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lore demo

Interactive demonstration of the Lore workflow — safe, no setup required.

Synopsis

lore demo

What Does This Do?

Runs a guided ~45-second simulation of the complete documentation flow: commit → questions → document → retrieval. A real file is created and marked as "demo" for easy cleanup.

Analogy: Like a test drive — you experience the full thing without buying. lore demo shows Lore's complete workflow with no commitment.

Real World Scenario

Your tech lead is skeptical about "yet another tool." You have 45 seconds to convince them:

lore demo

They see the full flow — commit, questions, document, retrieval. No setup, no risk, no files modified (except one demo doc in .lore/docs/).

Flags

This command takes no flags. It runs interactively and requires .lore/ to be initialized.

What Happens Step by Step

sequenceDiagram
    participant U as You
    participant L as Lore

    U->>L: lore demo
    L->>U: "Interactive demo ~45s. Press Enter to begin."
    U->>L: [Enter]
    L->>U: 1. ASCII logo wordmark
    L->>U: 2. Simulated commit message
    L->>U: 3. Question: Type? → feature
    L->>U: 4. Question: What? → (pre-filled)
    L->>U: 5. Question: Why? → (example answer)
    L->>U: 6. Document created in .lore/docs/
    L->>U: 7. Simulated "lore show" output
    L->>U: 8. Tagline: "Your code knows what. Lore knows why."

Details

  1. Consent — Displays "~45 seconds" and waits for Enter. No surprises.
  2. Logo — ASCII wordmark (Unicode or ASCII fallback based on terminal)
  3. Simulated commit — A sample commit message appears
  4. Question flow — Type, What, Why — with realistic pauses between each
  5. Document created — A real file in .lore/docs/ with status: "demo" in front matter
  6. lore show — Simulates retrieving the document you just created
  7. Tagline — EN: "Your code knows what. Lore knows why." / FR: "Votre code sait quoi. Lore sait pourquoi."
  8. Next step — Suggests lore init if you want to continue

Each step pauses for ~800ms (respects Ctrl+C — you can exit anytime).

After the Demo

The demo creates a real document with status: "demo". It's excluded from coverage metrics and can be deleted without confirmation:

# See the demo document
lore list
# → demo  example-demo-2026-03-16.md  2026-03-16

# Delete it (no confirmation needed for demo docs)
lore delete example-demo-2026-03-16.md

# Or just leave it — it doesn't affect your metrics

Bilingual

The demo adapts to your language setting:

Language Tagline
EN "Your code knows what. Lore knows why."
FR "Votre code sait quoi. Lore sait pourquoi." + "L'or de vos décisions techniques." (dim)

The French version adds the "L'or" wordplay as a subtle second line — a brand easter egg that francophones naturally discover.

Common Questions

"Does it modify my repo?"

Only .lore/docs/ — one demo document is created. Your code, git history, and configuration are untouched. The document has status: "demo" and is excluded from metrics.

"Do I need to run lore init first?"

Yes — .lore/ must exist. If not initialized, the demo will tell you.

"Can I show this to someone over a screen share?"

That's exactly what it's for. 45 seconds, visual, self-explanatory. No slides needed.

Exit Codes

Code Meaning
0 Demo completed
1 Error (.lore/ not initialized)

Examples

# Run the demo (requires lore init first)
lore demo
# → Interactive demo ~45s. Press Enter to begin.
# → [Enter]
# → ... (logo, questions, document, show) ...
# → Your code knows what. Lore knows why.

# Clean up the demo document after
lore list --type demo
lore delete example-demo-2026-03-16.md
# → No confirmation needed for demo docs

Tips & Tricks

  • Convince your team: lore demo is the fastest way to show Lore to colleagues — 45 seconds, no slides.
  • Screen-sharing friendly: The pauses between steps are designed for live demonstrations.
  • Safe to re-run: Each run creates a new document. Old demo docs can be deleted without confirmation.
  • Demo docs do not count: Documents with status: "demo" are excluded from coverage metrics in lore status.

See Also