. Default: https://postgres.ai/api/general/
  • UI base URL (uiBaseUrl):
    1. Command line option (--ui-base-url)
    2. Environment variable (PGAI_UI_BASE_URL)
    3. Default: https://console.postgres.ai

Normalization:

  • A single trailing / is removed to ensure consistent path joining.

Environment variables

  • PGAI_API_KEY - API key for PostgresAI services
  • PGAI_API_BASE_URL - API endpoint for backend RPC (default: https://postgres.ai/api/general/)
  • PGAI_UI_BASE_URL - UI endpoint for browser routes (default: https://console.postgres.ai)

CLI options

  • --api-base-url <url> - overrides PGAI_API_BASE_URL
  • --ui-base-url <url> - overrides PGAI_UI_BASE_URL

Examples

For production (uses default URLs):

# Production auth - uses console.postgres.ai by default
postgresai auth --debug

For staging/development environments:

# Linux/macOS (bash/zsh)
export PGAI_API_BASE_URL=https://v2.postgres.ai/api/general/
export PGAI_UI_BASE_URL=https://console-dev.postgres.ai
postgresai auth --debug
# Windows PowerShell
$env:PGAI_API_BASE_URL = "https://v2.postgres.ai/api/general/"
$env:PGAI_UI_BASE_URL = "https://console-dev.postgres.ai"
postgresai auth --debug

Via CLI options (overrides env):

postgresai auth --debug \
  --api-base-url https://v2.postgres.ai/api/general/ \
  --ui-base-url https://console-dev.postgres.ai

Requirements

  • Node.js 18 or higher
  • Docker and Docker Compose

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