---
layout: article
title: Installation
description: Get started with the Appwrite CLI by following the installation guide. Learn how to set up and configure the CLI on your development environment.
---

The [Appwrite Command Line Interface (CLI)](https://github.com/appwrite/sdk-for-cli) is an application that allows you to interact with Appwrite to perform server-side tasks using your terminal. This includes creating and managing projects, managing resources (rows, files, users), creating and deploying Appwrite Functions, and other operations available through Appwrite's API.

# Getting started

The CLI is packaged both as an [npm module](https://www.npmjs.com/package/appwrite-cli) as well as a [standalone binary](https://github.com/appwrite/sdk-for-cli/releases/latest) for your operating system, making it completely dependency free, platform independent, and language agnostic.

If you plan to use the CLI to initialize new Appwrite Functions, ensure that [Git is installed](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Installing-Git) on your machine.

## Install with npm

If you have npm set up, run the command below to install the CLI.

```sh
npm install -g appwrite-cli
```

## Install with script

For a completely dependency-free installation, the CLI also ships with a convenient installation script for your operating system

**macOS**

Using [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/)

```sh
brew install appwrite
```

or terminal

```sh
curl -sL https://appwrite.io/cli/install.sh | bash
```

**Windows**

Using [Powershell](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/)

```sh
iwr -useb https://appwrite.io/cli/install.ps1 | iex
```

or [Scoop](https://scoop.sh/)

```sh
scoop install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/appwrite/sdk-for-cli/master/scoop/appwrite.config.json
```

**Linux**

```sh
curl -sL https://appwrite.io/cli/install.sh | bash
```

# Update your CLI

**npm**

```sh
npm install -g appwrite-cli
```

**macOS**

Using [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/)

```sh
brew install appwrite
```

or terminal

```sh
curl -sL https://appwrite.io/cli/install.sh | bash
```

**Windows**

```sh
iwr -useb https://appwrite.io/cli/install.ps1 | iex
```

**Linux**

```sh
curl -sL https://appwrite.io/cli/install.sh | bash
```

**Scoop**

```sh
scoop install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/appwrite/sdk-for-cli/master/scoop/appwrite.config.json
```

## Verify installation

After the installation or the update is complete, you can verify the Appwrite CLI is available by checking its version number.

```sh
appwrite -v
```

# Login

Before you can use the CLI, you need to login to your Appwrite account using

```sh
appwrite login
```

Add the `--endpoint` flag if you're using a self-hosted instance of Appwrite. This flag requires you to add the URL string you're using for your self-hosted instance after the `--endpoint` flag.

```sh
appwrite login --endpoint "<URL_HERE>"
```
You can log in to multiple accounts or change the **current** account by re-running the command.

# Initialization

After you're logged in, the CLI needs to be initialized with your Appwrite project. You can initialize the CLI using:

```sh
appwrite init project
```

This will create your `appwrite.config.json` file, where you will configure your various services like tables, functions, teams, topics, and buckets.

```json
{
    "projectId": "<PROJECT_ID>",
    "endpoint": "https://<REGION>.cloud.appwrite.io/v1"
}
```

The CLI will also auto-detect your project configuration and automatically install relevant [Appwrite agent skills](/docs/tooling/ai/skills).

You can run your first CLI command after logging in. Try fetching information about your Appwrite project.

```sh
appwrite projects get --project-id "<PROJECT_ID>"
```

# Multi-file configuration

By default, the Appwrite CLI stores your project settings and resource definitions in one `appwrite.config.json` file. In CLI version 20.0.0 and later, you can split top-level resource arrays into separate JSON files with the `includes` field.

