CLI Lab

The elmo lab commands give you most of Elmo's intelligence in a one-off, no-database capacity. They reuse the providers and API keys you already configured with elmo init (read from ~/.elmo/.env), so you can generate tracking prompts, evaluate them across models, and get AEO recommendations without standing up the full stack.

The three commands are designed to be run in sequence:

Run elmo init once to configure providers and write ~/.elmo/.env. The lab commands read that file for provider keys and your SCRAPE_TARGETS. If you keep config elsewhere, point any command at it with --dir <path>, or just export the keys (OPENAI_API_KEY, BRIGHTDATA_API_TOKEN, SCRAPE_TARGETS, …) in your shell.

eval judges brand and competitor mentions with Jev, the same model scheduled tracking uses, so its mention rates and share of voice match what Elmo reports. It needs TYPESAFE_API_KEY, or OPENROUTER_API_KEY to call Jev through OpenRouter, whenever you give it a brand. elmo init already sets one of these up for the worker.

Every command targets models with the same model:provider[:version][:online] nomenclature used by SCRAPE_TARGETS:

By default every command writes its artifacts to the current directory and prints a short summary to stdout. Point somewhere else with -o <dir>, or pass --stdout to skip files and emit only to stdout (handy for piping).

Structured data is written as --format csv (default) or --format jsonl; model responses are written as Markdown; and the brand pack is always brand.json.

brand.json is the artifact that ties the commands together. brainstorm and plan produce it (brand name, aliases, domains, competitors, prompts); eval consumes it with --brand-file to get the brand and competitor context it needs for mentions and share-of-voice.

Generate a set of AI tracking prompts (mostly unbranded category/persona queries) and the brand's direct competitors:

Writes brand.json, prompts.csv, and competitors.csv to ./nike.

Run each prompt N times against each target and capture everything:

Prompts can come from --brand-file, positional arguments, repeated --prompt, a --prompts-file (one per line), or stdin (-). Brand/competitor context for mentions can come from the brand pack or from --brand, --brand-domain, --alias, and repeatable --competitor name:domain flags.

The output directory contains:

index.html is a single self-contained file (no server, no internet) — open it in a browser to read every rendered response with its mention badges, citations, and fan-out queries, filterable by prompt or model.

Turn your own content (and, optionally, a prior eval) into a prioritized set of AEO recommendations:

plan reads the files/directories you pass (plus an optional --website excerpt and --eval-dir to ground the advice in real results), then writes plan.md, suggestions.csv, a refreshed competitors.csv, and an augmented brand.json. Because it also surfaces competitors, its brand.json can feed straight back into eval.