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+# TiKV Rust Client Command Line Tool
+
+## Summary
+
+Use the TiKV Rust Client to build a simple command line tool for inspection and analysis.
+
+This tool will stand as an analogue to `mycli` or `mysql-client` for users.
+
+## Motivation
+
+While `tikv-ctl` offers some ways to interact with a TiKV cluster, it
+focuses mostly on the *management* of a TiKV cluster instead of a *client* for
+the cluster.
+
+With the `tikv-client` Rust crate, users will find a way to interact with their TiKV
+cluster from their application. Some users will find it desirable to be able to
+inspect their cluster from a command line tool, or otherwise outside of their
+application.
+
+Building a simple command line tool to execute commands such as `get`, `set`,
+`delete`, or `scan` means users do not need to worry about creating such
+tools for themselves.
+
+It also provides us with a useful tool during the development cycle, as it will
+be very easy to issue one-off commands to TiKV.
+
+Plus, this tool is one of the goals we mentioned in the Rust Client RFC
+(https://github.com/tikv/rfcs/pull/7).
+
+## Detailed design
+
+The client will be created using the `tikv-client` crate and existing
+functionality. `clap` and `serde` will be used to provide a simple wrapper
+around the crate API.
+
+### Install
+
+This tool will be built in the `client-rust` repository. It will be published.
+Users will be able to install it with
+`cargo install tikv-client --features cli`. (See *Alternatives* for another option.)
+
+### Configuration
+
+The tool will retrieve its configuration from one of the following places, in
+order of precedence (greatest to least):
+
+* Command line flags, such as `--pd 127.0.0.1:2379`.
+* A local configuration file `./.tikv-client.toml`
+* A global configuration file `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/tikv-client.toml` (or
+  comparable cross platform options)
+* Default options (connect to localhost, no TLS).
+
+The options are:
+
+```toml
+[connection]
+# A list of `pd` endpoints.
+# Default: "127.0.0.1:2379"
+pd_endpoints = [
+    "127.0.0.1:2379",
+    "127.0.0.2:2379",
+]
+
+[tls]
+# The path of the CA file for TLS.
+# Default: None
+ca_path = "./rsa.ca"
+# The path of the certificate file for TLS.
+# Default: None
+cert_path = "./rsa.cert"
+# The path of the key file for TLS.
+# Default: None
+key_path = "./rsa.key"
+
+[client]
+# Level of logging to use.
+# Available: critical, error, warning, info, debug, trace
+# Default: info
+logging = "info"
+# If the ouput JSON should be minified.
+# Default: false
+minify = false
+# The mode the client should be in.
+# All clients connected to a keyspace should use the same mode.
+# Available: raw, transaction
+# Default: transaction
+mode = "transaction"
+# If the tool should output on stderr the duration of commands.
+# Default: true
+output_durations = true
+# Control the encoding.
+# TiKV has a Unified Key Format which is used in cases where a more human readable format is
+# required for non-UTF-8 data.
+# Avaiable: utf-8, ukf, protobuffer, hex
+key_encoding = "utf-8"
+value_encoding = "utf-8"
+```
+
+On the command line, these options have the same name, but with `_` replaced
+with `-` for idiomatic reasons.
+
+### Input/Output
+
+By default input is by positional arguments in `bash`/`sh` string format.
+
+By default the tool will output in prettyprinted JSON. For single entry results,
+it will return a string (including `"`), for key-value pairs it will use a JSON
+object `{ key: "", value: "" }`, for multiple results it will return a JSON
+array. Errors will use an `{ error: "" }` object. Opting out of prettyprint will
+be via the `--minify` flag.
+
+JSON is chosen because it is an efficient, pervasive, human-readable, modern
+standard that has many tools (eg `jq`) to use for post processing if needed.
+
+All standard (non-logging) output will be on `stdout`.
+
+It will feature configurable logging levels with `slog` which will output to `stderr`.
+
+The tool will exit with exit code zero on successful requests, and non-zero on unsuccessful
+requests. In the case of REPL mode, it shall exit zero unless the connection is
+found to be lost.
+
+TiKV is often used in cases where a key or value is not a UTF-8 compatible
+string, or may print undesirable control characters to the console. We provide the
+`key_encoding` and `value_encoding` configuration options to control this.
