Install Sitecore Command Line Interface

Version:

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

Note

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

You can install Sitecore CLI as a local tool for individual projects or 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 8 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:

Package sitecore.cli {version} is not compatible with netcoreapp3.1 (.NETCoreApp,Version=v3.1) / any. 
Package sitecore.cli {version} supports: net8.0 (.NETCoreApp,Version=v8.0) / any

To install Sitecore CLI as a local project tool:

If you have not already done so, install Sitecore Management Services.

Important

Starting with version 5.1.25, the CLI has a version compatibility feature that prevents you from running CLI commands with an outdated version of Sitecore Management Services.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://nuget.sitecore.com/resources/v3/index.json
dotnet tool install Sitecore.CLI

Note

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

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

When the installation is complete, 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} was successfully installed. Entry is added to the manifest file {project-path}.config\dotnet-tools.json.

To initialize your new project, run the following command in your project folder:
dotnet sitecore init
Note

The command dotnet 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, Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.ResourcePackage, and Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Database. On the next Sitecore CLI command, the CLI attempts to resolve and install the plugins for you.

Verify the initialization on your project with the following command:

dotnet sitecore plugin list

If this is the first command after dotnet sitecore init, the CLI attempts to resolve and install the plugins listed in the sitecore.json file. The command prints a message informing you which plugins are being installed. For example:

>> Begin installing NuGet packages: Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Serialization@{version}, Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Publishing@{version}, Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Indexing@{version}, Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.ResourcePackage@{version}, Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Database@{version}

If the installation is successful, the command lists the installed plugins and their version information:

List of plugins:
[Installed] Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Serialization v.{version}
[Installed] Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Publishing v.{version}
[Installed] Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Indexing v.{version}
[Installed] Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.ResourcePackage v.{version}
[Installed] Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Database v.{version}

If the installation of any plugin fails, the output shows a [Failed] status for that plugin.

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 a message describing the usage, options, and available top-level commands. For example:

sitecore.cli
  Sitecore command line tool

Usage:
  sitecore.cli [options] [command]

Options:
  --version       Show version information
  -?, -h, --help  Show help and usage information

Commands:
  login               Authenticates the CLI to a Sitecore instance
  plugin              Manage plugins commands
  init                Creates Sitecore configurations in current directory
  connect             Connect to the existing environment
  ser, serialization  Item serialization commands
  publish             Performs a publish operation on all content
  index               working with indexes data
  itemres             Resource Items Package commands
  dbcleanup           Performs cleanup operations for Sitecore databases

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