otx compose

Compose a new system design from inventory items.

Synopsis

otx compose --output <name> [selection options] [options]

Options

Option	Default	Description
--output, -o	(required)	Output name — used in file paths and the job header
--items, -i		Comma-separated item IDs (GUID) or exact item names
--category, -c		Include all items in this category
--project, -p		Include all items from this project
--description		What the target system should be and do
--environment		Where it runs (cloud, browser, embedded, mobile, …)
--technology		Tech stack / language / framework
--orchestrator	from settings	ClaudeCode | OpenAI | Ollama
--api-key	OPENAI_API_KEY env	OpenAI API key (never saved to disk)
--endpoint	from settings	Custom OpenAI-compatible base URL
--model	from settings	Model override
--max-tokens	8192	Max output tokens
--timeout	from settings	HTTP timeout in minutes
--ethos	from settings	Coding style / standards injected as a top-level instruction. Overrides the saved user ethos for this run.

At least one of --items, --category, or --project is required.

Examples

# Compose from specific named items
otx compose --output my-gateway \
  --items "Token Bucket Rate Limiter,Circuit Breaker Pattern" \
  --description "A resilient API gateway" \
  --technology "Go, gRPC" \
  --environment "Kubernetes"

# All algorithms from a project
otx compose --output algo-review --project my-project --category Algorithm

# Everything from a project
otx compose --output full-design --project my-project

# Mix item selection methods
otx compose --output hybrid \
  --project trading-engine \
  --category Algorithm \
  --items "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001"

# Per-run ethos override
otx compose --output strict-design --items "..." \
  --ethos "All APIs documented with OpenAPI. Errors use RFC 7807 problem details."

Output

Results are saved to Output/Composition/<name>/compose-output.md.

User Ethos

Set a persistent ethos applied to every compose run via otx settings --user-ethos "...". Override it per-run with --ethos. Pass an empty string to otx settings --user-ethos "" to clear it.