LaunchDarkly CLI commands

Overview

This topic describes common commands and configuration options in the LaunchDarkly CLI.

View available commands

The majority of the LaunchDarkly CLI commands are resource commands. These commands provide direct access to LaunchDarkly APIs.

To view available commands:

ldcli
COPY

Set input and output formats

For each LaunchDarkly CLI resource command, you can use command line arguments, or use your shell to provide an input file.

For example, here's how to create a flag using data from the command line:

ldcli flags create --project default -d '{"name": "Example flag", "key": "example-flag"}'
COPY

Here's how to create the same flag using data from a file:

ldcli flags create --project default -d "$(cat data.json)"
COPY

By default, resource commands return a simplified plaintext output. For example, the default output message for creating the new flag in the example above is Successfully created Example flag (example-flag).

To view the full JSON response from any resource command, use the --output json flag. Optionally, pipe the result through jq for improved formatting. Here's how:

ldcli flags create --project default -d '{"name": "Example flag", "key": "example-flag"}' --output json | jq
COPY

If you prefer a particular output format, you can use the config command to set that preference:

ldcli config --set output json  # or plaintext
COPY

Access SDK credentials

You can access the SDK credentials for a specific project and environment using the environments resource. You need different SDK credentials depending on which SDK you're working with. To learn more about SDK credentials, read Keys.

Here's how:

# use the SDK key for authorization in server-side SDKs
ldcli environments get --project <your project> --environment <your environment> | jq '.apiKey'
COPY

Use ldcli for local development

The LaunchDarkly CLI includes a dev-server command that you can use to start a local server, retrieve flag values from a LaunchDarkly source environment, and update those flag values locally. This means you can test your code locally, without having to coordinate with other developers in your organization who are using the same LaunchDarkly source environment.

To learn more, use ldcli dev-server --help or read our guide, Using the LaunchDarkly CLI for local testing.

Find additional documentation

Use the ldcli [command] --help command to view usage information for all commands for the LaunchDarkly CLI.

To view and contribute to the LaunchDarkly CLI source code, or to file issues for our team, visit the LaunchDarkly CLI GitHub repository.