Configuration & Updates

Three commands manage the CLI itself rather than any Gene: rotifer config for global settings, rotifer self-update for staying current, and rotifer telemetry for the anonymous usage heartbeat.

rotifer config

Read and write global Rotifer configuration. Settings are stored per-user and apply to every project on the machine.

rotifer config <subcommand>

rotifer config list

Show every configuration value currently set.

rotifer config list

Configuration
───────────────
update-check: true

rotifer config get

Read a single value.

rotifer config get <key>

Argument	Required	Description
`key`	Yes	Configuration key to read

rotifer config get update-check

rotifer config set

Write a single value.

rotifer config set <key> <value>

Argument	Required	Description
`key`	Yes	Configuration key to write
`value`	Yes	New value

rotifer config set update-check false

Keys

Key	Meaning
`update-check`	Whether the CLI checks for a newer release in the background. Set to `false` to disable the check entirely — useful on CI or offline machines.
`last-version`	The version last seen by the update check. Maintained by the CLI; you rarely set this by hand.
`default-publish`	Default target used by `rotifer publish` when none is given.

rotifer self-update

Check whether a newer Rotifer release is available and upgrade to it.

rotifer self-update [options]

Options:

Flag	Description
`--rollback`	Return to the previously installed version instead of upgrading. Use this if an upgrade turns out to break something.

# Check and upgrade
rotifer self-update

# Undo the last upgrade
rotifer self-update --rollback

rotifer telemetry

Show or change the anonymous usage heartbeat.

rotifer telemetry [status|on|off]

Command	What it does
`rotifer telemetry status`	Show whether the heartbeat is on, and why. Plain `rotifer telemetry` does the same.
`rotifer telemetry on`	Turn the heartbeat on.
`rotifer telemetry off`	Turn telemetry off: the heartbeat and, when you are signed in, the invocation report. Nothing is sent afterwards, not even an opted-out notice.

What is sent: a random machine ID, the channel (cli), the CLI version, and a count of one. No code, no gene names, no account. The heartbeat is on by default; the first time it is sent, the CLI prints a one-line notice on stderr saying so and how to turn it off.

Where your choice is stored: ~/.rotifer/telemetry.json, readable only by your user.

What overrides it: environment variables in the current shell beat the stored choice.

DO_NOT_TRACK=1 turns it off, and wins over everything else.
ROTIFER_TELEMETRY=0 (or false, off) turns it off. Any other non-empty value turns it on, even if you stored off.

When you are signed in, the CLI also reports each gene invocation, and so does the MCP server. Every switch above stops that report too: rotifer telemetry off, ROTIFER_TELEMETRY=0 and DO_NOT_TRACK=1 each stop both the heartbeat and the invocation report, in the CLI and in the MCP server, which read the same ~/.rotifer/telemetry.json. In CLI 0.30.1 and MCP server 0.19.4 and earlier, rotifer telemetry off stopped only the heartbeat; set one of the environment variables there.

Example:

$ rotifer telemetry status
  Telemetry
  ───────────
  Anonymous heartbeat: on
  Reason: on — default (ADR-329); nobody has chosen otherwise yet
  Machine ID: 3f1c2b7e-…

ℹ `rotifer telemetry off` / ROTIFER_TELEMETRY=0 / DO_NOT_TRACK=1 all disable it.

$ rotifer telemetry off
  Anonymous usage heartbeat: off
  Nothing is sent — not even an opted-out notice.

status names one of five reasons: the environment turned it off, the environment turned it on, your stored choice (off or on), or the default.