CLI Reference

cfweaver [<InputFileName>]
    [-o|--output <OutputFileName>]
    [-f|--format <OutputFormat>]
    [--check]
    [--self-contained]

Arguments

InputFileName

Required. The relative or absolute path to the input file containing the control flow state diagram. This file must exist.

Options

OutputFileName

Required unless --check is given. The relative or absolute path to the output file, or - to write the output to standard output. If the directory or file doesn't exist, CFWeaver creates them.

OutputFormat

Optional. The format to output: html, md or json. If unspecified, defaults to html. Every format includes each operation's description and its scenarios; the HTML and Markdown formats also include a diagram of each operation, with its return values drawn as end states. In the JSON output, each scenario's response is a number if the returned value is an integer, such as 404, and a string otherwise. Each operation also links to the sub-operations it calls and to the operations that call it; in the JSON output, these are its calls and calledBy lists. The HTML report includes its stylesheet, but loads the Mermaid library, which draws the diagrams, from a public CDN, so its diagrams need an internet connection unless --self-contained is given.

--check

Optional. Only checks that the model is well-formed, and writes no output even if an output path is given. If the model is well-formed, CFWeaver prints a summary with each operation's scenario count, and for a sub-operation, the operations that call it; otherwise it prints the errors. Warnings and exit codes are the same as for a normal run.

Warning 1001 (line 12 "* Notify: Sent => 204"): No path reaches this step.
Model is well-formed: 2 operations, 9 scenarios.
  Get an Item: 5 scenarios
  Delete an Item: 4 scenarios

A well-formed model isn't necessarily an accurate one: --check doesn't compare the model with the system it describes.

With -f json, --check prints a JSON report to standard output instead, including any errors and warnings and each operation's calledBy list, and writes nothing to standard error.

Each diagnostic's severity is error or warning. line and text give the line of the model it refers to, and are null for errors about the whole run, such as a missing input file.

--self-contained

Optional, and only for HTML output. Embeds the Mermaid library in the HTML report, so its diagrams display without an internet connection. This makes the report about 5.5 MB larger.

Examples

cfweaver input.md -o C:/CFWeaverOutput/output.html

cfweaver C:/CFWeaver/myApi.md -o output.md -f md

cfweaver myApi.md -o - -f json

cfweaver myApi.md --check

cfweaver myApi.md --check -f json

cfweaver myApi.md -o report.html --self-contained

Output, Errors and Exit Codes

Progress messages are written to standard output. When the output is written to standard output with -o -, the progress messages are left out, so standard output contains only the result.

Errors and warnings are written to standard error, except with --check -f json, which includes them in its report. The model's errors and warnings are described in Parser Errors; error 2 means the input file doesn't exist, error 3 means no output path was given, error 4 means --self-contained was given with a format other than HTML, and error 5 means cfweaver help was given a topic it doesn't have.

CFWeaver exits with code 0 when it writes the output, or when --check finds the model well-formed, even if there are warnings. It exits with code 1 when the input file doesn't exist, no output path was given, --self-contained was given without HTML output, or the model has errors, and in that case it writes no output.

Help and Version

cfweaver [-h|--help]

cfweaver help [<topic>]

cfweaver --version

--help, or running cfweaver with no arguments, lists the arguments and options and then prints a short guide to the model syntax with a worked example.

cfweaver help prints longer guides that are built into CFWeaver, so they're available without internet access. With no topic, it lists the topics:

• agents prints AI Agents, instructions for AI agents using CFWeaver.
• skill prints the same instructions as a SKILL.md file, for agents that support Agent Skills. Save it as SKILL.md in a folder named cfweaver in the agent's skills folder, such as .claude/skills/cfweaver/SKILL.md for Claude Code.
• recipes prints Modeling Recipes.
• errors prints Parser Errors, which describes every error and warning.
• An error or warning code, such as 309, prints just that entry from Parser Errors.

An unknown topic is error 5.

--version prints the version of CFWeaver. The JSON output and the --check -f json report record it in their generator field, and the HTML report in a generator meta tag.