Examples & Tutorials

Hands-on walkthroughs showing Ciri in action across different domains and workflows.

First Session

The minimal path from install to first useful output.

# 1. Install
pip install ciri

# 2. Set your API key
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

# 3. Start
ciri

 ██████╗██╗██████╗ ██╗
██╔════╝██║██╔══██╗██║
██║     ██║██████╔╝██║
██║     ██║██╔══██╗██║
╚██████╗██║██║  ██║██║

Ciri  —  Your local AI copilot

✓ Playwright ready
✓ API configured (claude-sonnet-4-6)
✓ Database ready
✓ Ready

You > /new-thread

Then run /sync to let Ciri learn your workspace:

You > /sync
Ciri > Running workspace analysis...
       ✓ Scanned project structure
       ✓ Identified domain: SaaS B2B application
       ✓ Wrote .ciri/memory/AGENT.md
       ✓ Wrote .ciri/memory/architecture.md
       ✓ Registered 3 new skills from core harness
       Workspace sync complete.

Software Engineering

Review and Refactor a Module

You > Review @files:src/auth/service.py and suggest improvements

Ciri reads the file, analyzes it against your workspace conventions (from .ciri/memory/), and proposes specific changes with explanations.

Write and Run a Migration Script

You > Write a Python script to backfill the `created_at` column in the `users` table
      for all rows where it is NULL, using the value from `registration_date`

Ciri writes the script. Before executing it:

╭─────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│  ⚙️  execute_script                           │
│  Language: python                             │
│  Script: backfill_created_at.py              │
│  Dependencies: psycopg2-binary, python-dotenv│
│                                              │
│  [a] Approve  [e] Edit  [r] Reject           │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Inspect and approve. Ciri runs it in an isolated venv, streams output, and saves results.

Explain an Unfamiliar Codebase

You > I just joined this project. Walk me through the data flow from a user submitting
      a form on the frontend to the database write on the backend

Ciri uses the memory files (written by /sync) to give a contextual walkthrough, pointing to exact files and functions.

Marketing & Content

Draft a Q1 Investor Update

You > Draft the Q1 investor update based on the metrics in @files:reports/q1-metrics.xlsx
      and the product milestones in @files:docs/q1-milestones.md

Ciri reads both files, synthesizes the key highlights and narrative, and drafts a structured update email. Approve or ask for revisions.

Competitive Analysis

You > @subagents:web_researcher — Research our top 3 competitors (Notion, Linear, Asana)
      and give me a feature comparison table focused on AI features they've shipped in 2026

The web_researcher subagent crawls competitor sites, changelogs, and Product Hunt announcements, then returns a structured comparison.

Generate Brand Assets

If you have the canvas-design or brand-guidelines skill active:

You > Create a set of social media banner templates for our rebrand. Brand colors:
      #6B46C1 (purple), #0BC5EA (cyan). Font: Inter. Style: minimal, modern.

Document Processing

Extract Tables from a PDF Report

You > Extract all tables from @files:reports/annual-report-2025.pdf
      and save them as a single Excel file

Ciri uses the pdf skill with pdfplumber to extract tables and openpyxl to write the Excel file. You'll see an approval prompt before any file is written.

Merge and Reformat Word Documents

You > Merge all the proposal drafts in @folders:docs/proposals/ into one clean document.
      Standardize headings to Title Case and remove all tracked changes.

Ciri activates the docx skill, reads each file, merges them, and applies formatting. Writes the output to docs/proposals/merged-final.docx after your approval.

Create a Presentation from Notes

You > Turn @files:notes/strategy-notes.md into a 12-slide PowerPoint deck.
      Use our brand colors. Executive audience, no fluff.

The pptx skill handles layout, slide structure, and styling.

Research Workflows

Deep-Dive Research with Web Researcher

You > Research the current regulatory landscape for AI in the EU in 2026.
      I need: key regulations, enforcement actions, compliance requirements for B2B SaaS,
      and how our competitors are responding. Produce a 3-page report.

Ciri delegates to web_researcher, which:

Identifies authoritative sources (EU AI Act portal, enforcement bodies, legal blogs)
Crawls and extracts key sections
Synthesizes into a structured report
Saves the report to .ciri/research/eu-ai-regulation-2026.md

Market Analysis

You > Analyze the project management software market. Who are the top 10 players,
      what are their pricing models, and where are the underserved segments?

Workspace Self-Evolution

Build a Custom Skill

You > Build a skill for analyzing our weekly Salesforce CSV exports.
      It should extract pipeline health metrics and flag deals that
      haven't had activity in 14+ days.

Ciri delegates to skill_builder, which:

Analyzes the request and designs the playbook
Creates .ciri/skills/salesforce-pipeline/SKILL.md
Writes supporting reference files if needed

Once created, the skill is immediately available.

Create a Toolkit for an Internal API

You > Build a toolkit for our internal metrics API at https://metrics.internal/v2/
      It needs endpoints for: daily active users, revenue by segment, and churn rate.
      API key is in METRICS_API_KEY env var.

toolkit_builder scaffolds a FastMCP server, writes the connection code, and registers it in .ciri/toolkits/internal-metrics/.

Train Ciri on Your Domain

You > /sync

After any major project change — new module, rebrand, new workflow — run /sync. The Trainer Agent re-scans everything, updates memory files, and may propose new skills or toolkits that would help you.

Thread Management

Resume Yesterday's Work

ciri
You > /threads
> research-eu-ai-regs   (last: 2 hours ago)
  q1-report-draft       (last: yesterday)
  onboarding-review     (last: 3 days ago)

You > /switch-thread
Thread: research-eu-ai-regs
Ciri > Welcome back. We were working on the EU AI regulation report.
       The web_researcher had found 12 sources and completed sections 1-2.
       Want to continue with section 3 (compliance requirements)?

Parallel Workstreams

Use separate threads for separate tasks. Each thread maintains its own state, context, and tool call history:

# Terminal 1
ciri
You > /new-thread  # Work on marketing copy

# Terminal 2 (separate session)
ciri
You > /switch-thread  # Switch to technical thread

Keyboard Shortcuts in Action

Shortcut	What it does
`Alt+Enter`	New line without submitting (for multi-line prompts)
`↑` / `↓`	Scroll through prompt history
`Tab`	Trigger autocomplete (after `/` or `@trigger:`)
`Ctrl+C`	Cancel current response
`Ctrl+D`	Exit Ciri

Multi-line prompt example

You > Draft a performance review for Alex based on:
[Alt+Enter]
- Q4 metrics in @files:hr/alex-q4-metrics.csv
[Alt+Enter]
- Peer feedback in @files:hr/alex-360-feedback.md
[Alt+Enter]
Keep it constructive, specific, and under 400 words.
[Enter to submit]

First Session​

Software Engineering​

Review and Refactor a Module​

Write and Run a Migration Script​

Explain an Unfamiliar Codebase​

Marketing & Content​

Draft a Q1 Investor Update​

Competitive Analysis​

Generate Brand Assets​

Document Processing​

Extract Tables from a PDF Report​

Merge and Reformat Word Documents​

Create a Presentation from Notes​

Research Workflows​

Deep-Dive Research with Web Researcher​

Market Analysis​

Workspace Self-Evolution​

Build a Custom Skill​

Create a Toolkit for an Internal API​

Train Ciri on Your Domain​

Thread Management​

Resume Yesterday's Work​

Parallel Workstreams​

Keyboard Shortcuts in Action​

Multi-line prompt example​