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The s9 CLI

s9 is the command-line interface to the Edge Agent, the small, statically-linked, signed binary that runs System9 where a cell cannot always be reached: field devices, workstations, gateways, and tactical kits. Everything the Edge Agent does on a host, enrolling its identity, running the steady-state daemon, reasoning with the on-device agent, serving models, verifying couriered bundles, proving what it did, is driven through s9.

Direction: the operator's command surface for a device. Status: Live.

There are two command-line tools, and they drive different things
  • s9 drives an Edge Agent: a device binary. Enroll, chat, run a mission, verify a bundle, export an audit record. This page is about s9.
  • s9-admin drives a cell or a node: topology, replication, workspaces and the rest of the estate surface.

They are different programs, usually on different hosts. Commands are not interchangeable, and a runbook that mixes them without saying which is which is the most common source of confusion here.

Two ways to run it​

  • One-shot commands. s9 <command> does one thing, prints a result, and exits, enroll, ask the on-device agent a question, run a mission, verify a bundle, export an audit record. This is how an operator drives a device by hand and how scripts and CI use it.
  • The resident daemon. s9 run starts the steady-state loop: periodic heartbeats, local model serving, inbox watching, and (when armed) sensor capture and spooled-work forwarding. A host's init system supervises this for a permanently-deployed device.

Sovereign and air-gapped by construction​

The CLI is shaped for the deployment the product is built for, sovereign, on-premises, and frequently air-gapped:

  • Nothing requires a round trip to decide. Offline authorization, signature verification, and classification evaluate locally.
  • Every command that admits new material off removable media is a verified offline route. The apply-bundle / apply-object / apply family takes a signed bundle from a courier's disk, verifies it against trust roots the device already holds, and applies it with no network in the loop.
  • Work done while dark is spooled and rides home later when a link returns.

Where to find every command​

The full operator reference documents each command family in depth:

FamilyWhat you do
Enrollment & identityBring a device online, manage its cryptographic identity, tear it down
Daemon & fleet lifecycleRun the resident daemon; manage signed releases across a fleet
The on-device agentReason locally, run missions, wield tools, consume leased jobs
Local intelligence & extractionServe models, run federated cognition, extract from documents
Discovery, catalog & field manualsScan sources at the edge; admit catalog objects; carry standing orders
Governance, audit & telemetryProve what the device did; capture consent; control what leaves it

Start with the Edge command reference overview, or the operator runbook for the task-oriented, day-to-day view.