Surfaces, approvals, and transfer

The TUI is the daily path. Two other surfaces matter when you script or switch tools.

Headless

elph run "write a test"
elph run --mode=plan "design the auth boundary"
elph run --output=json "summarize this diff"

Formats: plain, pretty, json, stream-json, and Anthropic-style stream-message-json. Use -c to continue the last session for the current project, or -r <id> to resume a specific one.

Plan vs Build

Plan mode designs and asks. Approved plans land in .elph/plans/ before the full tool surface returns. Risky shell and file actions stay visible; they are not a hidden black box.

Editors

elph acp --stdio speaks ACP v1. Add --experimental for v2. Auth methods, session load, and tool updates follow the protocol; privileged methods require credentials.

Transfer

elph import reads Claude Code and Codex transcripts as inert context. Foreign tool calls are not executed. Use it when you are moving a conversation into Elph, not when you want another agent to keep running commands.

WASM extensions (elph extensions) and MCP (elph mcp) stay behind those same approval and trust boundaries.