acton help

Description

Show help for the Acton CLI.

Without an argument, acton help prints the root command overview.

For detailed manuals, prefer acton help <command> for top-level commands. Generated manuals document behavior, configuration, side effects, and examples in more detail than short flag help.

With a command name, Acton first tries to render a generated command manual from the bundled txt and man artifacts. If no generated manual exists, Acton falls back to clap long help for that subcommand.

As a practical rule:

use acton --help for the root overview
use acton help <command> for the long top-level manual
use nested clap help such as acton wallet list --help when you need the exact nested subcommand usage

Nested command paths such as wallet list are not currently accepted by acton help. In practice, top-level manuals such as acton help wallet and acton help library already include the nested subcommands under that command. Use clap help directly only when you need the exact nested help view, for example acton wallet list --help.

If the command name is unknown, Acton reports an error and may suggest a similar command name.

Options

Help Options

Top-level command to show help for.

Top-level manuals usually include summaries of nested subcommands.

Nested command paths are not currently supported.

Display Options

--color<when>

Control when to use colored output.

Possible values:

auto, always, never

Project Options

--manifest-path<path>

Pass-through:

Accepted as a global Acton option for CLI consistency.

This command does not require an existing project manifest for its primary workflow. It remains mutually exclusive with --project-root.

--project-root<path>

Pass-through:

Accepted as a global Acton option for CLI consistency.

This command does not require an existing project root for its primary workflow. It remains mutually exclusive with --manifest-path.

when output is a terminal, acton help <command> prefers rendering through man, then less, then more
when output is not a terminal, Acton writes the generated plain-text manual directly to standard output
piping or redirecting output disables pager rendering automatically
when no generated manual exists for a top-level command, Acton falls back to clap long help, which is typically shorter and flag-focused
acton help itself does not require a project to exist

Exit Status

0: Help was printed successfully.
1: The requested command was unknown or help rendering failed.

Examples

Show the root command overview:
```
acton help
```
Show the generated manual for build:
```
acton help build
```
Inspect nested wallet subcommands through the top-level manual:
```
acton help wallet
```
Show the exact clap help for a nested subcommand:
```
acton wallet list --help
```
Show help for an unknown command:
```
acton help not-a-command
```
Search within a manual without invoking the pager:
```
acton help build | rg "EXIT STATUS|EXAMPLES"
```