> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://zerv.wisl.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# zerv

> The zerv root command. Global flags, subcommands, and where AI agents find the docs.

```bash theme={null}
zerv [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>
```

zerv has four subcommands:

| Subcommand                     | Purpose                                                     |
| ------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| [`zerv version`](/cli/version) | Flexible, configurable version generation with full control |
| [`zerv flow`](/cli/flow)       | Opinionated, automated pre-release management from branches |
| [`zerv check`](/cli/check)     | Validate version strings against a format                   |
| [`zerv render`](/cli/render)   | Convert and re-render existing version strings              |

## Global options

| Option                 | Description                                                     |
| ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `-v, --verbose`        | Debug-level logs to stderr; `RUST_LOG` for fine-grained control |
| `--config-file <PATH>` | Read this config file instead of discovering `zerv.toml`        |
| `-V, --version`        | Print version                                                   |
| `-h, --help`           | Print help (long help includes examples)                        |

See the [config file](/concepts/config-file) page for `--config-file` semantics, including
the null-device escape hatch.

`-C, --directory <DIR>` (run against a different repository) is not a root flag. It is
available on the `version` and `flow` subcommands.

## Examples

```bash theme={null}
# Flow - branch-based versioning from git state
zerv flow

# Flow - use specific schema preset
zerv flow --schema standard

# Basic version generation from git
zerv version

# Generate PEP440 format with custom schema
zerv version --output-format pep440 --schema calver

# Override VCS values for testing
zerv version --tag-version v2.0.0 --distance 5 --dirty

# Force clean release state
zerv version --clean

# Pipe Zerv RON between commands
zerv version --output-format zerv | zerv version --source stdin --schema calver

# Use in different directory
zerv version -C /path/to/repo

# Render - convert SemVer to PEP440
zerv render 1.2.3-alpha.1 --output-format pep440

# Render - use template for custom output
zerv render 1.2.3 --output-template 'v{{major}}.{{minor}}'

# Render - add prefix
zerv render 1.2.3 --output-prefix release-
```

These examples ship in `zerv --help` output.

## AI-friendly docs

The complete documentation is served in plain text for AI agents at
[https://zerv.wisl.dev/llms.txt](https://zerv.wisl.dev/llms.txt) (full version: `/llms-full.txt`),
and `zerv --help` points there too.