asymm CLI reference - Asymm Systems

Design philosophy

Multi-product, not Eliya-specific. The pattern asymm <product> <command> scales as Asymm Systems ships additional products (Eliya, Dial, Forensics). The CLI is the unified entry point.
Wrap real functionality, never simulate it. Every shipped command in the CLI wraps a genuinely useful operation. Phase 1 ships only commands that work today; Phase 2 and Phase 3 commands appear below as design documentation, not stubs.
Phase-aligned scope. Reserved-namespace commands are documented so the roadmap is legible to engineers evaluating Eliya for multi-year deployments. They are not present in the Phase 1 binary.

Phase 1 commands (shipped today)

The current Phase 1 bin/asymm binary supports three flag-style commands. All three are short, do one thing, and exit. No subcommand tree, no Phase 1 asymm eliya … dispatch.

Command	Purpose
`asymm` (no args; alias `asymm --info` or `-i`)	Print vendor metadata + JDK version banner + build info + Eliya feature summary. The default behaviour when invoked with no arguments.
`asymm --version` (or `-v`)	Fork+exec the sibling `java -version`. Output is the standard Java version banner.
`asymm --help` (or `-h`)	Print usage. Unknown flags also print usage with exit code 1.

Phase 1 example output: `asymm` (default `--info`)

$ asymm

Eliya - Built by Asymm Systems (Pvt) Ltd
https://asymm.systems/product/eliya

JDK Version:
openjdk version "25.0.3" 2026-04-21
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 25.0.3+9-Eliya-25.0.3)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.0.3+9-Eliya-25.0.3, mixed mode, sharing)

Build Info:
  Vendor:    Asymm Systems
  Base:      OpenJDK 25 LTS
  Platform:  Linux-x86_64
  Built:     2026-06-10T08:34:17Z

Eliya Features:
  java.security:           bit-identical to upstream OpenJDK
  Production profile:      -XX:EliyaProfile=Production activates observability defaults
  Phase 4 profiles:        PCIDSS/HIPAA/SOX/FedRAMP/GDPR/ISO27001/SOC2 reserved (not active in Phase 1)

See PATCHES.md for the full Eliya footprint over upstream OpenJDK.

Phase 1 example output: `asymm --version`

The --version command fork+execs the sibling java -version, so the output is identical to running java -version directly:

$ asymm --version

openjdk version "25.0.3" 2026-04-21
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 25.0.3+9-Eliya-25.0.3)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.0.3+9-Eliya-25.0.3, mixed mode, sharing)

Phase 2 roadmap (reserved namespace; not yet implemented)

The Phase 2 release (target next major release, est. H2 2026) adds bundled local diagnostic tools (Eclipse MAT headless, async-profiler) and wraps them under the asymm eliya subcommand tree. The commands below are design documentation for that roadmap; the Phase 1 binary does not dispatch to any asymm eliya … subcommand. Phase 2 ships a new bin/asymm binary that does.

Today, the same operations are available through standard JDK tooling: jcmd for JFR/heap/GC operations, jmap for heap dumps, jstack for thread dumps, JDK Mission Control (or the jfr CLI) for JFR analysis. The Phase 2 wrappers reduce keystrokes; they don't enable anything new.

