The args command is used to inspect and modify the preferred argument counts for Macaulay commands. These counts control command argument handling in dot mode (described in Section 3), and are not used outside of dot mode.
args with no arguments gives help. With one argument it displays the current preferred argument count for a command, and with two arguments it sets this count:
% args args <command name> (to inspect) args <command name> <int> (to modify) % args dsum 3 % args dsum 4