Coding agents - Soma

A coding agent with Soma can implement according to the spec, check a design against a standard, or fill a requirements matrix from your documents, citing where each answer comes from. Two options, both acting as you:

	Best for
The CLI	Any agent that can run shell commands. Short commands, JSON output.
MCP	Agents with MCP support; tools appear natively. See Connect an AI app.

With the CLI

Install the CLI and sign in once (soma). Then tell your agent it can use it, for example in CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md:

## Company knowledge
Use the `soma` CLI to look up our specs and standards (workspace "Pump study"):
- `soma ask "<question>" -w "Pump study" --json`: an answer with cited sources
- `soma search "<query>" -w "Pump study" --json`: the most relevant passages
- `soma docs -w "Pump study" --json` then `soma read <id> --json`: a whole document (tables included)
Cite the sources Soma returns.

What makes the CLI agent-friendly:

--json prints the API’s JSON on stdout; progress goes to stderr.
No prompt and no browser when there is no terminal.
Exit codes: 0 ok, 1 failed, 2 bad usage, 3 sign-in needed.

In CI and on servers

Where nobody can sign in, use an API key (Soma → Account settings → API keys, read-only):

export SOMA_HOST=https://staging.soma.evarist.com
export SOMA_TOKEN=scribe_mcp_…
export SOMA_WORKSPACE="Pump study"
soma search "maximum allowable working pressure" --json