The text form

What the command line offers for the text form of deep objects: compile a server, check the round trip on real objects and serve it as documents.

For deep objects, such as a test case with steps and actions, your AI can read and write a short text instead of many tool calls. That text is the text form. See Documents for how your AI uses it.

Here is a ticket with a comment, as text:

ticket T-1: Login broken
  status=closed labels=late
comment "Closed: fixed in 2.3"

The first line names the object: its type, its key and its title. The indented line holds its attributes. Each line under it is a child, here a comment.

What the command line gives you

One command reaches the text form: compile. There is no command to print or edit a single document by hand, and no command to turn the text form on for one type only: not yet. Your AI reads and writes documents through Delta MCP’s tools.

# see how a server reads as documents, and check the round trip: no change
mcpdelta compile tickets
# prefer one folder when picking the objects to check
mcpdelta compile tickets --in "Support"
# serve the server as documents when the round trip is exact
mcpdelta compile tickets --enable
# go back to serving it as programs
mcpdelta compile tickets --disable

Give the server first. It is a connector’s name, or the name of a server diagnose lists.

What compile shows

It lists the server’s tools, builds the model of its objects from their names and schemas, and prints it:

N tools · compiling…

<the model: one line per kind of object, indented by nesting>
single objects: …
catalogs: …
operations: …

Parity: N/N tools reachable — N by writing documents, N by read, N as is through op

Documents, on real objects (read → render → parse → plan: no call expected):
  ticket: N/N round-trip ✓ · 1 level(s) of lines: flat, intentions usually cost less

The parity line is the proof that no tool is lost. Each tool stays reachable: by writing documents, by a read, or as is through op.

The round trip is the check. For a few objects of each type, it reads the object, renders it as text, parses the text and plans the write. Writing it back unchanged must plan no call. A type that fails is listed with the difference, and is never used silently. After the report, you get an example document for each type that passes.

Each type gets a verdict. documents recommended means its objects have lines under lines, two levels or more. flat, intentions usually cost less means programs, which the command calls intentions, usually cost less.

Turn documents on or off

--enable serves the types that round-trip exactly on every object checked. The server must already be behind Delta MCP: run mcpdelta use first, or the command stops with exit code 64. A flat type is allowed but flagged, with a warning that programs usually cost less. If no type round-trips, the server stays on programs and the command exits with 5.

The change holds from the next conversation. --disable goes back. For a server with its own adapter, such as Cerberus, --enable changes nothing. It says the server is already served as documents, but this version serves such a server through programs by default. Turning its documents on: not yet.

Next: Documents, Shortcuts, or the Command line overview.

Updated 7 October 2026 Something missing or wrong? Open an issue