CLI and MCP reference

Use the CLI walkthrough or MCP setup for the working path. This page supplies the exact vocabulary the installed command exposes. Publication goes to a separate report server.

CLI command and flag reference

richview

Rich Markdown: render, check and publish reports from your agent

richview generate

Write the self-contained report, or a PDF, into the report folder’s Rendered/

richview validate

Check the structure of a report without rendering it

richview check

Render the report and return every diagnostic and each chart’s geometry

richview init

Start a report folder from the template, never overwriting

richview learn

Print the authoring guide, or one section of it

richview mcp

Serve the RichView tools to an agent over MCP (stdio)

richview publish

Publish a version of the report to a RichView server

richview serve

Preview the report in a browser and reload it when the folder changes

richview report

Delete, pin, unpin or regenerate a stored report on a server

richview report delete

Delete a version for good; its address answers 410 and it can never be published again

richview report pin

Make a version the one the report address serves

richview report unpin

Serve the highest release version again

richview report regenerate

Re-render a stored version with this engine and say whether the HTML changes; stores nothing

richview server

Run RichView Cowork, the report server

richview asset

Upload, verify and abort integrity-pinned remote data and media

richview asset put

Upload a data or media file and print its integrity-pinned reference

richview asset verify

Check stored objects against reference files (YAML or JSON)

richview asset abort

Abort journaled multipart uploads (all, or those whose SHA-256 starts with a prefix)

richview image

Search Unsplash and place a credited photo in a report

richview image search

Search Unsplash and list candidate photos (does not register a download)

richview image use

Choose a photo: register the download once and print the YAML with its credit

MCP over standard input/output

Configure a stdio server with the absolute executable path and the argument mcp. Standard output carries newline-framed JSON-RPC replies. MCP setup explains configuration and an example render request.

richview_learn

Returns RichView’s authoring guide, or one section of it. Call this first. Same text as richview learn.

richview_validate

Checks a report’s structure and files without rendering it. With publish: true it adds the publish rules. Same result as richview validate.

richview_check

Renders the saved report and checks provenance and chart geometry: clipping, collisions and dropped labels. Read structuredContent.status and diagnostics, repair warnings/errors, and check again after the final edit. A report finding returns isError: false; status: clean means no warnings or errors. Same result as richview check.

richview_render

Writes the self-contained HTML report, or a PDF printed by a local Chromium-family browser, into the report folder’s Rendered/. Run richview_check after the final source edit for geometry and provenance findings before generating. Its result has ok, status, output (the file written) and the render diagnostics. Same result as richview generate.

richview_publish

Publishes a version of the report to the named RichView server. The token comes from the host environment (RICHVIEW_TOKEN), never from arguments. Same result as richview publish.

richview_asset_put

Upload a local data or media file to a configured S3-compatible store and return its integrity-pinned reference {url, bytes, sha256, type, visibility}. Private unless public is true. Calling again resumes an interrupted upload or reports the stored object. Progress notifications follow the request’s progressToken.

richview_asset_verify

Check a stored object against its reference: HEAD status, size, type and range support; with hash, stream the object and compare its SHA-256. Private references need store.

richview_image_search

Search Unsplash for photos. Returns candidates {id, description, author, author_url, width, height, color, thumb, regular, unsplash_url}. Show the user the photographer for each candidate and let them choose; searching does not register a download. Needs UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY in the server environment.

richview_image_use

Use a chosen Unsplash photo: registers the download with Unsplash once (as the API guidelines require) and returns ready-to-paste YAML in yaml, an image block or a title_image frontmatter mapping, with a hotlinked src, width, height, the photo’s dominant color (#rrggbb, omitted if the API gives none) and a visible credit (Photo by <name> on Unsplash). Reports may hotlink only credited images.unsplash.com photos. Paste the YAML into the .rmd unchanged and never download or rehost the image. Call it only for a photo that will appear in the report, once per photo. If it fails during download tracking it returns an error without YAML; retrying is safe but may count the download twice.

Results and diagnostics

Report operations carry ok, status, output and diagnostics; MCP exposes that JSON in structuredContent. status: clean means no warnings or errors. ok: true means no errors, so read diagnostics even after a successful operation. isError describes whether an MCP tool could execute. Lines and columns start at 1; a diagnostic’s file names the data or style file when applicable, otherwise its location is in the .rmd.

learn prints text. serve, server and mcp remain running until stopped. asset and image have their own result objects and transfer exit codes. Diagnostics and repair explains recovery; data and storage describes asset transfer results.

Use the VS Code extension

The extension is not on the Visual Studio Marketplace yet. Read the VS Code guide for its native service, trusted workspace, preview, completion, formatting, export and publishing settings.

A render tool call

MCP clients construct this request from an ordinary instruction to render a saved report:

{"name":"richview_render","arguments":{"inputPath":"/absolute/path/to/first-report/report.rmd"}}