Phase 2 (reserved namespace)	Wraps	Purpose
`asymm eliya info`	Native diagnostic introspection	Print resolved JAVA_HOME, `ELIYA_DIAGNOSTIC_PATH`, three-level path resolution (`ELIYA_SERVICE_NAME` / `ELIYA_REPLICA_NAME`), container detection, GC selection, JFR status
`asymm eliya doctor`	Native preflight checker	Configuration sanity check: diagnostic paths writable, log directories exist, JFR can write to expected paths, GC log path is writable, container support enabled
`asymm eliya verify`	`sha256sum` + `gpg --verify`	Verify Eliya installation integrity against published checksums + Asymm signing key (today this is two commands; see verify your download)
`asymm eliya versions [--lts]`	Local + remote release metadata	List Eliya versions with LTS status, upstream base, support windows
`asymm eliya schedule [--upcoming] [--full]`	Local lifecycle calendar	Show Eliya release schedule with quarterly CPU targets (today this is on the lifecycle page)
`asymm eliya profile <pid>` [`--hw-counters` \| `--wall` \| `--ttsp` \| `--alloc`]	JFR or async-profiler (auto-selected)	CPU profiling with sensible defaults; hardware counters, wall-clock, time-to-safepoint, or allocation profiling
`asymm eliya analyze-heap <hprof>` [`--duplicates` \| `--histogram` \| `--oql`]	Eclipse MAT headless	Leak Suspects HTML report, duplicate object analysis, class histogram with retained size, or custom OQL query
`asymm eliya jfr [start\|dump\|stop\|scrub] <pid>`	`jcmd <pid> JFR.*`	Ad-hoc JFR recording start, dump, stop; `scrub` sanitises a JFR recording for sharing
`asymm eliya install-mat-gui` / `install-jitwatch` / `install-jol`	On-demand fetcher	Engineer-workstation installers for the full Eclipse MAT GUI, JITWatch, and Java Object Layout. Phase 2 bundles the headless variants by default; these installers are opt-in to keep default install lean.

Phase 3 roadmap (reserved namespace; Asymm Forensics)

The Phase 3 release (target 2027) introduces Asymm Forensics, a cross-correlation diagnostic platform that ingests JFR, heap, thread, GC, and crash artefacts to produce unified incident reports. The asymm forensics subcommand tree below is design documentation for that release; not implemented in Phase 1 or Phase 2 binaries.

Phase 3 (reserved namespace)	Purpose
`asymm forensics analyze <bundle>`	Cross-artifact correlation analysis
`asymm forensics ingest [--jfr \| --heap \| --threads \| --gc-log \| --crash] <file>`	Add an artefact to the analysis bundle (JFR recording, heap dump, jstack output, GC log, or crash log)
`asymm forensics report`	Generate cross-correlation report
`asymm forensics report --compliance [pci-dss \| hipaa \| sox \| fedramp \| gdpr \| iso27001 \| soc2]`	Compliance-aligned audit report. PCI DSS, HIPAA, and SOX are the initial three; FedRAMP, GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC 2 follow as Phase 4 profiles ship.

The compliance report variants ship aligned with Eliya's Phase 4 profile namespace as those profiles ship. See flag architecture for the Phase 4 profile namespace.

Platform note

The Phase 1 asymm binary ships at <#noparse>${JAVA_HOME}/bin/asymm on Linux x86_64 and aarch64 (Phase 1 targets). The .deb and .rpm packages also symlink it to /usr/bin/asymm for PATH convenience. Phase 2 macOS support targets /usr/local/bin/asymm. Phase 3 Windows support targets %PROGRAMFILES%\Asymm\eliya\bin\asymm.exe. All platforms share the same command structure documented above as Phase 2 and Phase 3 subcommand trees ship.

Versioning and compatibility

The asymm CLI follows independent SemVer; CLI version is decoupled from Eliya version (a user on Eliya 25.0.5 might have asymm 1.3 if Phase 2 tooling has matured).

asymm 1.x covers Phase 1 (current; --info, --version, --help only)
asymm 1.1+ adds Phase 2 asymm eliya subcommand tree as Phase 2 ships
asymm 2.x will accompany Asymm Forensics general availability
Backward-compatible commands within major versions; breaking changes require a major version bump

Release cadence. The asymm CLI releases alongside Eliya CPUs by default (quarterly), with patch versions (1.0.x → 1.0.y) for CLI-specific bug fixes between Eliya CPUs as needed. The CLI is small enough that breaking changes are rare; the SemVer commitment is conservative.

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