Direct mode

tie -f <file.tie> runs the whole client against a local .tie file, with no triplestore daemon. The filehost is still used for blobs (or point it at a local one).

tie -f ~/.local/share/tie/Main.tie get -r tag travel
tie -f ~/.local/share/tie/Main.tie mount --db ~/mnt
tie -f ~/.local/share/tie/Main.tie import image-dir ~/Pictures/2014 --tags travel

Direct mode is the same code path as the HTTP client: a local transport dispatches to the same API handlers. That means the CLI, the mounts, SMB and the APIs behave the same with or without a server.

One writer

The file is flocked. A second writer fails fast instead of corrupting the store. For a read-only view beside a live writer:

tie -f ~/.local/share/tie/Main.tie --read-only get -r tag travel

--read-only takes a lockless snapshot and refuses writes.

Reverse relations

The reverse index is opt-in per relation. The server defaults to tag,path,parent,tie-type,version-of,member-of. With -f you can choose:

tie -f Main.tie --reverse-relations tag,path,parent,tie-type get -r tag travel

Indexing fewer relations saves memory; indexing more makes reverse queries faster. For a large database, match the server’s subset.

Mount and SMB

Both mounts and tie-smb can run in direct mode:

tie -f Main.tie mount --db ~/mnt
tie-smb -f Main.tie -config tie-smb.toml

That is enough for a laptop with no service manager, or a single-file library on a USB disk.