Quickstart

This walks through the CLI end to end: a single lookup, a reachability check, one-shot template generation, then the full config-driven trial → integration → promotion workflow. See Installation first if you haven't installed parseforge yet.

The examples below use anthropic — swap in whichever provider you installed and set that provider's API key env var (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, ...).

1. Resolve a cli-name

Turn a raw CLI command into its canonical, indexed cli-name (SPEC §2). The first call for a given command hits the LLM; every later call for the same command is a free local cache hit:

parseforge name --vendor cisco --family catalyst9200 --os ios-xe --version 17.9.1 \
  show interface GE1.1 status

2. Check before you spend tokens

Validate a device connector or LLM provider is reachable before a real run:

parseforge check --connector netmiko --env cisco
parseforge check --provider anthropic

--env=<name> reads <NAME>_SANDBOX_HOST/USERNAME/PASSWORD/DEVICE_TYPE from the environment. Run check --connector netmiko with no --env or explicit --host/etc. and it prints what's needed instead of guessing.

3. Generate a template, no trial persisted

One-shot: sample → template → readable DSL → recognizers, with nothing written under trials/:

parseforge generate-template --sample-file sample.txt \
  --provider anthropic --api-key $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY --model claude-haiku-4-5-20251001

Add --out <dir> to also write template.textfsm/readable-dsl.txt/ recognizers.txt to disk. Already have a template and just want to inspect it? No LLM call needed:

parseforge canonical template.textfsm --sample sample.txt
parseforge readable template.textfsm --sample sample.txt
parseforge recognizers template.textfsm --sample sample.txt

4. Run the full pipeline: trial → integration → promotion

This is the persistent, evidence-accumulating workflow (SPEC §5) — the one you'd actually run against real devices over time.

Write a config file once:

parseforge init-trial-config --out trial.yaml

trial.yaml

vendor: cisco
family: catalyst9200
os: ios-xe
version: 17.9.1
connector: netmiko
host: 10.0.0.1
username: admin
password: secret
device_type: cisco_ios
provider: anthropic
api_key: sk-...
model: claude-haiku-4-5-20251001
commands:
  - show clock
  - show version
user: alice
workers: 1

Then run it, and promote whatever clears its match-rate gate:

parseforge trial --config trial.yaml
parseforge integration
parseforge promotion --user alice

• trial samples each command, generates a candidate template, and self-validates it — writing evidence under trials/. Repeat this any time new devices or commands come in; each run only adds evidence, it never discards prior trials.
• integration clusters every trial for a cli-name by the output-schema its records actually have, writing integration/reference-summary.json.
• promotion auto-promotes every group that clears its match-rate/sample-count gate into authoritative/; everything else is queued for human review. promotion always refreshes integration first, so running it alone after a trial is enough to pick up new evidence — a separate integration run is only useful if you want to inspect reference-summary.json without also promoting.

Next steps

• Full CLI reference and the config-file schemas: see the CLI Guide.
• The four providers with a non-standard auth shape: see Providers.
• Calling parseforge from Python instead of the CLI: see the Python API guide.
• Full design plan, storage tier layout, and open questions: SPEC.md.