Prerequisites
Before using the Sitecore Command Line Interface (CLI), make sure your environment is set up correctly.
.NET
The Sitecore CLI runs as a .NET tool. You must have a supported version of the .NET SDK installed on your machine.
To find out which version of .NET you have installed, run:
Access to a Sitecore environment
You must have access to a Sitecore environment to use CLI commands.
This can be:
- A managed SitecoreAI environment
- A local Sitecore Content Management (CM) instance
You also need appropriate permissions to perform operations such as deployment, publishing, or serialization.
Authentication
The CLI requires authentication before you can run many commands.
Depending on your setup, you can:
- Log in interactively using a browser (device code flow)
- Use client credentials for automated scenarios (such as CI/CD pipelines)
For more information, see Log in to an instance with the Sitecore CLI.
CLI plugins
Some CLI commands require additional plugins.
For example:
- Serialization commands require the Serialization plugin
- Publishing commands require the Publishing plugin
Make sure the required plugins are installed before running these commands.
For more information, see the CLI plugins section.