CLI Reference

May 18, 2026 - 2 minutes read - 304 words

CLI Reference

Complete reference for all SPECTRA commands and flags.

Global Usage

spectra [COMMAND] [OPTIONS] [INPUT]

Commands

`spectra analyze`

Analyze a scanner output file and produce ranked findings, attack chain analysis, and an executive summary.

spectra analyze [INPUT] [OPTIONS]

Arguments

Argument	Description
`INPUT`	Path to the scanner output file. Omit to read from stdin.

Options

Flag	Type	Default	Description
`--scanner`	string	auto	Force scanner type: `trivy`, `semgrep`, `generic`. Auto-detected from file structure when omitted.
`--format`	string	`markdown`	Output format: `markdown`, `json`, or `both`.
`--output`	string	`./spectra_report`	Output file path, without extension. SPECTRA appends `.md` and/or `.json` depending on `--format`.
`--usage`	flag	off	Print Anthropic API token usage stats after analysis. Useful for cost tracking.
`--model`	string	`claude-sonnet-4-6`	Claude model to use. See Configuration for supported models.
`--max-tokens`	int	4096	Maximum tokens for the AI response. Increase for very large scan files.
`--verbose`	flag	off	Enable verbose logging, including prompt and response details.

Examples

# Basic Trivy analysis, Markdown output
spectra analyze trivy.json

# Both output formats, custom output path
spectra analyze trivy.json --format both --output reports/infra-scan-2026-05

# Force generic scanner for pentest notes
spectra analyze pentest.txt --scanner generic --format markdown --output reports/pt

# Pipe Semgrep JSON from stdin
cat semgrep.json | spectra analyze --scanner semgrep --format json --output reports/pr-42

# Print token usage after analysis
spectra analyze trivy.json --format both --output reports/run1 --usage

`spectra --version`

Print the installed SPECTRA version.

spectra --version

`spectra --help`

Print usage information.

spectra --help
spectra analyze --help

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
`0`	Analysis completed successfully
`1`	General error (invalid input, missing API key, etc.)
`2`	API error (Anthropic rate limit, authentication failure)

Environment Variable Overrides

All --flag options can also be set via environment variables, which take lower precedence than CLI flags:

Environment Variable	Equivalent Flag
`SPECTRA_SCANNER`	`--scanner`
`SPECTRA_FORMAT`	`--format`
`SPECTRA_OUTPUT`	`--output`
`SPECTRA_MODEL`	`--model`
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	(required)

Next: Configuration →