Reference

CLI commands, management API, configuration, and slice API.

CLI Tools

Tool	Purpose
`aether`	Cluster management CLI — 60+ commands, batch and REPL modes
`aether-node`	Run a cluster node
`aether-forge`	Local cluster simulator with visual dashboard
`jbct`	Code validation, formatting, project scaffolding

CLI Command Groups

Group	Commands
`status`	Cluster status, leader, node count, health
`nodes`	List nodes, roles, states
`slices`	Cluster-wide and per-node slice listing
`routes`	HTTP routes, cluster-wide and per-node
`metrics`	System metrics, historical queries (5m/15m/1h/2h)
`health`	Cluster health score, component status
`scale`	Manual scaling, instance count adjustment
`deploy`	Blueprint deployment with strategy selection
`artifact`	Upload, list, inspect artifacts
`blueprint`	List, inspect, delete blueprints
`config`	View and update runtime configuration
`logging`	Dynamic log level management
`events`	Cluster event history and streaming
`node`	Drain, activate, shutdown individual nodes
`cluster`	Bootstrap, scale, upgrade cluster
`observability`	Enable/disable tracing and metrics per method
`alerts`	Active and historical alerts
`thresholds`	Warning/critical threshold configuration
`backup`	Trigger, list, restore cluster backups
`schema`	Migration status, manual retry
`node-slices`	Per-node slice listing
`node-routes`	Per-node route listing
`invocation-metrics`	Per-method P50/P95/P99 latency
`controller`	Scaling controller configuration
`scheduled-tasks`	List, pause, resume, trigger scheduled tasks
`topology`	Compile-time data-flow graph
`workers`	Worker pool management and health
`stream`	Stream management, consumer groups, lag
`storage`	AHSE storage management
`cert`	Certificate operations
`ab-test`	A/B test management

Authentication

# Via flag
aether --api-key mykey123 status

# Via environment
export AETHER_API_KEY=mykey123
aether status

Management API

60+ REST endpoints across 13 route classes. All endpoints accept JSON and return JSON. The table below shows key endpoints — see the full API in the management API reference.

Endpoint	Method	Description
`/api/status`	GET	Cluster status
`/api/health`	GET	Health check (liveness/readiness)
`/api/nodes`	GET	List cluster nodes
`/api/slices`	GET	List deployed slices
`/api/routes`	GET	List HTTP routes
`/api/scale`	POST	Manual scaling
`/api/deploy`	POST	Deploy blueprint
`/api/blueprint/publish`	POST	Publish blueprint artifact
`/api/metrics`	GET	System and invocation metrics
`/api/events`	GET	Cluster events
`/api/config`	GET/PUT	Runtime configuration
`/api/topology`	GET	Compile-time data-flow graph
`/metrics`	GET	Prometheus scrape endpoint

WebSocket Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
`/ws/dashboard`	Live metrics stream
`/ws/status`	Cluster state changes
`/ws/events`	Real-time cluster events with delta broadcasting

Default Ports

Port	Purpose	Notes
8070+	App HTTP (per node)	8070, 8071, 8072... Configurable
5150	Management API	Configurable
8888	Dashboard (Forge)	Configurable
8080	Passive Load Balancer	Configurable
4000+	Cluster transport (consensus, QUIC)	Configurable
4001+	SWIM failure detection	Auto-derived (cluster port + 1)

Slice API

Built-In Annotations

Annotation	Target	Purpose
`@Slice`	Interface (TYPE)	Marks a service interface for annotation processing
`@ResourceQualifier`	Annotation (ANNOTATION_TYPE)	Meta-annotation for defining custom resource qualifiers
`@PgSql`	Parameter, Interface	PostgreSQL type-safe persistence (Aether Store)
`@Sql`	Parameter	Generic SQL connector (config: `"database"`)
`@Http`	Parameter	HTTP client (config: `"http"`)
`@Notify`	Parameter	Notification sender (config: `"notification"`)
`@ContentStoreQualifier`	Parameter	Content store access
`@PartitionKey`	Record component	Marks partition key field for stream routing

Custom Qualifier Patterns

These are defined per-project using @ResourceQualifier. The resource type and target determine the behavior:

Resource Type	Target	Purpose
`Subscriber.class`	METHOD	Pub-sub topic subscription
`Scheduled.class`	METHOD	Scheduled task (cron/interval configured in TOML)
`StreamPublisher.class`	PARAMETER	Stream publishing
`StreamSubscriber.class`	METHOD	Stream push-based consumption
`StreamAccess.class`	PARAMETER	Stream pull-based access
`PgNotificationSubscriber.class`	METHOD	PostgreSQL LISTEN/NOTIFY
`ConfigurationSection.class`	PARAMETER, METHOD	Typed config injection + runtime update notification
`MethodInterceptor.class`	METHOD	Method-level interceptors (retry, circuit breaker)

Core Types

Type	Purpose
`Promise<T>`	Asynchronous computation result. All slice methods return this
`Result<T>`	Success or failure. Used for validation, parsing, error handling
`Option<T>`	Present or absent value. Replaces null
`Cause`	Sealed error interface. Replaces exceptions
`Unit`	Void replacement for `Promise<Unit>`

Configuration

Aether is configured via aether.toml. Key sections:

Section	Purpose
`[cluster]`	Cluster name, peer addresses, ports
`[server]`	HTTP server port, worker threads
`[app-http]`	Application HTTP server, API keys, RBAC
`[database.*]`	Database connections
`[http.*]`	HTTP client configurations
`[cloud]`	Cloud provider settings
`[timeouts.*]`	13 subsystem-specific timeout groups
`[storage]`	AHSE tier configuration (memory/disk/S3)
`[app.*]`	Application configuration (merged with slice defaults)
`[endpoints.*]`	Infrastructure endpoint definitions

Environment Variables

Variables with AETHER_ prefix are imported automatically. Converted from SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to dot.notation.lowercase:

Environment Variable	Config Key
`AETHER_DATABASE_HOST`	`database.host`
`AETHER_SERVER_PORT`	`server.port`
`AETHER_CLUSTER_SECRET`	`cluster.secret`

For complete configuration reference including all timeout groups, see configuration.md and timeout-configuration.md in the repository.