Use this when your project has many functions, sites, buckets, teams, topics, tables, or other deployable resources and you want to keep each resource type in its own file.

```json
{
    "projectId": "<PROJECT_ID>",
    "endpoint": "https://<REGION>.cloud.appwrite.io/v1",
    "includes": {
        "functions": "./appwrite/functions.json",
        "sites": "./appwrite/sites.json",
        "buckets": "./appwrite/buckets.json",
        "teams": "./appwrite/teams.json",
        "topics": "./appwrite/topics.json"
    }
}
```

Each included file contains the JSON array that would normally live under that key in `appwrite.config.json`.

```json
[
    {
        "$id": "<FUNCTION_ID>",
        "name": "api",
        "runtime": "node-22",
        "path": "functions/api",
        "entrypoint": "src/main.js",
        "commands": "npm install",
        "execute": [],
        "events": [],
        "schedule": "",
        "timeout": 15,
        "enabled": true,
        "logging": true,
        "ignore": [
            "node_modules",
            ".git"
        ],
        "scopes": [],
        "vars": []
    }
]
```

The CLI resolves resource paths relative to the file that defines the resource. For example, if `functions` is included from `./appwrite/functions.json`, the function `path` above resolves from `./appwrite/`, not from the folder that contains the root `appwrite.config.json`.

The single-file format continues to work. You can split any supported resource arrays over time and keep other arrays in the root config.

Supported include keys are `functions`, `sites`, `databases`, `tablesDB`, `tables`, `topics`, `teams`, `buckets`, `webhooks`, and `messages`.

Include paths must be local JSON files inside your project. They must be relative paths, end in `.json`, and cannot use parent-directory segments, absolute paths, URLs, URL-like schemes, null bytes, or JSON pointer fragments.

**Self-signed certificates**

By default, requests to domains with self-signed SSL certificates (or no certificates) are disabled. If you trust the domain, you can bypass the certificate validation using

```sh
appwrite client --self-signed true
```

## Next steps

You can use the CLI to create and deploy tables, functions, teams, topics, and buckets. Deployment commands allow you to configure your Appwrite project programmatically and replicate functions and table schemas across Appwrite projects.

[Learn more about deployment](/docs/tooling/command-line/tables)

Besides utility commands, the CLI can be used to execute commands like a Server SDK.

[Find a full list of commands](/docs/tooling/command-line/commands)

You can choose to use the CLI in a headless and non-interactive mode without the need for config files or sessions. This is useful for CI or scripting use cases.

[Learn more about CI mode](/docs/tooling/command-line/non-interactive)

# Help

If you get stuck anywhere, you can always use the `help` command to get the usage examples.

```sh
appwrite help
```

# Configuration

At any point, if you would like to change your server's endpoint, project ID, or self-signed certificate acceptance, use the `client` command.

```sh
appwrite client --endpoint https://<REGION>.cloud.appwrite.io/v1
appwrite client --key 23f24gwrhSDgefaY
appwrite client --self-signed true
appwrite client --reset // Resets your CLI configuration
appwrite client --debug // Prints your current configuration
```

# Uninstall

If you installed Appwrite CLI using NPM, you can use the following command to uninstall it.

```sh
npm uninstall -g appwrite-cli
```

If you installed the Appwrite CLI with brew or the installation script for your operating system, use the following command to uninstall it.

**macOS**

Using [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/)

```sh
brew uninstall appwrite
```

or terminal

```sh
rm -f /usr/local/bin/appwrite | bash
```

**Windows**

Using [Powershell](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/)

```sh
$APPWRITE_INSTALL_DIR = Join-Path -Path $env:LOCALAPPDATA -ChildPath "Appwrite"; Remove-Item -Force -Path $APPWRITE_INSTALL_DIR
```

or [Scoop](https://scoop.sh/)

```sh
scoop uninstall appwrite.config
```

**Linux**

```sh
rm -f /usr/local/bin/appwrite | bash
```

You can also remove the configuration, cookies, and API Keys the Appwrite CLI stored. To remove those, run the following command.

**macOS**

```sh
rm -rf ~/.appwrite | bash
```

**Windows**

Using [Powershell](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/)

```sh
$APPWRITE_CONFIG_DIR = Join-Path -Path $env:UserProfile -ChildPath ".appwrite"; Remove-Item -Recurse -Force -Path $APPWRITE_CONFIG_DIR
```

or [Scoop](https://scoop.sh/)

```sh
appwrite client --reset
```

**Linux**

```sh
rm -rf ~/.appwrite | bash
```