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The aetower command line tool

aetower talks to a running Aetower.app over its local MCP socket and prints live system state: friction, energy, storage, and repositories. It reads the exact same engine the app renders — no second collector, no separate daemon.

$ aetower top
ENTITY                  FRICTION  CPU%      MEM
Chrome · 48 procs             72   119   1.2 GB
Ollama · GPU x                58    12   9.1 GB
Claude Code · repo x          14     8   340 MB

Add --json to any command for machine-readable output, or --watch <secs> to refresh read commands until interrupted.

Commands

• aetower top — loudest entities right now (friction, CPU, memory)
• aetower findings — the recommendation feed: what's straining the machine and what to do
• aetower alerts — active alerts
• aetower host — host summary: CPU, memory, wakeups, energy, thermal
• aetower storage — storage pressure and reclaim opportunities
• aetower repos — repository health: git state, agent-contract readiness, clones
• aetower tab <slug> — switch the app's visible tab (aetower tab system, aetower tab activity/timeline)
• aetower doctor — self-check: reachability, capabilities, engine health
• aetower tools — list every MCP tool the running app exposes
• aetower call <tool> — call any MCP tool directly and print its JSON payload
• aetower install / aetower uninstall — manage the /usr/local/bin symlink
• aetower completions — shell completion scripts (zsh, bash, fish, …)
• aetower man — the man page

Options

• --json — emit the raw structured JSON payload instead of a formatted view
• --socket <PATH> — override the MCP socket path (default: ~/.aetower/mcp.sock)
• --watch <SECS> — refresh every SECS seconds until interrupted (read verbs only)

Installation

The CLI ships inside the app bundle, so it arrives through every install channel:

• Installer package (.pkg) — symlinks aetower onto your PATH automatically.
• Homebrew tap — brew tap aeptus/aetower && brew install --cask aetower links the command into Homebrew's bin directory.
• DMG / ZIP — add it from Settings → AI Clients ("Install Command Line Tool") or run the bundled helper once: /Applications/Aetower.app/Contents/Helpers/aetower install.

Driving the UI from scripts

Every workspace tab is addressable without Accessibility trust or synthetic clicks:

aetower tab storage
open "aetower://tab/activity/timeline"
aetower tab system --default   # also persist as the startup tab

Slugs: monitor, activity, storage, repos, projects, agents, system, settings — with sub-tabs like activity/timeline and system/diagnostics.

Exit codes and pipelines

Commands exit non-zero when the app is unreachable or the query fails, so aetower doctor && aetower top --json | jq ... composes the way you'd expect. If Aetower isn't running, the CLI says so and exits instead of starting a second engine.

Questions this page answers

How do I see what's straining my Mac from the terminal?

Run aetower top for the loudest entities by friction, or aetower findings for the recommendation feed. The app must be running.

How do I get machine-readable output from aetower?

Add --json to any command; exit codes are scriptable, so it composes with jq and pipelines.

How do I install the aetower command?

The installer package links it onto your PATH automatically; the Homebrew tap declares it as a binary; DMG/ZIP installs add it from Settings → AI Clients or with aetower install.

Can I switch Aetower's tabs from a script?

Yes: aetower tab <slug> (or the aetower://tab/<slug> URL scheme) switches the visible workspace without Accessibility trust or synthetic clicks.