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The CLI ships with a handful of diagnostic flags that are available on every command. They are the fastest way to understand what the CLI is about to send, why a request failed, or what your credentials look like to the gateway.

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Preview a request with --dry-run

Print the request that would be sent without contacting the API: 
mka1 llm responses create \
  --model auto \
  --input '"Summarize the day."' \
  --dry-run
Dry-run output is written to stderr and includes:
  • HTTP method and URL.
  • Request headers (sensitive values redacted).
  • A preview of the request body (sensitive fields redacted).
The command exits successfully without executing. Use it to sanity-check how flags, --body, and stdin combine into the final body, and to verify which headers are attached before running for real.

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Trace live traffic with --debug

Run the command normally and log the full request / response exchange to stderr: 
mka1 llm responses create \
  --model auto \
  --input '"Summarize the day."' \
  --debug
Debug output includes:
  • Request method, URL, headers, and body preview.
  • Response status, headers, and body preview.
  • Transport errors (DNS, TLS, timeouts, and so on).
Your regular stdout is untouched, so you can combine --debug with --output-format json or a --jq filter without the two streams colliding: 
mka1 llm models list --debug --jq '.data[].id' 2> debug.log
If you pass both --dry-run and --debug, --dry-run wins and no network call is made.

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Redaction in diagnostic output

The CLI redacts secrets it can detect before printing:
  • Headers — Authorization, Cookie, Set-Cookie, X-API-Key, and other security headers are shown as [REDACTED].
  • Body — JSON fields named password, secret, token, api_key, client_secret, and similar are shown as [REDACTED].
Treat diagnostic output as operational data anyway — it still reveals request URLs, resource IDs, and other context a third party should not see.

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Explore the command tree

Launch the interactive terminal UI to browse every command group and execute one without leaving the shell: 
mka1 explore
Use it when you are not sure which subcommand to reach for or which flags a command accepts. You can filter, inspect descriptions, and jump straight into execution. When you want a non-interactive alternative, mka1 --usage prints the full command schema in KDL so you can machine-process it.

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Agent mode

--agent-mode changes the CLI’s defaults to be friendlier to AI coding tools:
  • Errors are returned as structured objects instead of free-form prose.
  • The default output format becomes toon (compact, token-efficient).
The flag is auto-enabled when the CLI detects a known agent environment — for example, when CLAUDE_CODE or CURSOR_AGENT is set. Pass --agent-mode=false to opt out, or set it explicitly to force it on in unknown environments: 
mka1 llm models list --agent-mode

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Timeouts, custom servers, and extra headers

A few more inherited flags are worth knowing about:
  • --timeout 30s — cap the HTTP request duration. Accepts ms, s, or m suffixes.
  • --server-url https://custom-api.example.com — override the base URL entirely.
  • --server <name|index> — pick a named or indexed server from the CLI’s built-in list.
  • -H 'Header-Name: value' — attach an arbitrary header. Repeatable.
  • --no-interactive — disable every interactive prompt (auto-prompting, explorer auto-launch, TUI forms). Use this in CI.
mka1 llm models list \
  --server-url https://custom-api.example.com \
  --timeout 10s \
  -H 'X-Request-Id: audit-42' \
  --no-interactive

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Troubleshooting recipe

When a command behaves unexpectedly, this order usually gets you to the answer fastest:
  1. Run with --dry-run to confirm the URL, headers, and body.
  2. Run mka1 auth whoami to confirm which credential is in effect and where it came from.
  3. Re-run with --debug 2> debug.log to capture the full request and response.
  4. If the response is non-obvious, re-run with --include-headers --output-format json --jq '.' so the full payload and headers are printed together.