+
+For most users, their natural first attempt with the client will be to use UTF-8
+strings for both keys and values. In order to prevent confusion, we default to
+UTF-8 for both and make the options for `*-encoding` discoverable.
+
+The `key_encoding` and `value_encoding` options support `utf-8`, `ukf` (TiKV's
+Unified Key format), `protobuffer`, or `hex`. (There is a potential use of
+values to store keys.)
+
+### Interacting with it
+
+Users will interact with the tool through a command line interface. It will
+support both one-off mode or REPL (Read-eval-print-loop) style mode
+(See [alternatives](#Alternatives)).
+
+TiKV has two APIs, *raw* and *transactional*, both are supported by this tool.
+Learn about the differences [here](https://tikv.org/docs/architecture/#apis).
+
+Example of the one-off raw mode:
+
+```bash
+$ tikv-client --mode raw set "cncf" "linux foundation"
+Finished in 0.001s.
+$ tikv-client --mode raw set "tikv" "rust"
+Finished in 0.001s.
+$ tikv-client --mode raw get "cncf"
+"linux foundation"
+Finished in 0.002s.
+$ tikv-client --mode raw scan "b" ..
+[
+    { key: "cncf", value: "linux foundation" },
+    { key: "tikv", value: "rust" },
+]
+Finished in 0.003s.
+```
+
+Example of REPL raw mode:
+
+```bash
+$ tikv-client --mode raw
+> set "cncf" "linux foundation"
+Finished in 0.001s.
+> set "tikv" "rust"
+Finished in 0.001s.
+> get "cncf"
+"linux foundation"
+Finished in 0.001s.
+> scan "b"..
+[
+    { key: "cncf", value: "linux foundation" },
+    { key: "tikv", value: "rust" },
+]
+Finished in 0.003s.
+```
+
+In the REPL of the *(default)* transactional mode below, the `>>` communicates
+that the user is in a transaction. Also notice how the transaction timestamp is
+outputted in the request complete messages.
+
+```bash
+$ tikv-client
+> begin
+Finished in 0.000s. (txn ts: 1551216224838)
+>>set "cncf" "linux foundation"
+Finished in 0.001s. (txn ts: 1551216224838)
+>> set "tikv" "rust"
+Finished in 0.001s. (txn ts: 1551216224838)
+>> get "cncf"
+"linux foundation"
+Finished in 0.001s. (txn ts: 1551216224838)
+>> scan "b"..
+[
+    { key: "cncf", value: "linux foundation" },
+    { key: "tikv", value: "rust" },
+]
+Finished in 0.003s. (txn ts: 1551216224838)
+>> commit
+Finished in 0.001s. (txn ts: 1551216224838, commit ts: 1551216224838)
+```
+
+One-off transactional mode is a bit different, a series of commands can be
+provided as a list. This is similar to an 'Auto-commit mode' where `begin` and
+`commit` are inserted implictly at the start and end of the command. If any
+commands fail, the entire transaction is rolled back and the program exits with
+a non-zero exit code.
+
+In most scripting uses, we expect users will newline separate commands.
+
+The output is a JSON array, with each index having the result of the respective
+command. In the case of command such as `set` which have no output, a `null` is
+used.
+
+```bash
+$ tikv-client \
+    set "cncf" "linux foundation" \
+    set "tikv" "rust" \
+    get "cncf" \
+    scan "b"..
+[
+    null,
+    null,
+    "linux foundation",
+    [
+        { key: "cncf", value: "linux foundation" },
+        { key: "tikv", value: "rust" },
+    ],
+]
+Finished in 0.003s.
+```
+
+## Future Work
+
+We plan to eventually spin off this command line interface into an independent
+project as it matures. For the time being it will provide a very convenient way
+to use and test the Rust client.
+
+## Drawbacks
+
+This will increase our maintenance burden, so it may be better to leave this up
+to independent community efforts.
+
+## Alternatives
+
+* (*Use `tikv-cli`*), we could use `tikv-cli` for this, but it creates as fuzzy
+  distinction between management tools and clients.
+* (*No REPL, or only REPL*). We may chose to not have a REPL mode, or we may chose
+  to *only* have a REPL mode.
+
+## Unresolved questions
+
+We must decide if there are other alternatives we want to favor.