---
title: CLI troubleshooting
description: Recover from install, auth, scope, permission, and local MCP failures.
product: cli
lifecycle: stable
appliesTo: "@sift-wiki/cli@0.1.10"
sourceArtifact: "@sift-wiki/cli@0.1.10"
owner: CLI owner
raw: /raw/cli/troubleshooting.md
---

| Symptom                   | Check                                                | Recovery                                                                               |
| ------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `sift: command not found` | `npm config get prefix` and `node --version`         | Put the npm bin directory on `PATH`; reinstall with Node 20+.                          |
| Not signed in             | `sift auth status --json`                            | Run `sift login`; if the credential store is stale, log out and authenticate again.    |
| Wrong brain/workspace     | `sift scope current --json`                          | Select the intended scope before reading or writing.                                   |
| Permission denied         | Inspect required capability in the command reference | Ask a workspace owner for the narrow capability; do not bypass the refusal.            |
| Hosted API unavailable    | `sift doctor --json`                                 | Check network and environment; retry reads safely.                                     |
| Local MCP has no tools    | Run CLI directly, then restart client tool discovery | Confirm the client can find `sift` and inherits the intended credential-store session. |

Never print credential-store contents while debugging.