Install Sitecore Command Line Interface

Abstract

How to install Sitecore Command Line Interface (CLI) in a terminal.

Sitecore Command Line Interface (CLI) is a tool that you install in a terminal.

Note

To upgrade an existing CLI installation, see Upgrade Sitecore Command Line Interface.

You can install Sitecore CLI either as a local tool for individual projects or as a global tool for all projects.

Important

We do not recommend installing Sitecore CLI as a global tool. Different Sitecore instances might need different versions of the Sitecore CLI.

You must have .NET Core installed on your workstation before installing the Sitecore CLI. If you do not have the required version of .NET Core installed, you get the following message:

It was not possible to find any compatible framework version
The framework 'Microsoft.NETCore.App', version '<major.minor>' was not found.

To install Sitecore CLI as a local project tool:

If you have not already done so, install Sitecore Management Services.
Open a terminal with administrator privileges.

Run the following commands to install Sitecore CLI:

cd <project folder>
dotnet new tool-manifest
dotnet nuget add source -n Sitecore https://sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-packages/api/v3/index.json
dotnet tool install Sitecore.CLI

Note

Other developers working on the same project only need to run dotnet tool restore to install Sitecore CLI.

To install the CLI globally, use the -g option when running the install command (not recommended).

After the installation has completed successfully, you get the following message:

You can invoke the tool from this directory using the following commands: 'dotnet tool run sitecore' or 'dotnet sitecore'.
Tool 'sitecore.cli' {version information} was successfully installed. Entry is added to the manifest file {project-path}.config\dotnet-tools.json.

Note

The version displayed in the terminal is the latest official release available.

To initialize your new project, run the following command in your project folder:
```
dotnet sitecore init
```
Note
Starting with version 4.1.0, the command sitecore init adds default plugins with the same version as the CLI to the sitecore.json file. The plugins are Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Serialization, Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Publishing, Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Indexing, and Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.ResourcePackage. On the next Sitecore CLI command, the CLI attempts to resolve and install the plugins for you.
Install the required Publishing and Serialization plugins:
```
dotnet sitecore plugin add -n Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Serialization
dotnet sitecore plugin add -n Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Publishing
```
Note
The Publishing and Serialization commands became separate plugins as part of the Sitecore CLI NuGet extensibility release.
You can check the installed plugins using the dotnet sitecore plugin list command:
```
List of plugins:
Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Publishing v.4.0.0
Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Serialization v.4.0.0
```
Note
The version displayed in the terminal is the latest official release available.

To verify that the Sitecore CLI works, go to your project folder in a terminal and type dotnet sitecore -h.

If the Sitecore CLI is ready, you get the following message:

Required command was not provided.

Usage:
  sitecore.cli [options] [command]

Options:
  --version    Display version information

Commands:
  login                  Authenticates the CLI to a Sitecore instance
  publish                Performs a publish operation on all content
  ser, serialization     Item serialization commands
  init                   Creates Sitecore configurations in current directory