Otter Share

`chimera otter share`

chimera otter share <session-id> packages a persisted session into a self-contained transcript and routes it to one of three sinks. It is the otter analogue of chimera mink runs share, but with a different default endpoint policy: otter never points at a third-party hosted share service. The default HTTP target is a local placeholder (http://localhost:5174/api/shares); pointing it elsewhere is your call.

For the underlying session data this command renders, see sessions.md.

Quick reference

chimera otter share <session-id>                          # default: file sink, HTML format
chimera otter share <session-id> --sink file --format md
chimera otter share <session-id> --sink stdout --format json | jq .
chimera otter share <session-id> --sink http
chimera otter share <session-id> --sink http --url https://collector.internal/shares

<session-id> is the directory name from ~/.chimera/eventlog/otter-* (e.g. otter-20260425T091201-71032a5e).

Sinks

Sink	What it does	Auth
`file` (default)	Writes `~/.chimera/shares/otter-<id>.<ext>` and prints the absolute path.	none — local disk
`http`	POSTs the rendered body to `--url` / `$OTTER_SHARE_URL` / the local default.	whatever your endpoint enforces
`stdout`	Writes the rendered body to stdout.	none

`file` sink

Writes ~/.chimera/shares/otter-<session-id>.<ext> and prints the absolute path on stdout. The shares directory is created lazily.

chimera otter share otter-20260425T091201-71032a5e
chimera otter share otter-20260425T091201-71032a5e --format md
# /Users/yad/.chimera/shares/otter-20260425T091201-71032a5e.md

The HTML file is self-contained — no external CSS, no fonts, no script tags — so it round-trips through email or a static file host without losing fidelity.

`http` sink

POSTs the rendered body to a URL. The URL is resolved with this precedence:

--url <URL> flag.
$OTTER_SHARE_URL environment variable.
http://localhost:5174/api/shares (the local placeholder default).

Trademark hygiene note: the default is deliberately local. Otter will never POST your session to a third-party brand’s share endpoint without an explicit opt-in. If you want a hosted target, set it yourself:

export OTTER_SHARE_URL=https://collector.example.com/api/shares
chimera otter share <id> --sink http

Headers sent by the client:

Header	Value
`Content-Type`	`text/html; charset=utf-8` (or `text/markdown; charset=utf-8` / `application/json`)
`User-Agent`	`chimera-otter-share/1`

The HTTP sink uses stdlib urllib.request (no httpx required). On 2xx, the endpoint’s response body is written to stdout — collectors typically reply with a JSON document carrying the canonical share URL, so a CI pipeline can pipe the result downstream. On non-2xx, the CLI exits 1 with the status code and the first response line on stderr.

`stdout` sink

Writes the rendered body directly to stdout, no file, no network. Handy for piping into less, archiving into a tarball with other artifacts, or feeding into another tool:

chimera otter share <id> --sink stdout --format md | less
chimera otter share <id> --sink stdout --format json \
  | jq '.events[] | select(.type == "tool_call")'

Formats

Format	Extension	Content-Type	Use when
`html` (default)	`.html`	`text/html`	sharing with humans; rendering in a browser.
`md`	`.md`	`text/markdown`	pasting into a PR / issue / Slack canvas.
`json`	`.json`	`application/json`	feeding into another tool / programmatic consumer.

HTML format

The HTML body is a single <html> document with inline <style>. The top is a metadata table (model, started/ended, steps, tool calls, cost, success, error). Then the prompt in a <pre> block. Then one <div class="event"> per persisted event, each rendering its metadata as a JSON code block. Even viewers that strip <style> produce readable text.

Markdown format

GitHub-flavored. Top section: a metadata bullet list and a fenced prompt block. Then ## Events (<n>), followed by per-event sections (### \`) with the metadata in json` fenced blocks.

JSON format

Mirrors chimera otter sessions show --json:

{
  "session_id": "otter-20260425T091201-71032a5e",
  "summary": { "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6", "...": "..." },
  "events": [
    { "id": "evt-...", "type": "user_message", "metadata": { "...": "..." } },
    { "id": "evt-...", "type": "tool_call",   "metadata": { "...": "..." } }
  ]
}

Use this format when the consumer is another program. Pretty-printed two-space indent; UTF-8.

The http sink POSTs the body verbatim — the rendered transcript is the entire payload. The collector decides what to do with it: store it, reply with a canonical URL, attach metadata, etc. Otter does not assume any particular response schema. The CLI prints whatever the endpoint sends back so callers can pipe it into a follow-up step.

A reasonable collector contract (recommended, not required) when you roll your own:

POST /api/shares
Content-Type: application/json
Body: {"session_id": "...", "summary": {...}, "events": [...]}

200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Body: {"url": "https://collector.example.com/s/<short-id>"}

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
`0`	Success. File path / endpoint response on stdout.
`1`	Runtime failure: HTTP non-2xx, network error, disk error.
`2`	Usage failure: missing `<session-id>`, unknown `--sink` / `--format`, session id not found.

Examples

chimera otter share otter-20260425T091201-71032a5e
open ~/.chimera/shares/otter-20260425T091201-71032a5e.html

Push to an internal collector

export OTTER_SHARE_URL=https://collector.internal/api/shares
chimera otter share otter-20260425T091201-71032a5e --sink http --format json
# {"url": "https://collector.internal/s/Ab1Cd2Ef"}

Stream the most recent session into a Markdown clipboard

LAST=$(chimera otter sessions list --limit 1 --json | jq -r '.[0].session_id')
chimera otter share "$LAST" --sink stdout --format md | pbcopy

Bulk-archive every session from the last week

chimera otter sessions list --since 7d --json \
  | jq -r '.[].session_id' \
  | while read sid; do
      chimera otter share "$sid" --format md > /dev/null
    done
ls ~/.chimera/shares/

Privacy and trademark notes

Persisted sessions can carry sensitive content — file paths, prompts, tool args, secrets your tools touched. Sharing externally is your decision; otter’s default is to write locally.
Otter never auto-shares. The upstream open-source agent has an “auto-share” mode; otter deliberately ships only manual sharing.
The default OTTER_SHARE_URL is localhost. Otter will never silently POST to a third-party hosted endpoint.
Secret redaction at write-time is on the roadmap. For now, treat the shared transcript as it appears on disk: assume what you see is what the recipient gets.